The Voices focus area investigates ways that different individuals and groups made their voices heard about aspects of the First World War.
This area of the site introduces students to a range of information about these wartime voices. The voices of the First World War were often leaders (both politicians and military) but it is the voices of ordinary people who also deserve to be heard if we are to truly understand the impact and personal cost of the war.
Three of the specific Voices areas focus on how voices were expressed through various media: images, music, and writing. The other three areas focus on the voices of groups not commonly heard: those who stayed at home, Māori, and Pasifika.
(external link)Watch this short video clip on Chunuk Bair from War Stories – Episode One.
War News video clips courtesy of PRIME TV, The Gibson Group Ltd & NZ On Air.
(external link)Watch this short video clip on Recruitment of Maori from War Stories – Episode Two.
War News video clips courtesy of PRIME TV, The Gibson Group Ltd & NZ On Air.
(external link)Watch this short video clip on Conscientious Objectors from War Stories – Episode Three.
War News video clips courtesy of PRIME TV, The Gibson Group Ltd & NZ On Air.
(external link)Watch this short video clip on Influenza from War Stories – Episode Four.
War News video clips courtesy of PRIME TV, The Gibson Group Ltd & NZ On Air.
Years 9-10

Māori voices
This hook provides a photo of a significant Māori leader, Te Rangi Hīroa (Sir Peter Henry Buck), an extract from his diary and a brief...
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Voices from the home front
This hook explores aspects of life experienced by people at home during the war.
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Voices of the Pacific
This hook presents a photo of Māori and Pacific Island soldiers at Narrow Neck Training Camp in Auckland. It also presents an older Niuean woman’s...
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Voices through images
This hook presents two images that suggest very different voices from those of soldiers at the war. These pictures provide opportunity for discussing how beliefs...
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Voices through sound and song
A soldier’s description of the sounds at the front line can be used as a starting point to explore the different styles, audiences, and purposes...
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Voices through writing
This hook explores how fiction can communicate others’ experiences. The book My Brother’s War by David Hill is used to show two very different perceptions...
Read more...Years 11-13

Aliens, objectors, and Wobblies
This hook provides commentary on the lives of aliens, conscientious objectors, and Wobblies, all of whom were minority groups who received poor treatment by the...
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Authorities: Generals, censors, government ministers
This hook presents two official posters that aim to persuade citizens to agree with the government’s position regarding the war.
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Ettie Rout: Public health campaigner
Ettie Rout was a campaigner for safer sex during the First World War. Her campaign was divisive and widely condemned at the time. This hook...
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Medical personnel
This hook provides a letter and a diary extract from two medical personnel working with injured soldiers. These two very different pieces of writing provide...
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Recent voices through the arts
This hook presents a satirical 2010 article from The Economist that likens the countries involved in the First World War to individual people involved in...
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Soldiers' voices before, during, and after battle
This hook provides diary entries and letters of soldiers at different stages of their involvement in the war: before and during battle, when wounded, when...
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