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Adrienne Miller with a box of several hundred ribbons and the start of the new prayer wall.
There will be a new way to mark and commemorate Anzac Day at the Matakana War Memorial this year, with a “ribbon prayer wall for peace” being installed along the fence behind the King George statue.
Monument custodian and service organiser Adrienne Miller provided hundreds of one metre-long ribbons to students at Matakana School, who have each decorated a ribbon as a prayer for peace or as a symbol of remembrance.
Students presented their completed ribbons to Adrienne at the school’s Anzac service, which was held at the war memorial on Friday, April 9.
Adrienne has since been attaching all the ribbons, together with photos of the people commemorated on the memorial, to the new wooden slat fence in time for the Matakana Anzac Day service on Sunday,
April 25, at 10am. This will be Matakana’s first official service since 2018. In 2019 it was cancelled in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks and last year’s service was cancelled due to a Covid-19 lockdown.
Adrienne says prayer ribbons are an ancient and traditional visual way to honour and respect life.
“This wall will represent how we can come together as a community with respect and kindness to create a better world,” she says. “It is a temporary public artwork to remind us of our Anzac Spirit and remember those who give their time and lives to serve this country.”
The ribbon wall will be in place until the end of April.
