Advertisement
Sponsored

Anzac Day: a change of focus for the future

Apr 17, 2015
Second World War veterans march on Anzac Day

Second World War veterans march on Anzac Day

Even though the numbers of former combatants of the major 20th century conflicts are dwindling, Flinders historian Peter Monteath believes interest in Anzac Day won’t wane in the future, but that its focus will change.

Delivering a public lecture this week at Flinders University Victoria Square, Associate Professor Monteath said that with the passing of the centenary of Gallipoli, the First World War battles of the Western Front are coming into focus, and that the legacy of the Second World War, both in the Pacific and in Europe, will not be far behind.

Associate Professor Monteath believes that different virtues and attributes are likely to be celebrated beyond 2018. He said that partly due to the nature of the war in the Pacific, where so many Australians were made prisoners of war, the model of the warrior is giving way to “an appreciation of a kind of a kind of community of suffering whose survival depended on acts of stubborn endurance and dogged altruism”.

As those with direct experience of the war disappear and “a tipping point in historical memory is reached”, Associate Professor Monteath said the need for education becomes all the greater.

“We will reach a point when we are no longer able to rely on the authentic voices of those who witnessed war,” he said.

“In those circumstances it’s all the more important for educators to insist on the accuracy and reliability of the historical record and to avert the dangers of memory without content, and ritual without meaning.”

Unlike most public holidays, which have religious associations, Associate Professor Monteath said Anzac Day has remained free of commercialisation and has preserved “a resolutely reverential tone”.

“Anzac Day offers a chance to reflect on behaviour that is devoted to the service of others,” he said.

Associate Professor Monteath said he hoped the spirit of respect and reconciliation that has been built between former foes Australia and Turkey, reflected recently in popular culture in the film The Water Diviner, will broaden.

Trench warfare was horrific for both sides, and the suffering brought about by the hatred and hostility engendered by war extended across both time and space.

“For Germans in Europe and Australia, the First World War was a time of suffering; for many it never ended,” Associate Professor Monteath said.

“Perhaps a hundred years after the event, it’s time to acknowledge our common humanity and a shared abhorrence of war.

”A century ago South Australians played a distinctive and innovative role in the commemoration of war. Perhaps in this most German of the Australian states, it’s time for a gesture of reconciliation.”

 

Photo by Shutterstock

Local News Matters
Advertisement
Copyright © 2024 InDaily.
All rights reserved.