ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that, as the First World War has receded beyond the experience of the living, individual emotional identification with those involved has come to characterise commemorative efforts. The chapter explores these developments by considering the experience of attending the national ceremony at the National War Memorial in Wellington, New Zealand on 11 November 2018. This is contrasted with the commemorative experience of an exhibition linked not to the Armistice, but to the Gallipoli campaign, The Scale of Our War, in which commemorative experience in New Zealand is concentrated. The chapter shows how such exhibitions recast the relationship between the War and New Zealand national identity, shifting from claims about the historical emergence of New Zealand as an independent nation, to an emphasis on the nation’s technological skill and capability. New Zealand national identity is thus presented less in terms of military achievement than in practical and technological prowess, demonstrated during the War, and also in its commemoration.