A couple of weeks ago on the 17th of October I had the privilege of being invited to the Battle of Passchendaele 97th Anniversary Ceremony, by the Passchendaele Society. It was a very large event held at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and was attended by various dignitaries from a Belgian Ambassador to Trelise Cooper. There was a heavenly performance from the Auckland City Choir (video here - apologies for the bad quality!) and some very moving speeches and poetry readings

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When the Young Ambassadors visited Belgium we saw a powerful sculpture in the Passchendaele museum called “Falls the Shadow”

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One of the absolute highlights for me was meeting the artist that created that very sculpture, Helen Pollock! I told her how much we loved seeing it in the museum and found out that she is currently designing another WWI commemorative sculpture

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I also was able to meet the Passchendaele Society director, and have gotten in touch with one of their youth organisers, as they hope to involve me more in the project. It was a humbling experience meeting the socity’s members who are so dedicated to commemorating Passchendaele, and it was amazing being able to talk about visiting Tyne Cot. You can check the society out here: http://passchendaelesociety.org/