One hundred years on from the First World War, the people of Niue are still pushing for 150 of their men to be recognised for their role.
The men served in Egypt and France but were withdrawn to England after increasing sickness.
Indira Stewart is in Niue and has this report.
In October 1915, 150 Niueans sailed with the New Zealand Maori Contingent to take part in a war they knew very little about.
Most had never worn shoes or experienced the cold and only a few spoke a little English.
Among the volunteers were four brothers of the Hipa family.
Only one of them, Tipae Hipa, returned.
His great granddaughter Rozlyn Hipa says it was a devastating loss for the family.
"It's unheard of now, for four family members to all go to war at the same time. That's a big number, you know, when you look at per capita. When you look at how many people lived in Niue in those days. That's huge."
Ms Hipa says her great great uncles were among those who got sick and died.
Niuean men prepare to leave Niue for WW1
Photo: Supplied/Niue Taoga Museum
Transcript
"Niueans who went to war had never experienced winter ever in their lives. Majority of them actually died of Pneumonia or some simple thing as a flu. They've never worn shoes, they didn't know what it was like to wear these layers of clothing. So the exposure to the cold I think was one of the huge contributing factors to a lot of the Niueans who perished in that war."
Two of the brothers Pulu and Peni were buried at sea and Hemu is buried at the Karori Cemetery in Wellington.
Researcher Margaret Pointer found that by April 1916 52 percent of the Niuean soldiers were hospitalised abroad due to illness and five were buried at sea.
Another 15 died within five years of their return to Niue.
The Director of Niue's Taoga Museum, Moira Enetama, believes Niueans perhaps didn't understand the seriousness of sending their men to war.
"Niue's very first casualty of the war died in Auckland on the 25th of December 1915. So the wife and the family did not learn of his passing until six months later. So I don't think they took seriously those issues just like before they left to go to war."
The museum has a small collection of war memorabilia salvaged after Cyclone Heta destroyed the museum in 2004.
"Surprisingly we retrieved a lot of photos which had been laminated at the time, and we're displaying those right here and one uniform, World War 1 uniform. But the rest were lost."
Last year some delegates from Niue were invited to Europe for First World War commemorations.
Rozlyn Hipa says it was an insult no one from her family was selected to go.
"Here's parents with four sons taken away. That's a huge contribution to the war. Like, name me a family in this day and age who will send their four sons at the same time to war. I don't think anybody will ever, ever do that. So, for a family to sacrifice four sons to the one war, they should be recognised more than they do."
Ms Enetama says the New Zealand government is working to make up for past lack of recognition for Pacific soldiers.
"I think we were left behind without that recognition, the due recognition to the people of Niue at the time and with this 100 years celebration that the world is celebrating, New Zealand is part of it, they're trying to mend the relationship forward."
It's still not known where many of the men are buried but Ms Enetama says efforts are underway to find out and to make sure all are acknowledged.
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