1/5 I tweeted about Tarara Day on March 15th, & about the shared culture Croats & Maori developed in the gumfields of Northland. In his book about the Maori Battalion, the late Wira Gardiner shows how this shared culture played a small but vital role in European peacemaking.
2/5 After fighting their way through Italy, the Maori Battalion was ordered to enter the city of Trieste just as the war was ending. But Trieste was already occupied, by the partisan army of Yugoslav communist Tito.
3/5 Both Italy & Yugoslavia wanted Trieste, & Tito was not happy about the Maori arrival in the town. Maori & other Allied troops were at first treated coldly by residents, & there were tense confrontations with Tito's bereted men.
4/5 Gardner describes how the Maori Battalion launched a 'peace offensive' in Trieste. Their food truck was turned into a tuck shop for kids. But the breakthrough came when Tito's men met Maori with Yugoslav ancestry, who could speak some Croatian. They were amazed & delighted.
5/5 The Maori Battalion left friends when they left Trieste. Their goodwill & their blood & cultural links with Yugoslavs helped avert a new war. Trieste was eventually made a Free Territory, & in the '70s it was peacefully divided.
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