Tribute 08 – The Vietnam Apology – To Screen

PUBLICITY RELEASE
TUESDAY APRIL 21 2009

Tribute 08 – The Vietnam Apology – To Screen On Maori Television On ANZAC Day

Vietnam War veterans and their families waited decades for a formal apology for all they went through, during and after that vicious conflict.

TRIBUTE 08 – THE VIETNAM APOLOGY, to premiere on Maori Television on ANZAC Day, Saturday April 25 at 7.00 PM, is a documentary about the New Zealand Govern-ment’s long-awaited apology, through the eyes of two whanau whose loved ones were soldiers in that war.

The Tribute 08 event, held in Wellington at Queen’s Birthday weekend last year, attracted thousands to gather, remember and heal.

Among them was Joe Matene, from the small far north town of Tautoro, outside Kaikohe. A soldier who had been in conflicts in Malaysia and Borneo, nothing could have prepared him for Vietnam.

“I guess Vietnam for most of the people who served there was a real shock to the system, because even though they were professional soldiers who had trained extensively before they left, they were shocked by the intensity of the violence they encountered,” says the documentary’s producer Jasmine Pujji.

“Battles were up close, brutal, and often hand-to-hand. The war left some huge psycho-logical scars on those who were there, and that’s why it’s been so hard for them to get over.”

The trauma of war was compounded when the soldiers got home, many of them sneaking back into the country in civilian clothes, rather than face having eggs and tomatoes thrown at them.

“There was a lack of understanding of what they had experienced. People were so con-cerned about what they were doing there in the first place. But most of those soldiers felt that they went where they were told to go by the government, which is what their job was.

“They felt pretty betrayed by New Zealand – the government and the people. They were seen as the bad guys, and often felt like the bad guys anyway.”

Meanwhile, the Williams family, from Auckland’s North Shore, have waited decades to find out what became of their beloved brother Jack, who was killed in Vietnam. For them, con-tacts made through the Wellington event have led to answers, and the healing of old wounds.

Families and individuals’ traumatic experiences are among the issues officially recognised at Tribute 08. Crucially, the government also used the event to recognise the veterans’ health problems – including from of the use of defoliants during the war, such as Agent Orange.

Joe Matene and 40 or so of his family members were there for the momentous occasion, and this programme documents their journey.

“Joe is the genuine article. He’s a veteran who has lived through everything that Tribute 08 and the government’s apology was for. He’s been through the worst but he has quite a strong faith and he had made a deliberate decision in his life to ‘let go of the hate’, as he puts it.”

TRIBUTE 08 – THE VIETNAM APOLOGY, premieres on Maori Television on ANZAC Day, Saturday April 25 at 7.00 PM, as part of ANZAC – KOTAHI TE WAIRUA.

ENDS

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