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Remembering Gallipoli: Anzac, the Great War and Australian Memory Politics
... Indeed, Bongiorno (2014, p. 82) argues that "Australia's military tradition has displaced all other versions or understandings of national identity." Finally, there is a certain kind and amount of forgetting which needs to be enacted in order for the Anzac narrative to be widely appealing (McDonald, 2017). While in some instances (e.g. for veterans) such forgetting is productive and allows them an experience of history they can live with (Thomson, 1994), at its most extreme, jingoistic allegiance to this "myth masquerading as history" (D. ...
... Most notably, supermarket chain Woolworths came up with the "Fresh in our Memories" digital campaign where the public could upload images of those impacted by war, and generate a branded picture that could be used on social media. The approach and slogan was slammed and parodied online for being in poor taste and was quickly shut down (Beaumont, 2015b;Holbrook, 2019;Macleod, 2016;McDonald, 2017;Sear, 2016b). Carlton United Breweries had a "Raise Your Glass" appeal (over several years) where $1 from each VB carton sold was donated to veteran's groups, even though alcohol misuse is problematic amongst current and former defence personnel (J. ...
... While initially escaping criticism, this campaign was closed in 2016 due to concerns it was commercially exploiting Anzac (Canning, 2016). Overall, many manufactured attempts to associate with Anzac were not well received, seen by the pubic as ingenuine and exploiting Anzac for commercial purposes (Holbrook, 2019;McDonald, 2017). ...
This thesis investigates how Anzac narratives are interpreted and integrated into contemporary understandings of Australian national heritage and collective remembering through craft. The Anzac Centenary commemorative efforts have been positioned as a focal point of national significance for Australia in the period 2014-2018, and encompass the keystone centenary of the Anzac troops landing at Gallipoli in 1915. Social narratives on the Centenary have tended to be institutionally controlled and homogeneous, and commemorative activities have been tied closely to the traditional spheres of commemoration, such as services and marches. This thesis focuses attention on vernacular, individual-level acts of Anzac commemoration that took place outside of these contexts to understand how everyday Australians were moved by and respond to the call to remember the Anzac Centenary. Grounded in a material and cultural studies approach, I critically examine the milieu of production of Anzac-themed arts and crafts artefacts created specifically for rural agricultural shows and arts and craft displays. Interviews with 34 creative artists, readings of created Anzac cultural artefacts (entries or displays), and consideration of the display sites themselves were all analysed to draw attention to the inherent purposes, meanings and assumptions of the Anzac narrative operating in these contexts. My analysis unmasks the 'cultural work' that is undertaken through commemoration in non-traditional locations. Firstly, I found that crafty commemoration is a meaningful endeavour, achieved through identity affirmation around family or craft practice, and building a sense of belong to community and nation. Secondly, crafty commemorations reproduce and reinforce traditional imagery and emotional frameworks associated with Anzac that in turn support a crafty commemoration as a palatable, accessible and non-threatening form of commemoration. Finally, I found that the contexts of production and display of crafty commemoration may frequently be banal, which contributes to the normalisation of Anzac narrative as a widely accepted element of social life. Overall, I argue that the process and creative interpretations of Anzac do not necessarily constitute active dissent or rejection of the nationalist discourse; rather, they increase the spaces into which the Anzac discourse permeates, further solidifying its place in the national consciousness.
... It is recommended that the Australian Government, in conjunction with the ADF and the Department of Defence, reframe the portrayal of the ANZAC myth. Different qualities of the ANZAC legend have been used for political purposes in Australia (Curran, 2006;Flanagan, 2018;McDonald, 2017;Ubayasiri, 2015). Former Prime Minister John Howard is the most notable politician to reinvigorate the importance of the ANZACs in public space (Flanagan, 2018;McDonald, 2017;Ubayasiri, 2015). ...
... Different qualities of the ANZAC legend have been used for political purposes in Australia (Curran, 2006;Flanagan, 2018;McDonald, 2017;Ubayasiri, 2015). Former Prime Minister John Howard is the most notable politician to reinvigorate the importance of the ANZACs in public space (Flanagan, 2018;McDonald, 2017;Ubayasiri, 2015). Curran (2006) argues that when Howard resurrected the ANZAC legend, he redefined the meaning of the white Australian identity. ...
