Treaty Grounds right place for 28 Battalion museum

Waitangi Trust National Trust chair Pita Tipene says the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi is the natural place for a museum dedicated to the 28 Māori Battalion.

The museum was part of the coalition agreement between New Zealand First and Labour, and seed funding has been committed from the provincial growth fund.

Mr Tipene says the battalion was the only army contingent to have ever paraded on the Treaty Grounds.

That was in 1940, at the same occasion where Tā Apirana Ngata described its imminent sacrifice as the price of citizenship.

There had been a suggestion it be called the Treaty of Waitangi Battalion.

"So given that we are telling the story of te Tiriti o Waitangi and its significance both in our history and where we are going as a nation, all of those things add up to what we see as a very natural place to locate the Māori Battalion Museum," Mr Tipene says.

While there will be a prominent place in the museum for the story of the northern A Company, the trust will consult representatives of the Battalion's other companies before a final proposal is produced.

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