2018 Featherston Stand / He Tino Mamao (It's a Long Way)

Featherston might be a small town in New Zealand, even smaller during the First World War with its population of 1159 residents in 1915, but its historic significance was gigantic in terms of the war effort. It was the site of the largest military camp in the country.

In 2014 a small group of people from Featherston approached Dibble, wanting to commission a sister piece to the Southern Stand: New Zealand Memorial in London.

Fund raising for the sculpture was a big task and took some three years for the group to raise the money required.

The design of the sculpture for Featherston is deceptively simple as a structure: nine flat pillars mounted upright on a slight lean. The lean of each pillar suggests the angle at which a soldier might march when pushing forward into a head wind or up a hill slope (both in abundance on the Remutaka Hill where the soldiers took their first away march after finishing their training).

Information about the Camp is spread throughout the pillars on one side. On the front roadside is a scene of the soldiers on their march, horses a notable part of the assembly.

The soldiers depicted are notably Kiwi, very different in appearance from their manicured English counterparts. Most were farm boys in a conglomerate uniform, their faces are intentionally rugged and unique.

Lighting strips are connected to the back of each pillar, at night it appears as if the ghosts of the soldiers are still marching towards the hill (where the memorial points).

In 2018 the completed memorial was formally opened on the day before the 100 the anniversary of Armistice.