This thesis is the first study to examine the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) contribution to intimate partner violence (IPV). The theoretical framework acknowledges and relays the challenges and consequences associated with IPV when the perpetrator is affiliated with a powerful institution. Empirical contributions are drawn from interviews with IPV advocates, and military or IPV experts. Interviewees propose that the ADF's institutional context (identity, values, processes, and culture) may facilitate IPV, influence its manifestation and reduce a victim/survivor’s help-seeking opportunities. Findings conclude that the combined influences of the individual member, the ADF institution and the Australian public make member-perpetrated IPV unique.
... On the topic of multiculturalism, according to the Australian 2016 census, one third of the population of Australia was born in another country [3], yet the national identity is strongly associated with a failed military campaign in the Dardenelles during the first World War, where the image projected and commemorated every year on April 25th is a Caucasian Anglo-Saxon male in military uniform known as an 'ANZAC' [52]. This dissonance is further confounded by the fact that the Australian legislature's first acts as a nation was restriction on immigration to 'non-British citizens' in 1901 [59] a policy that remained until 1966 [14] and was known as the 'White Australia Policy'. ...
... The emphasis on memorializing 'great leaders' to build national identity largely gave way to more generalized war memorials following the First World War, including the new idea of commemorating common soldiers in a Tomb of the Unknown (Blair et al. 2011;Wittman 2011). Although the war discredited romantic portrayals of warfare as a glorious pursuit, it proved to be a potent symbol for national identities rooted in loss, sacrifice, and unity, particularly among countries in the British Commonwealth (Cook 2017;Gough and Morgan 2004;McDonald 2017;McKay and Swift 2016). In turn, the Second World War and the experience of the Holocaust challenged the practice of using memorials of any kind as a tool of nation building in Western Europe and North America. ...
... McDonald also highlighted the fact that when Australian troops were in Cairo, some of them ‚terrorised Cairo residents, ransacking brothels and assaulting locals‛ (McDonald, 2017). These points can be considered among those that were not emphasized earlier. ...
The Gallipoli Campaign, which turned out to be a failure for the Allies and a victory for the Ottoman Turks, is a significant part of World War One. The representation of the Gallipoli Campaign in film and its connection to politics and history has thus far not been academically examined from a comparative perspective. To fill the literature gap, I conducted a document analysis of four films about the Gallipoli Campaign, focusing on the experience of the Australians and the Turks. I chose two Australian and two Turkish films based on their accessibility and recognition. Two of those films, Gallipoli (1981) and The Water Diviner (2014), are Australian-made and show mostly the Australian experience. The two other films, Çanakkale 1915 (Gallipoli 1915, 2012) and Çanakkale Yolun Sonu (Gallipoli: End of the Road, 2013) are Turkish-made and emphasize the Turkish experience. All four films highlight the inhuman characteristics of war and the suffering of the soldiers and their families, hence the common pain. Not surprisingly, patriotism and heroism are the emotions that emerge in all the films in question because, for the Australians, the Gallipoli Campaign was part of the national identity-building process, whereas for the Turks it was about the survival of the nation and the defense of the motherland. The four films also have the common point of a somewhat anti-British approach, though the Australian-made films differ from the others by having more anti-war elements. The Water Diviner has a pro-Turkish political perspective whereas Gallipoli 1915 seems to cater to the current political arena in Turkey. A future work could include other films about the subject and make a complementary comparison.
... McDonald also highlighted the fact that when Australian troops were in Cairo, some of them ‚terrorised Cairo residents, ransacking brothels and assaulting locals‛ (McDonald, 2017). These points can be considered among those that were not emphasized earlier. ...
