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ANZACs

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Australians at war. Whitlam, Keating, Anzac, and the drums of wars past - Pearls and Irritations. Credit - Unsplash “I think the war against Hitler was justified. I don’t know whether the war against Wilhelm II was.” Thus spoke Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in a BBC TV interview with Lord Chalfont recorded in September 1973, and aired in December. It was screened in Australia in early January 1974. The transcript is in the Whitlam Papers. By any measure, this was an astonishing statement. Context is important. Remarkably, Whitlam’s expression of doubt about the justice of the Great War attracted little attention. But the remark on war was not a throwaway line. Forty years later, in November 2013, former Prime Minister Paul Keating gave the Remembrance Day address in Canberra.

In contrast to Whitlam’s experience, Keating faced a cascade of criticism. Both Whitlam and Keating had expressed doubts over the purity of the purposes for which Australians fought during the Great War? The evils of the imperial German elite are well known. Was it a just war in 1914? Was it a just war in 1915? Incorporating the TELSTAR Inquiry Model - Teaching  students  about  ANZAC  Day. How Anzac Day came to occupy a sacred place in Australians' hearts. Australia is spending the extraordinary amount of A$562 million commemorating the centenary of the first world war between 2014 and 2018 — far more than any other nation, including the major combatants. This is compelling proof we are very attached to the cluster of beliefs and traditions we call the “Anzac legend”.

While we identify Anzac as one of the most prized components of the Australian identity in 2017, that has not always been the case. The values we associate with Anzac today – mateship, sacrifice, the birth of the nation – are not necessarily the qualities that would have come to mind for an Australian of the 1920s. And if you asked a university student in the 1970s what they thought about Anzac, they might well have told you that it was an old-fashioned idea that glorified war; the sooner it was forgotten, the better. The Anzac legend has an often-controversial history. It was a contest that led in 1914 to the outbreak of the first world war. Women have been neglected by the Anzac tradition, and it's time that changed.

The Anzac legend remains firmly centred on the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign of 1915, and the sacrifice of “sons and fathers” in frontline combat. The place of women in this foundational story is also made clear – that of onlookers and supporters. In concluding her 2017 dawn service address at Gallipoli, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told a story about Len Hall, one of the original “diggers” who fought at Gallipoli. He is said to have noticed a girl in the crowd who had gathered to farewell departing soldiers, and given her an emu feather that he plucked from his slouch hat. When he returned to Australia at the close of the war, this girl — who later became his wife — was waiting in the crowd to return the feather. This is a story of hope, and of an ongoing fascination with and idealisation of the “digger”. It is also a story about the passive role of women as waiting mothers, wives and sisters. Read more: Why China will be watching how we commemorate Anzac Day Undervalued women’s work.

Flies, filth and bully beef: life at Gallipoli in 1915. Of all the bastards of places this is the greatest bastard in the world. – Ion Idriess, 1932, The Desert Column It has often been repeated that the lived existence of soldiers at Gallipoli in the 1915 campaign was extremely arduous. The soldiers’ accounts and recent archaeological surveys of this best-preserved First World War battlefield illustrate just how inhumane and gruelling the conditions were for both Allied and Turkish soldiers.

Conditions Many factors contributed to making the Gallipoli battlefield an almost unendurable place for all soldiers. The constant noise, cramped unsanitary conditions, disease, stenches, daily death of comrades, terrible food, lack of rest and thirst all contributed to the most gruelling conditions. The Anzacs were literally clinging onto the edge of a cliff with the sea at their backs and the Turks occupying the higher ground.

Food Food was a major concern to Anzac soldiers. The Turkish forces were provided with a wider variety of food. Disease. In remembering Anzac Day, what do we forget? In the weeks before Anzac Day, a flurry of news stories emerge mobilising Australians to remember the Anzacs. We see in them familiar references to “The Diggers”, with their virtues of mateship, sacrifice and courage, and the “birth” of the nation at Gallipoli. As Kevin Rudd said in 2010, All nations are shaped by their histories, their memories and their stories. When we retell a story, we actively choose which parts to retell. Such choices of representation also apply to nation-building narratives, which are then used for the political purposes of the day – such as John Howard’s use of the “Anzac myth” to support military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We call this process of choice the “politics of memory”. When “we” as a nation remember Anzac, we simultaneously forget significant parts of the story not commonly represented. As anthropologist Ghassan Hage argued in his book White Nation, despite the emphasis placed on multiculturalism in Australia, This is not merely chance.

Telling the forgotten stories of Indigenous servicemen in the first world war. Warning: This story contains images of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people who are deceased. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who served with Australian forces in the first world war is estimated to be in the range of 1,000-1,200. But the precise figure will never be known, because a number of those who served changed their names and birthplaces when they enrolled to get around racist enlistment practices. Despite fighting and dying for Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders still weren’t considered citizens upon their return from the war.

