About Anzac Bridge Fellowship 2016

The Kaiparoro war memorial bridge is a very special bridge in the northern Wairarapa. As I've found out, there are very few similar war memorial bridges in New Zealand or Australia.

Every year, New Zealand Pacific Studio Artists' Residency Centre and the Friends of the ANZAC Memorial Bridge Kaiparoro invite applications for a two week ANZAC Bridge Fellowship. The aim is "to maintain a rich cultural context for the annual commemorations centred at NZ Pacific Studio and the nearby ANZAC Memorial Bridge".

In 2016, I was lucky enough to be chosen as the Anzac Bridge Fellow, and my project relates to tracing the similarities and differences between the Kaiparoro bridge and the Bridge Creek memorial bridge at Brooweena, Queensland, and trying to build up connections between the two bridge communities.

There are three main parts to the project. One is to find out about each bridge and acknowledge how special they both are. The second is to read out the name of the soldiers on the "other" bridge at our own Anzac Day service, with a message of greeting from each bridge community. The third part is to get link up school children from both communities, encouraging them to draw or write about their own bridge and swapping those poems and drawings with each other.  

Thanks to everyone who has had a hand in supporting or joining in with this project (made possible with a community grant from Trust House Community Enterprise, Masterton).