Crowds ahead of the dawn service at Canberra’s National War Memorial in 2018. Attendance at the service fell from 120,000 in 2015 to 35,000 in 2019.
Rohan Thomson/AAP
When the honour of Australia’s revered soldiers is questioned, so, too, is the national self-image. But war is an ugly business, and we pay a price for tethering it so tightly to our identity.
As Spanish flu ravaged the world in 1919, Australians found novel ways to commemorate Anzac Day, and they will do so again this year.
Japanese internees starting to leave the train which brought them from Hay on their way to the Loveday Internment Camp Group in the Barmera area (1943, Renmark, South Australia).
Australian War Memorial/Photo: Hedley Keith Cullen
Reflecting on the wartime treatment of two Japanese Australians (or Nikkei) raises the spectre of our racist past - and can prompt us to consider the vulnerabilities of Asian Australians today.
War movies are an enduring genre, making hundreds of millions at the box office. With Anzac Day approaching, we ask: does Hollywood go too far in obscuring the true horrors of battle?
Anzac biscuits are the perfect treat to bake in COVID-19 isolation. Recipes emerged from another world-changing crisis, the first world war, yet we can still bake together online.
Nettie Palmer’s ’s 1916 poem, Birds, was a love song from a wife to a soldier-husband.
photographer unknown. State Library of Victoria
An anthology of Victorian women poets is a window into their thoughts and feelings during the first world war.
Descendants of soldiers who fought in the Australian Light Horse Brigade took part in a reenactment to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle of Beersheba in Israel in October 2017.
Dan Peled/AAP
In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, Anzac stories are often coloured by racism and ongoing injustices that negate the myth of Anzac ‘mateship’.
Christmas hard tack biscuit: Boer War. Australian War Memorial. Accession Number: REL/10747.
Courtesy of the Australian War Memorial
Army ration biscuits known as ‘Anzac tiles’ were durable but bland - as Australian war archives show, they served as stationery, Christmas cards and as the basis of art.
The war spurred surgeons to develop new techniques, such as traction splints and blood transfusions.
from shutterstock.com
The first world war spurred a host of developments in the fields of science, medicine and architecture. Alongside these came new qualifications and professions, such as physiotherapy.
This large ‘Do Not Forget Australia’ sign in a yard at the Victoria school in Villers-Bretonneux, is the heir of smaller signs once placed in classrooms by Australian authorities.
Author provided
Since the end of the first world war, the Australian media has often reported that ‘the French’ care about, remember and even venerate the Anzacs. But is this true? And which French people?
Deep Saini talks about the week in politics with Michelle Grattan.
Virgin Australia is a dogged publicity hunter. The nation’s second-best known Minogue, Dannii, helped launch its first flight from Sydney to Hong Kong in June 2018.
AAP Image/Supplied by Virgin Australia
Among all things Anzac, the contribution of women is becoming more complicated and controversial.
Turkish soldiers in a trench at Gallipoli. The way Turkish youth commemorate the battle tells us much about the country’s politics.
Ausstralian Dept of Veterans Affairs
Brad West, University of South Australia e Ayhan Aktar, Istanbul Bilgi University
At Gallipoli this Anzac Day, thousands of Turkish youth will re-enact a march that stopped the Anzac advance in 1915. The march has taken on new significance in Turkey since an attempted coup in 2016.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied has ‘apologised profusely to [Julie Bishop] and the Australian government’ for a controversial Facebook post.
http://www.yassminam.com
Julie Bishop has refused to sack Yassmin Abdel-Magied from the board of the Council for Australian-Arab Relations, resisting pressure from some in government ranks.
It is important to remember Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s comment was not made when she was actually presenting on the ABC.
http://www.yassminam.com/
There are two issues in the latest episode of the culture wars, sparked by the Anzac Day Facebook comment by controversial young Muslim activist and part-time ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied. One is…
A rainbow wreath laid by defence forces at a contemporary Anzac Day service.
Daniel Spellman/Defence Gay and Lesbian Information Service
Until 1992, being a gay or lesbian soldier was illegal in Australia. New research is unearthing the heartbreaking stories of people who devoted their lives to the military but were discharged when their sexuality was exposed.
Part of a black cotton cushion cover depicting the Australian coat of arms embroidered by Lance Corporal Alfred Briggs (Albert Biggs), 20 Battalion, AIF.
Courtesy of Australian War Memorial
Embroidery - often seen as women’s work - was a common form of therapy for troops wounded in the first world war. One soldier, Albert Biggs, learned to sew with his left hand after his right arm was badly injured.
Australians are deeply attached to the cluster of beliefs and traditions we call the ‘Anzac legend’.
Shutterstock
In 1960, historian Ken Inglis wondered if Anzac functioned as a secular religion in Australian society. In 2017, we can confidently answer: yes, it does.