The Deep Sigh of the Pacific

The powerful stories of our Pacific soldiers and the legacy they leave behind. 

What's the connection between a town in France, a newly unveiled Pacific memorial at Wellington's Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, and the people of the Cook Islands?

Leading Pacific artist Michael Tuffrey links them all in a poignant feature documentary funded by NZ-MFAT, by Wellington-based Cook Islander Johnson Raela.

At the March 27th, 2021 memorial service at Pukeahu, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown paid tribute to the ongoing commitment of all Pacific nations towards regional security and global peacekeeping.

"For more than 40 years, countries in the Pacific have contributed uniformed personnel to UN peace operations around the globe.

From 1978 to the present, Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste have collectively deployed to 30 UN peace operations," he noted.