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Today's commemorations in Belgium of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele have focused on the loss of more than 800 New Zealand troops that day, but they are also a reminder of the larger sacrifices made in World War 1.
More than 5000 people turned up for the Last Post Service in the town of Ypres, which included waiata from the Navy's Maori culture group and a haka from a group of waka paddlers.
Former MP Hone Harawira says he was honoured to take part in the ceremony a few years ago, and asked the mayor of Ypres why it was still done every night.
"He said 'if it wasn't for the lives and the suffering and the pain that your people gave and Australians gave and others gave, our little town here might not have survived so we will always remember that – our children, our grandchildren, ourselves, we may not have survived except for the effort that you gave,'" he says.
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