In New Zealand’s National Archives in Wellington, there is a military file about two French soldiers who deserted in New Zealand during the First World War, a soldier named Scottez and another soldier named Valentin Franco.

The first was a soldier called Scottez who escaped from Military Custody on board the ‘S.S. Moana”, a boat transporting him from Tahiti to New Caledonia via Wellington and Sydney, while it was berthed in Wellington on 23 April 1915. He was being transported with four...

In the National Library of New Zealand, called the Alexander Turnbull Library, in the capital city Wellington, there is an exhibition about WWI. It is called “World War One. A Contemporary Conversation” and is worth a visit if you are on holiday in Wellington.

On display are some information relating to our Shared Histories project. There are two display’s that discuss about the conscientious objector Archibald Baxter. He was sent to France in the First World War and was one of the soldiers...

Following the Easter Rising in 1916 in Ireland, Irish Republicans living in New Zealand who supported Irish nationalism formed organisations in solidarity and to promote the Irish republican cause. In Dunedin they formed the "Maoriland Irish Society" and published a radical monthly magazine called "The Green Ray". This fell foul of wartime regulations and was supressed in 1918. Wartime regulations which had introduced censorship regulations limited freedom of speech. Many publications written...

An exhibition in the city of Dunedin at Toitū (Otago Settlers Museum) explores the stories of enlistment and departure, conscientious objection and conscription, the horrors and honours of war. In one section titled “Dissenters” they present primary documents on those who refused to fight. The caption on the display said;

“Most Dunedin citizens strongly supported the war effort. Some small groups and individuals, however, refused to participate for political, religious or moral reasons. But...

On vous fait de gros bisous en attendant de vous voir ! :)

Hello,

We are students of a vocational high school.

We are a group six pupils. In the group there are Alicia VINCENZI, Kevin THERY, Marion MORTEL, Marion DUBOIS, Guillaume VOET, Julien PLANE (the secretary)  and Ilana MARTIN (the boss).

We are going to talk about of obedience and its limits during the first war world

We noticed  surprising sentences whose talk about our subject in these books which show the limits of obedience.

we work on documents such as "les poilus ont la paroles".

Hello

We are a  group of five girls. Lucy, Noémie, Marine, Agathe et Amandine. We talk about the differents currents of pacifism before the war.

Together, we will present a method sheet, logbook, and we making a pareil on our topic.

The students and Shared Histories Ambassador Josh at Baradene College.

Josh Hansen, one of the Young Ambassadors for Shared Histories, visited Baradene College and talked about his project and his trip to France and Belgium.

Our Research Report - By Sinead Burns, Lara Sell, Sofia Schollum

 For our Blog post we are reporting on our research focus - What were the government’s policies (New Zealand) towards pacifists in World War One?

During World War 1 and many other wars in general, there has been a wide expectation that all men had an obligation to fight.

Introduced in 1912, the Defence Amendment Act stated that appropriate punishment would follow any objection to conscription. The punishment would include...