Meet the Penny Divers, Cowboys, Gum Diggers, & Ngāti Walkabouts (aka A, B, C, & D Companies of the Māori Battalion)
Kia ora e te kaipānui/dear reader,
Nau mai, hoki mai ki Te Arawhata—the 28th Māori Battalion edition.
This pānui/newsletter is dedicated to the Penny Divers, Cowboys, Gum Diggers, and Ngāti Walkabouts AKA men making up the A, B, C, and D companies of the 28th Māori Battalion.
Māori creatives came through again this wiki with epic kiriata/films, waiata, and pukapuka/books to help us whakamahara/remember these soldiers, and the people of all backgrounds who fought alongside them, on ANZAC day.
Adventure, laughs, and let’s face it, quite a bit of mamae/pain (that we should probably all know more about) ahead. But first, some news that could have looked very different without their efforts.
- ‘Whanaungatanga’, the first ever Tamil and reo Māori waiata is about to be released
- Mataaoho Collective takes out the Golden Lion for their epic exhibit at the 60th International Biennale
- A doco on Māori metal band ‘Alien Weaponry’ will have its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival
- Aute artist, Nikau Hindin, features (anō/again) in Vogue Australia
- Lisa Carrington’s new bilingual pukapuka for kids is available for pre-order
- The AMAs & Te Mangai Paho Te Manu Taki Māori o te Tau and Mana Reo Tūī finalists have been announced and are STACKED with talented Māori artists.
Controversial opinion: Taika’s early shorts are his best mahi. In Tama Tū, classic Māori humour sits naturally alongside the horrors of pakanga/war—not to make light, but to respect its realities. In the gang of lovable characters, you’ll spot a grandparent, parent, uncle, brother, son, or mate for sure. In fact, ki a au/I reckon that’s the point.
Find it:on NZ on Screen I Time: 15 mins I Cost: free I Credits: directed by Taika Waititi, produced by Ainsley Gardiner and Cliff Curtis
The sentiments of whole pukapuka and hour long documentaries can be fully understood—in fact, felt—in this waiata’s three minutes. The promise of mahi mātātoa/adventure is in the trumpets, the sense of responsibility in ngā kupu/the words, and the pride for our boys, plastered on ngā kanohi/the faces of the Howard Morrison Quartet and their audience.
Find it:on youtube I Time: 2 mins I Cost: free I Credits: composed by Corporal Anania Amohau and performed by the Howard Morrison Quartet
One for the history buffs! This doco includes the most incredible kōrero from five elderly hōia/soldiers as they return to battle sites in Crete, POW camps in France, and the dining tables of old Italian friends. Their accounts are unfiltered and full of adventure, pain, and just as much ribbing as the young bucks in Tama Tū.
Find it: on NZ on Screen I Time: 1hour 20mins I Cost: free I Credits: written, directed, and produced by Tainui Stephens, narrated by George Henare
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I confess a bias; Māori historical fiction is my jam and I think Patricia Grace is one of few authors who can make literature cool, nō reira/so this was a straightforward pick. Tū is entertaining, full of akoranga/learning, mystery, and escapism. It’s also a deep study of whānau that’ll hit you right in the feels, (like all good novels should).
Find it: on the Huia website I Time: a couple month’s weekends I Cost: $9.99 for the ebook I Credits: written by Patricia Grace
Kūkara/Google can tell us what these nicknames mean. ‘A Company’ were the ‘Gum Diggers’, coming from up north. ‘B Company’ were from Rotorua, nō reira identified as ‘The Penny Divers’. ‘The Cowboys’ making up ‘C Company’ still rode hōiho/horses out on the east coast (as they do today), and ‘D Company’, ‘Ngāti Walkabouts’, or sometimes called ‘United Nations’, were made up of everyone else.
Heoi, the wairua/spirit of the names—how they were used and the whanaungatanga/camaraderie they represented—can only be really understood when explained by those who were there.
