Rebooting Anzac for the next century

David Stephens

Traditions that are not continually refreshed become quaint and irrelevant and eventually die. The Anzac tradition has waxed and waned over a century; there is no guarantee that its current high profile will persist. Yet a rebooted Anzac could be a key part of Australia's future. There are five ways this might happen.

1. End Anzac hyperbole. Many Australians overstate the importance of war in the forming of our "national character." The "soul" of our nation does not reside at the Australian War Memorial, any more than it resides at Bondi Beach or the MCG. It is everywhere Australians are. There are many more Australian stories than the one written in the sand at Anzac Cove. Nor did Australians acquire through Anzac a large Aussie dose of what are actually universal human qualities. Mateship, for example, is essentially the same concept as the American "have your back," the French fraternite, and the socialist "brotherhood of man."

The Anzac commemoration industry also overstates the Australian contribution to our wars. We provided, for example, only 5 per cent of the troops engaged in the Gallipoli campaign (both sides) and the same proportion of casualties. Themes about young Australian men being superb fighters sacrificed far from home in "other people's wars" by "donkey generals" are comforting but ultimately maudlin and misleading. Sentiment gets in the way of understanding why wars happen and how they can be prevented.

2. Keep Anzac in its proper place. Australian military men and women may adopt Anzac as a corporate talisman ("the Anzac tradition of arms"). Politicians, however, should be encouraged to leave it alone. The historian Peter Cochrane has said that while we need a better balance between our military and democratic past in our national memory, "we'll never get that from the drum-beaters who know the political mileage to be extracted from the slouch hat." Ridicule and contempt are appropriate weapons against politicians of both sides who wrap themselves in the flag and emote over military involvements that they or their predecessors have supported for geopolitical reasons. Meanwhile, commercial shysters seeking to make a buck from peddling Anzac merchandise should be happily let go out of business. Boycotts should flourish.

Then, it has been suggested that emergency service workers, police, and volunteers in various fields possess "the Anzac spirit." It is difficult to see what this ingredient could add to the community spirit, dedication, professionalism and training these folk already possess. Sports people, too, should be able to get by on fitness, skill and teamwork without egregious comparisons with soldiers, "warrior" rhetoric and pep-talks from Victoria Cross winners. Sport is not war without guns.

3. Make Anzac voluntary. Too many public officials talk as if excessive Anzac commemoration is compulsory or ought to be. Sir Angus Houston, when chairman of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board, wanted to ensure that the centenary was marked in a way that captured the spirit and reverence "it so deserves". Senator Michael Ronaldson, Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, speaks often about the "obligations" of children to carry forward the torch of remembrance. Australian War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson said all of us had a "responsibility" to visit the refurbished World War I galleries at the Memorial. Critics of "Anzackery" (overblown, jingoistic, celebratory commemoration) are often accused of disloyalty.

Some Australians may wish to treat Anzac as a "secular religion" (historian Ken Inglis' term from 50 years ago) but Anzac is not the established church. While it is right and proper that we regret the deaths in war and conflict of over 230 million people world-wide since 1900, it is not our sacred duty to worship at the Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier. In a mature secular society, atheists and agnostics and people of faith – whatever faith – can tolerate each other.

Privileging Anzac commemoration contributes to a mood where many of us think, in Hugh White's words, that "the experience of combat brings out personal qualities [which are] essential to Australia's national character." Ensuring that Anzac remains voluntary separates the "Anzackers" from the rest of us, those who keep Anzac commemoration in proportion and who are willing to criticise its excesses.

4. Make Anzac useful. The Department of Veterans Affairs administers the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program, $18.75 million distributed to federal electorates. The program's criteria ensure that this money goes only to building new memorials to World War I dead, refurbishing existing monuments and memorials or holding commemorative pageants and parades. Separately, there is $10 million for a remembrance trail on the Western Front and $5 million for a memorial in Wellington, New Zealand.

Corporate donations of perhaps $100 million and rising are flowing heavily towards monuments also.

Why not spend this money on local Anzac-badged programs that benefit people, perhaps in drug rehabilitation, domestic violence and the support of refugees from today's wars? Some Anzac centenary money is going towards research into post-traumatic stress disorder. There should be more such initiatives and a halt called to bricks and mortar projects which do as much to commemorate those who unveil them as those whom they allegedly remember.

5. Make Anzac forward-looking. Too much looking backward to larger than life figures and heroic deeds stunts our growth as a nation and diverts us from new opportunities. We sell ourselves short if we pillage images from the past to try to fill what author Michael McGirr called "a void in the narcissistic present."

There are alternatives to tired Anzac traditions. The Remembering and Healing group in Lismore, NSW, with the support of Mayor Jenny Dowell and the culturally diverse local community, is developing a tradition where Anzac Day symbolises a peaceful, multicultural new Australia. Similarly, Professor Joan Beaumont, joint winner of the Prime Minister's prize for history, has suggested that Anzac Day might be reinvented "as a time where we remember loss in war [all war, not just "ours"] because so many Australians have come from countries that are torn apart by war." A century of parochial ancestor worship is surely enough; let's broaden our horizons.

David Stephens is secretary of Honest History, (honesthistory.net.au) a coalition of historians and others supporting the balanced and honest presentation and use of Australian history. The views in this article are not necessarily those of all supporters of Honest History.

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