Many of these veterans were also denied repatriation benefits, and excluded from returned services clubs. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have long sought to gain recognition for the service and sacrifices of their men and women. These stories often take the form of oral histories. Read more: On Anzac Day, we remember the Great War but forget our first war Commemorating the Battle of Beersheba Ricky Morris.

Before the Anzac biscuit, soldiers ate a tile so hard you could write on it. Before Anzac biscuits found the sticky sweet form we bake and eat today, Anzac soldiers ate durable but bland “Anzac tiles”, a new name for an ancient ration. Anzac tiles are also known as army biscuits, ship’s biscuits, or hard tack. A variety of homemade sweet biscuits sent to soldiers during the first world war may have been referred to as “Anzac biscuits” to distinguish them from “Anzac tiles” on the battlefield. Read more: Feeding the troops: the emotional meaning of food in wartime Rations and care package treats alike can be found in museum collections, often classified as “heraldry” alongside medals and uniforms.

They sometimes served novel purposes: Sergeant Cecil Robert Christmas wrote a Christmas card from Gallipoli on a hard tack biscuit in 1915. The back of the biscuit reads “M[erry] Christ[mas] [Illegible] / Prosperous New Y[ear] / from Old friends / Anzac / Gallipoli 1915 / [P]te C.R. Biscuit as stationery This Anzac tile was made in Melbourne. Hardtack art. Aboriginal service during the First World War. When it was colonised by Europeans, Australia was declared terra nullius; there were no formally binding treaties made with Indigenous Australians, so there was no recognition of the rights of the Indigenous inhabitants. The Defence Act of 1903 stated that all males aged from 12 to 25 would receive military training; as Aboriginal Australians were not of European descent, they were exempt from military service.

(It was not until 1949 that all restrictions were lifted, enabling Indigenous Australians to join the Australian military forces.) At the outbreak of the war large numbers of Australians came forward to enlist, and Aboriginal Australians also answered the call. Best current estimates are that about 1,000 Indigenous Australians – out of an estimated population of 93,000 in 1901 – fought in the First World War (though the real number is probably higher). By the end of 1915 it became harder for Aboriginal Australians to enlist, and some were rejected because of their race. Shattered Anzacs - Shooting The Past. Remembering fallen war heroes is insincere if it excludes those suffering today | Mariam Tokhi | Opinion. As a first-generation Muslim Australian, I’ve often wondered what Anzac Day should mean to me. The furore (and social media savagery) over Yasmin Abdel-Magied’s seven words have reignited that uncertainty.

And now I’m despairing about the vitriol being thrown at Muslims and immigrants. Since primary school, I have commemorated and reflected on the meaning of war and Australia’s sacrifices. I observe the silence every Remembrance Day. I’ve rattled tins to sell Anzac badges and poppies. I have willingly and solemnly paid my respects to the diggers at dawn services. In year eight, we dissected the Anzac story: poring over the letters and diaries of Australian teenagers published in our history textbooks.

“That’s not how it’s meant to end,” someone said. Years later, I was working as a junior doctor in a country Victorian hospital, admitting yet another elderly gentleman to our overflowing general medical ward. “I grew up in Melbourne,” I answered. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he said. Anzac Connections. Bringing historic documents from the Australian War Memorial’s archive to all Australians Anzac Connections is a major web development project that not only progressively delivers new digitised collections to the website but also aims to improve search and discovery on the site, providing new ways for people to interact with our collections.

The project was originally established to mark the 2015 centenary of the Gallipoli campaign but has since expanded to include collections relating to the Western Front and Sinai/Palestine. The private record collections of hundreds of individuals who served in the First World War are now online and hold a wealth of stories: a young soldier on the Somme, freezing and up to his knees in mud, using a brief lull in the fighting to pen a letter to his parents at home; a nurse in one of the many field hospitals, exhausted and desperately trying to treat the mass of incoming wounded. One hundred years on, their stories are now ours. Daily Digger Feedback. Discovering Anzacs | Discovering Anzacs | National Archives of Australia and Archives NZ. Anzac Story. Canada offered 30,000 men, Australia pledged 20,000 and New Zealand already had compulsory military training. For the war In Europe, Australia raised a new army of volunteers - the Australian Imperial Force (the AIF).

Recruiting began within days of the declaration of war. Those who were too young raised their ages - and most were accepted. (See 'Boy Soldiers') In little over a month, marches were held in the main capital cities hoping to encourage others to join them. The convoy with the Australian Division assembled in late October, and they were then joined by the New Zealanders. The Russians who were fighting on Germany's eastern front, wanted the British and French to tackle the Turks to reduce pressure on Russia. Anzac Cove April 1915 (Click to enlarge) On 25 April 1915, the Anzacs landed at a difficult and desolate spot on the Gallipoli peninsula and the Turks appeared to be ready for them.

The British Government ordered an evacuation. Top. Gallipoli. Gallipoli and the Anzacs.