If I had been asked to list the battlefields that the soldiers of the ANZAC had fought on, I would have answered instinctively the Somme, the fields of Flanders, or Gallipoli. I had never imagined that the New Zealanders had played a decisive role much closer home.
I discovered the museum by complete chance while I was trying to find my end-of-year internship for the first year of my master’s degree. I was surprised because, to me, Le Quesnoy wasn’t synonymous with an important site of the Great War, and yet this internship showed me how wrong I was. What marked me the most was learning about those soldiers, those young men who came from so far away to fight in a country that had barely anything to do with theirs. Le Quesnoy isn’t just a battlefield where New Zealanders fought; it’s a tale of heroism that is still being celebrated today.
On a personal level, this internship at Te Arawhata taught me so many things about what’s expected of a team dealing with a bilingual public. Switching between French and English back and forth was challenging at first, but I got used to it. And the Kiwis that do visit us are always so friendly and cheerful! I also had the opportunity to work on the creation of a thematic walk on Le Quesnoy and its friendship with New Zealand and on the development of a future exhibition focusing on the role of the New Zealand Medical Corps in the Great War. To conclude, even though it became difficult to work given the intense heat that struck France at the end of June, I would have loved to stay a little bit longer.
I will forever keep a positive memory of the museum and its team. I’d like to thank Elizabeth warmly for giving me the opportunity to work here and the rest of the team as well for being so warm and welcoming toward me.
