Photography by Jeff Dawson
Hundreds filed through the dark streets of Brunswick Heads this morning to commemorate the lives of ancestors who heeded the call to war, many of whom lost their lives in the process.
Following the dawn service, a group of school children erected small white crosses to remember the fallen.
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If it was an anti war ceremony I would have come. My dad and my grandfather fought respectively in the first and second world wars. My grandad was wounded at Gallipoli. Neither of them would have anything to do with medals or Anzac Day marchers.
I was a conscientious objector for the Vietnam war. One of the top RSL leaders in New South Wales, is one of several RSL leaders being investigated for stealing RSL members money, I heard on today’s news, actually had the cheek to turn up at today’s Anzac Day parade in Sydney.
And when are the ANZAC paraders going to acknowledge the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of aboriginals, some of our forebears slaughtered to get their hands on this country.
I suggest you read Bruce Pascoe’s revealing portrait of some of our forebears in his new book Dark Emu.
And what do innocent kids think when directed to lay white crosses at a ceremony?
I’ll start marching when we have an honest celebration of ALL lives lost.
I have seen on TV and listened on radio to the comments around “Lest We Forget” – how Yassmin abdel-Mageid should have shown more respect.
The sad fact is that in wars, the military forces get off quite lightly compared to civilian casualties. In most wars the safest place to be is in the military. War does not begin on date:A and finish on date:B. It is a continuum. The “ecology” of war stays with us for a long time. (e.g. mines in Cambodia, agent orange, PTSD).
I know it is just one day when Australians of all ages pay their respects – but the civilians caught up in the various conflicts did not have the choice of the day they died, or were maimed.
If there is a “Lest We Forget” it has to be inclusive and a much broader scope to include the murderous fools and blaggards that led us to war in the first place.
Remember the ten innocent civilians, women and children, that died for every soldier – who himself was a civilian before, and would be after.