THE show of support by Hastings residents at Sunday’s Remembrance Day services across the region proves the legacy of war and the sacrifices made by those who did not return will never be forgotten.
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The Town Square in Port Macquarie was packed to capacity as hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects on the 100th anniversary since the guns fell silent on the battlefields of World War 1.
MacKillop College student Nicola Di Bona spoke on behalf of the Hastings’ youth and her outstanding reflections on war and the lifelong impacts felt by all generations was a timely message about the state of the world today.
“It is crucial we recognise the tragedy of war, the excessive pain, the denial of the innate love and humanity that we all have the capacity to show,” she said.
“We mistakenly gloss over the suffering of individuals by romanticising conflict.
Sometimes the only way for peace to win and to prevent oppression, corruption and hate from overcoming the good we all possess, is to challenge the power of dictators and brutality in any way possible.
- Nicola Di Bona
“We celebrate the power and struggle of war instead of the purpose of war and the peace it is intended to ensure.
“We praise the crimes and atrocities of war over which the individual has no control over.
“As a society it is so important that we don’t glorify hate, ferocity, and agony.
“We are here today and on every other day to remember and honour those involved in such tragedy.
“Like us, they wanted a united world for good to prevail and to foster an environment where all people have the freedoms to which they are entitled.
“Without learning from the tragedy of war it amounts to no more than pain and suffering.”
Through the eyes of one of our youngest generations, Nicola questioned why war must be the precursor to peace, particularly in a world that has seen the tragedy repeat itself and where hate continues to fester.
“Sometimes the only way for peace to win and to prevent oppression, corruption and hate from overcoming the good we all possess, is to challenge the power of dictators and brutality in any way possible.
“As tragic as war is, sometimes it is necessary in this world to fight for justice and peace.”
Meanwhile in Wauchope, more than 2000 knitted poppies surrounded the war memorial in the main street in a beautiful visual display acknowledging the centenary of the Armistice.
The Hastings District Highland Pipe Band also took part in a synchronised performance of an evocative bagpipe tune at 5pm on November 11 as a tribute to the soldiers killed and wounded in World War I.
Bands and individual pipers throughout the world, including more than 1000 pipers and drummers from Australian pipe bands, played The Battle's O'er to mark the exact time the Armistice was signed 100 years ago.
Watch the full service here:
