Remuera Library Exhibition - from June 17 2015 - Auckland, NZ

"The Battle of Conscience"  - La Bataille de la Conscience

Students from Baradene College of the Sacred Heart in Auckland, NZ and Lycée Professionnel Jean Macé, Chauny, France have worked together on a joint ambitious project to mark the anniversary of the First World War within the Shared Histories framework. The students researched the pacifist objection to war and those New Zealanders and French soldiers who deserted or...

We have posted our book "to many libraries in New Zealand and Australia. The photos shoe the books in envelopes ready to be sent. The libraries included public libraries and university libraries.

Title: “La Bataille de la Conscience” [The Battle of Conscience]

Authors: Students from Baradene College of the Sacred Heart, Auckland, New Zealand and Lycée Professionnel Jean Macé, Chauny, France

Editors: Erika Bleriot, Brent Coutts, Sylvain Leduc, Lucy Stone

ISBN 978-0-473-31621-1

...

New Zealand and French students read poetry as a way of paying respect to the New Zealand soldiers who died in the Somme. Poems were read in Maori, French and the English language. We then laid a wreath and the New Zealand students sang a song in Maori. It was a great way to end the day and it was good to do this together. The students now understand very well that we both share a history for the First Wirld War. 

Today the French and New Zealand students hung the exhibition. 

Today all of the students got to see the book. Everyone was excited to see the section they had written and to find thier name as an author at the back of the book. Our task today for the project was to post two copied to the National Library of New Zealand. This is called the "Legal Deposit" and is required under law in New Zealand when you get an ISBN number for the book. It means that two copies will be forever kept in the Bational Library for researchers to reference.

Photo of our book. Today we were able to get the book from the printing company.

The book cover has an image by a New Zealand artist John Z. Robinson. The image is a linocut print. The image is of Field Punishment No.1. This punishment was used to discipline soldiers and four of the New Zealand concientious objectors were also made to undergo this for periods of 28 days at a time. 

Another preview of our book. This time the pages show photos of Archibald Baxter and Mark Briggs (two conscientious objectors sent to the Western Front) and a great photo we sourced from Puke Ariki Museum of a NZ soldier on the duckboard at the front line. Briggs was dragged over this, the nails on it digging into his flesh and creating huge wounds. Baxter was marched to the front line in order to try to "break his will" to resist military service. In the end he got left there, and wandered...

The photo shows pages from our book that we are publishing as part of our Shared Histories Project. The book will be launched when we are in Chauny, France. The photo shows a section of the book written by the French students in Chauny who researched the execution of a group of soldiers in Vingré. These are known as the Martyrs of Vingré [Martyrs de Vingré]. The book is bilingual in French and English. 

Les Martyrs de Vingré sont six poilus, le caporal Paul Henry Floch et les soldats Jean...

A photo giving a look at what the posters for our exhibition look like. Our posters [by French students and New Zealand students] have been edited and now all loot like they belong together. They will be printed a large A1 size for the exhibition we are having in Chauny, France. They are to be printed on a matt laminate card and should look really great. We can't wait to see them when they have been printed at the end of the week. The posters are bilingual in French and English languages.

Our...