{"id":38944,"date":"2021-02-25T06:30:22","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T17:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=38944"},"modified":"2021-03-27T00:25:09","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T11:25:09","slug":"the-prime-ministers-february-22nd-memorial-speech-the-sparrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2021\/02\/25\/the-prime-ministers-february-22nd-memorial-speech-the-sparrows\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prime Minister’s February 22nd National Remembrance Speech & “The Sparrows”"},"content":{"rendered":"

As those of you who checked in here on Monday<\/a> will know, it was the tenth anniversary of the February 22, 2011 earthquake, which did so much damage in Christchurch and Canterbury, and affected all our lives profoundly.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern<\/p><\/div>\n

A National Remembrance Service was held in Christchurch, at the Canterbury National Earthquake Memorial. The leading address was given by the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, who concluded her speech with the final lines from one of my earthquake poems, The Sparrows<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I felt, and feel, tremendously honoured, humble, and moved, that my words were chosen to play a part in such a significant event: in remembering those who passed away and honouring Christchurch and everyone who has suffered and endured through the past decade.<\/p>\n

The poem was included in Leaving The Red Zone: Poems From The Canterbury Earthquake<\/em><\/strong>, edited by James Norcliffe<\/a> and Joanna Preston<\/a>, and published by Clerestory Press<\/a>, in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Leaving<\/p>\n

The full text of the speech, including full audio, is here:<\/p>\n

National Remembrance Service: the Prime Minister’s Speech<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Sparrows<\/em><\/strong> follows, for those who wish to read it in full. The image below it is of the painting, I meant it to be a poem about sparrows<\/em><\/strong>, by Dunedin artist, Claire Beynon<\/a>, which features the first two lines of the poem:
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sparrows<\/span><\/h3>\n

I meant it to be a poem about sparrows<\/span>
\nand how the silence that followed<\/span>
\nthe February 22nd earthquake<\/span>
\nincluded their absent voices —<\/span>
\n& not just sparrows but the starlings<\/span>
\nand blackbirds, the finches and wax-eyes<\/span>
\nthat normally fill the day with their bustle<\/span>
\nabout the business of living …<\/span>
\n …………………………….<\/span> all fallen silent,<\/span>
\nhidden away, or gone further to find food<\/span>
\nsince half the city was covered<\/span>
\nin a slick of water and mud. I threw<\/span>
\nold bread onto the island of grass<\/span>
\nin our own grey sea and waited \u2026<\/span>
\n …………………………..\u2026<\/span> and waited.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then, finally, they came<\/span>
\ntheir wings clouding the sun.<\/span>
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Helen Lowe, 2011<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As those of you who checked in here on Monday will know, it was the tenth anniversary of the February 22, 2011 earthquake, which did so much damage in Christchurch and Canterbury, and affected all our lives profoundly. A National Remembrance Service was held in Christchurch, at the Canterbury National Earthquake Memorial. The leading address […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,32,10,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earthquakepoems","category-earthquakereports","category-general","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38944"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39023,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38944\/revisions\/39023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}