The Gallipoli Campaign, which turned out to be a failure for the Allies and a victory for the Ottoman Empire, is a significant part of World War One. The representation of the Gallipoli Campaign in film and its connection to politics and history have thus far not been academically examined from a compara-tive perspective. To fill the literature gap, I conducted a document analysis of four films about the Gallipoli Campaign, focusing on the experience of the Australians and the Turks. I chose two Australian and two Turkish films based on their accessibility and recognition. Two of those films, Gallipoli (1981) and The Water Diviner (2014), are Australian-made and show mostly the Australian experience. The two other films, Çanakkale 1915 (Gallipoli 1915, 2012) and Çanak-kale Yolun Sonu (Gallipoli: End of the Road, 2013) are Turkish-made and emphasi-ze the Turkish experience. All four films highlight the inhuman characteristics of war and the suffering of the soldiers and their families, hence the common pain. Not surprisingly, patriotism and heroism are the emotions that emerge in all the films in question because, for the Australians, the Gallipoli Campaign was part of the national identity-building process, whereas for the Turks it was about the survival of the nation and the defense of the motherland. The four films also have the common point of a somewhat anti-British approach, though the Australian-made films differ from the others by having more anti-war ele-ments. The Water Diviner has a pro-Turkish political perspective whereas Galli-poli 1915 seems to cater to the current political arena in Turkey. A future work could include other films about the subject and make a complementary comparison.
This article deals with the meanings and agencies of earth in the making of memory. We consider the role of the soil at the Gallipoli peninsula, in today’s Turkey, a key First World War battlefield and a nodal point of national memories, especially for Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. Informed by more-than-human approaches to heritage and memory and drawing on contemporary site visits as well as historical sources, we discuss the Gallipoli peninsula as a landscape freighted with earthy memory in multiple ways: with the bodies of the dead of 1915, the material deposits and earthworks of the conflict, the memory practices undertaken relationally between people and nation states, and the weight of international diplomacies in the making and remaking of geopolitical orders and claims. In all of this, the ground is both supremely tangible and extremely abstract, making it a most potent agent in memory practices. We are interested in how groups claim ownership of, and control over, the ground; the many ways in which the earth comes to matter, including why and how it moves, how far, and through what forms of transfer; and the scalar zoom of perception and imagination that allows memory to take different forms. We explore these interrelations through attention to processes of what we call ‘formation’ and ‘activation’ of the earth, arguing that they often work to set up mitigations or collapses of distance – geographically and temporally – through different memorial and museum practices and rituals. In our analysis, however, such attempts to create collapses, or ‘wormholes’, through which the faraway Gallipoli can somehow be felt and grasped, are ultimately doomed to fail, as spatial and temporal distances inevitably seem to re-assert themselves as brutal and unbrookable gulfs.
This article deals with the meanings and agencies of earth in the making of memory. We consider the role of the soil at the Gallipoli peninsula, in today’s Turkey, a key First World War battlefield and a nodal point of national memories, especially for Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. Informed by more-than-human approaches to heritage and memory and drawing on contemporary site visits as well as historical sources, we discuss the Gallipoli peninsula as a landscape freighted with earthy memory in multiple ways: with the bodies of the dead of 1915, the material deposits and earthworks of the conflict, the memory practices undertaken relationally between people and nation states, and the weight of international diplomacies in the making and remaking of geopolitical orders and claims. In all of this, the ground is both supremely tangible and extremely abstract, making it a most potent agent in memory practices. We are interested in how groups claim ownership of, and control over, the ground; the many ways in which the earth comes to matter, including why and how it moves, how far, and through what forms of transfer; and the scalar zoom of perception and imagination that allows memory to take different forms. We explore these interrelations through attention to processes of what we call ‘formation’ and ‘activation’ of the earth, arguing that they often work to set up mitigations or collapses of distance – geographically and temporally – through different memorial and museum practices and rituals. In our analysis, however, such attempts to create collapses, or ‘wormholes’, through which the faraway Gallipoli can somehow be felt and grasped, are ultimately doomed to fail, as spatial and temporal distances inevitably seem to re-assert themselves as brutal and unbrookable gulfs.
Over the last hundred years, Anzac Day (25 April), the anniversary of the initial landing of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) at Gallipoli in 1915, has captured the Australian and New Zealand national imaginations. The day remembers the first significant engagement involving Australian and New Zealand soldiers in the First World War. This article is an early report of a major project that will chart Anzac Day’s origins, development and contested meanings. It is both an historical study, tracing changes in commemoration and remembrance over time, and an investigation of the ways in which Australians and New Zealanders mark Anzac Day in the present day. It will interrogate the shaping of historical sensibility by exploring the complex connections between personal and collective remembrance. One of the challenges to understanding Anzac Day is dealing with the multiplicity of meanings of such a large‐scale, diverse and now venerable (in modern Australian terms) observation. It will also examine the neglected subject of Anzac Day’s observance outside the Australia and New Zealand – in Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Pacific – where it has long played a role in expressing the identities of Antipodean expatriate communities.