In the documentary ‘Māori Battalion March to Victory’ five Māori Battallion solders, now elderly men, reminisce;
‘I remember marching onto a parade you see, and the A Company would be, of course, first on the mark and then the orders were given to halt and B Company would march on and—because everybody was trying to put on a good show—you’d hear the A Companies say under their breath, “Ahhh bloody Penny Divers!”’
The men start chuckling and the man talking raises his voice, ‘And then C Company would march on and you’d hear the Rotorua boys say, “Ahhhh, those Cowboys!”’
Laughter erupts around the room.
‘And then “Halt! C Company halt!” And then of course along the line to the United Nations…”
He’s cut off as the laughter turns into a roar and the old men hold their bellies and smack their knees remembering the friendly rivalries that got them through.
In today’s feature we wanted to share more of these small moments, the comments under breath, side stories, and funny details that helped us conjure a fuller picture of ngā tāne/the men in the Māori Battalion, the scenes they left at home and went on to face tāwāhi/abroad.
We hope they help you to connect with and understand these men at a deeper level, to remember them as the brave soldiers—but also the funny, flawed, and young boys—they were.
Tap the links to read the originals in full, or scan on for our abridged versions.
Pork pies in Italy
‘Brigadier Hanson recounts humorous stories’ on the 28th Māori Battalion website
‘So the Italians have their pigs and their poultry all in the same dwelling and on one occasion the Māoris were occupying a house in an outpost position, and as you also know, the Italians, although in the front line, gathered together and sat in these houses until the battle moved on.
On one side of the house was a great high brick wall—the side facing the enemy—and the pigs were on that side of the house. Well, this Māori platoon found this pig and thought it was in very desirable condition but they could see no way of getting it from the place without the Italians knowing.
Then one night about 10 o'clock there was a burst of a couple of grenades outside this brick wall. Then there were some shots from a tommy gun and a great racket kicked up, all going on beyond this brick wall. And then came the call from inside, for the stretcher bearers.
The poor Italians were terribly upset at this and when the stretcher emerged they all stood up and bowed their heads with the women all weeping as the stretcher with the blanket, neatly covering the body of the pig, passed by...’
A food truck worth its weight in gold
Te Rau Aroha, a hidden treasure on the National Army website
‘Te Rau Aroha’ was a mobile canteen for the Māori Battalion purchased and equipped through impressive fundraising appeals from ‘Native Schools’. It was a much loved companion for the boys, known for its treats, radio, passionate driver, Charles Basil Bennet, from the YMCA, and at one point, a piano from one of Mussolini’s mate’s mansions…
Te Rau Aroha was so a part of the Māori Battalion, it even became a fighting vehicle. After a battle at El Aghiela, east of Tripoli, an English Officer recounted that he could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the Māori Battalion charging at speed down the hill—the old YMCA van with Charlie at it’s helm—smack bang in their midst!
A problem the male truck drivers never had…
From ‘War Stories Our Mother Never Told Us’ on NZ on Screen.
When Mabel’s partner left to join the Māori Battalion, she took up his mahi.
‘My young brother and I had to run our business, which was a school bus run—passenger and general goods.
One day I was unloading a petrol drop, people used to order petrol in 44 gallon drums, so I wheeled it around and then I just got it on and… crack! I felt it in my chest and oh it was painful so I went home and then rushed up to the hospital.
They plastered me up with a very wide plaster which was good cos I said to them, “I’ve got to be on that truck again in the morning!” So they put the plaster on but as I was coming down the steps I realised, my son was still on the breast (cos he would NOT finish taking the breast). So I went back and I said, “Oh, there’s something wrong…” And so what we did was cut some holes for the nipples through the plaster!’
Mabel covers her mouth as she laughs.
“And of course my son was quite happy with that so anyway we came back and the next day I was on the cream run again!”
Thanks for reading e hoa mā. A big mihi to our boys in the Māori Battalion, and everyone who has faced and continues to face the horrors of war. Arohanui, Liz, Grace, and Han.
