my maori hero (willie apiata)

                             My Maori biography on Willie Apiata

  Not so long ago in te kahu class there was a task where you had to make a biography on a Maori hero of your choice. My Maori hero was Willie Apiata because he was one of 165  holders of the caritas cross  here is the biography i wrote on that week.Willie Apiata was born in 1976 to parents who were maori and pakeha. His parents had separated when Willie was 2, his childhood spent at Waima in Northland. When he was a teen he moved to Te kaha and attended te-Whanau-a-apunia-area school. He left school when he was 15. 

When willie was 17 he enrolled in the nz army on the 6th of october, territorial force hauraki regiment of the Royal nz infantry regiment and unsuccessfully joined the Special air services in 1996. Willie fought for the Army, and on return from war, he had successfully attempted  for sas. 

In Afghanistan 20 fighter planes had attacked Apiata's camp  and were attacking with rocket propelled grenades. One had blown Apiata of the hood of his truck where he had been sleeping. 2 other men had been injured by shrapnel. Corporal D is one of those men. When apiata woke up from being knocked out, he carried the corporal to safety. Soon after Apiata joined the fight and barely got out alive, and from that willie had been one of the few holders of the Victoria cross and to this day he is still alive to tell the tail.