While a range of accounts have engaged with the important question of why Australia participated in military intervention in Iraq, few analyses have addressed the crucial question of how this participation was possible. Employing critical constructivist insights regarding security as a site of contestation and negotiation, this article focuses on the ways in which the Howard Government was able to legitimise Australian involvement in war in Iraq without a significant loss of political legitimacy. We argue that Howard was able to 'win' the 'war of position' over Iraq through persuasively linking intervention to resonant Australian values, and through marginalising alternatives to war and the actors articulating them.
Issues of identity are central to many historical and current debates in Australia. This superb collection of essays represents a significant rethinking of received ideas on identity, and reveals how issues of identity lie at the heart of Australian political thought, and form the foundation of Australian society and culture. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the political discourse surrounding Australian identity through key themes including identity theory, the manipulation of identity for political ends, gender and sexuality, immigration and national identity, citizenship and Aboriginality, and literature and film. The book rejects many of the assumptions underlying contemporary political debates, including the promulgation of a singular national identity in historical fact or as a political goal. This is a thought-provoking study of identity, its links with nationalism, and its potentially divisive effects.
This study seeks to address both the theoretical and empirical aspects of national holidays' selection. Noting a breadth of historical events that a state may choose to celebrate, this study asks how and why only some events are selected for national remembrance and commemoration. I answer this question by considering the role of national holidays in politics of history and memory and state- and nation-building. Using an example of the Russian government replacing an established public holiday — the Revolution Day, celebrated on 7 November — with a new holiday — the National Unity Day, celebrated on 4 November — I set out to demonstrate how the choice of historical events for national celebration hinges on their potentiality to be reconstructed and deployed for the present political agendas.
Australia's commemorations of the First World War have thus far been massive at both the government and local levels, reflecting and affirming the dominance of the memory of war and the ANZAC ‘legend’ in the national political culture. The commemorations in 2014–15 triggered some debate about the commodification of the memory of war and the possibility of commemoration fatigue, but the centenary of the key commemorative event, the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April, attracted large crowds and blanket media attention. Whether Australians of culturally diverse backgrounds engaged with these centenary commemorations, and how strongly they identify with the ANZAC legend as the dominant narrative of Australian nationalism, however, remains unclear.
澳大利亚对一战的纪念迄今在政府和地方层面都大张旗鼓，反映并肯定了在国家政治文化中战争记忆以及澳洲军团传说的岿然不移。2014-15年的纪念活动引发了关于战争记忆被商品化以及纪念疲劳症的辩论，虽然一些关键事件如4-25的加里波利登陆的百年纪念日吸引了大众以及媒体的关注。不过文化背景各色各样的澳大利亚人士是否都参与了这些百年庆典，他们在多大程度上将澳洲军团的传说当做澳大利亚民族主义的主流叙事，这些都不清楚。
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (Cambridge, 1995) See also Matt McDonald Lest We Forget: The Politics of Memory and Australian Military Intervention 17 On these points, see, for example
- Jay See
- Winter
See, for example, Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (Cambridge, 1995). See also
Matt McDonald, " Lest We Forget: The Politics of Memory and Australian Military Intervention ",
International Political Sociology, Vol. 4 (2010), pp.288-90.
17 On these points, see, for example, Graham Seal, Inventing Anzac: The Digger and National
Mythology (Brisbane, 2004); Richard White, Inventing Australia (Sydney, 1981), pp.125-39.
18 Ibid.
Keeping in Step: The Anzac Resurgence and Military Heritage in Australia and New Zealand
- Mckenna
McKenna, " Keeping in Step: The Anzac Resurgence and Military Heritage in Australia and
New Zealand ", in Sumartojo and Wellings eds., Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration,
pp.166-7.
Remembering with Advantages
- Holbrook
Holbrook, " Remembering with Advantages ", p.20; White, Inventing Australia, pp.131-1.
Kitsch and Imperialism: The Anzac Book Revisited Lest we Forget
- Adrian Caesar
Adrian Caesar, " Kitsch and Imperialism: The Anzac Book Revisited ", Westerly, Vol. 40, 4
(1995), pp.76-85; Seal, Inventing Anzac, pp.10-15; McDonald, " Lest we Forget ", p.292.
