Sculpture linking NZ and France unveiled

A memorial marking the relationship forged between New Zealand and France during the First World War was unveiled in Wellington today.

Called 'Le Calligramme', the two-piece monument includes words from the poem Chant de I'Honneur, written during the war by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and a Māori inscription: Haere whakamua, titiro whakamuri.

Broadly translated that means: Walking into the future, walking into the light.

The memorial was gifted to New Zealand by France, and made out of a mix of local stone, and crushed French Combe Burne stone from the Western Front.

The design was decided after an international competition won by New Zealand architect Andrew Patterson.

French Ambassador Florence Jeanblanc-Risler said the sculpture, a gift from France, was to remember friendship and fraternity.

"It's basically a call for remembrance. If you want to move forward, if you want to protect yourself into the future ... you need also to take into account sacrifices of soldiers, and the past - there's no future without the past."

Justice Minister Andrew Little, who attended the event, said the sculpture helped strengthen the relationship between the two countries, and recognised the deaths of New Zealand soldiers on French soil.