22 White, Inventing Australia, p.128.
History, Vol. 56:1 (2010), pp.120-31.
The Virtual Republic: Australia's Culture Wars of the
- Mckenzie Wark
McKenzie Wark, The Virtual Republic: Australia's Culture Wars of the 1990s (Sydney, 1998);
The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image
- James Curran
James Curran, The Power of Speech: Australian Prime Ministers Defining the National Image
(Melbourne, 2000).
Lest You Forget: Memory and Australian Nationalism in a Global Era
- Ben Wellings
Ben Wellings, "Lest You Forget: Memory and Australian Nationalism in a Global Era", in
Sumartojo and Wellings ed., Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration, pp.45-59. See also
Johnson, Governing Change.
They Did Their Duty, Now Let us do ours Australian troops were part of an Allied campaign to retake the town from German forces to prevent their advance West
- Tony Abbott
46 Tony Abbott, " They Did Their Duty, Now Let us do ours ", Speech at Anzac Cove, 25 April, 2015,
reprinted in The Australian, 27 April 2015.
47 In 1918, Australian troops were part of an Allied campaign to retake the town from German forces
to prevent their advance West. Coincidentally, the major battle over the town took place from 24-26
available at <http://www.anzaccentenary.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/acab_report.pdf>. See also Shanti Sumartojo Anzac Kinship and National Identity on the Australian Remembrance Trail
- Anzac Centenary
- Advisory Board
Anzac Centenary Advisory Board, Report to Government, 1 March 2013, pp.36-39, available
at <http://www.anzaccentenary.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/acab_report.pdf>. See also
Shanti Sumartojo, " Anzac Kinship and National Identity on the Australian Remembrance Trail ", in
Sumartojo and Wellings eds, Nation, Memory and Great War Commemoration, pp.291-306.
Commemoration in Australia 56 Bongiorno Anzac and the Politics of Inclusion Anzac: The Sacred in the Secular ". 58 Sumartojo
- See Holbrook Beaumont
See Holbrook, " Consuming Anzac " ; Beaumont, " Commemoration in Australia ", p.39.
56 Bongiorno, " Anzac and the Politics of Inclusion ", pp.91-6.
57 Seal, " Anzac: The Sacred in the Secular ".
58 Sumartojo, " Anzac Kinship and National Identity on the Australian Remembrance Trail ".
59 McKenna, " Keeping in Step ", p.167.
We must fight free of Anzac, lest we forget our other stories
- Marilyn See
- Lake
See, for example, Marilyn Lake, "We must fight free of Anzac, lest we forget our other stories",
The Sydney Morning Herald, April 24 2009.
Gallipoli: Aboriginal Men who were there
- Robert Hall
Robert Hall, The Black Diggers (Sydney, 1989). See also Philippa Scarlett, "Gallipoli: Aboriginal
Men who were there", Indigenous Histories, 29 March 2014
Anzac and the Politics of Inclusion
- Bongiorno
Bongiorno, "Anzac and the Politics of Inclusion", pp.91-6.
Making the Australian Male
- Martin Crotty
Martin Crotty, Making the
Australian Male (Melbourne, 2001);
On this point, see Anna Clark
On this point, see Anna Clark, "Politicians Using History", Australian Journal of Politics and
History, Vol. 56:1 (2010), pp.120-31.
A Place to Remember: A History of the Shrine of Remembrance
- Bruce Scates
Bruce Scates, A Place to Remember: A History of the Shrine of Remembrance
(Melbourne, 2009). See also Crotty and Spittel, "The One Day of the Year and All That", p.131.
They Did Their Duty, Now Let us do ours
- Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott, "They Did Their Duty, Now Let us do ours", Speech at Anzac Cove, 25 April, 2015,
reprinted in The Australian, 27 April 2015.
Funding the Centenary of Anzac
- Marty Harris
Marty Harris, "Funding the Centenary of Anzac", Parliament of Australia, 2012, available at
<http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pub
s/rp/BudgetReview201213/Anzac>.
Excess in the Anzac Centenary overlooks other military endeavours
- James Brown
James
Brown, "Excess in the Anzac Centenary overlooks other military endeavours", The Sydney Morning
Herald, 26 February 2014.