When What’s Wrong With Anzac? The Militarisation of Australian Historyby the Australian historians Marilyn Lake, Henry Reynolds, Joy Damousi and Mark McKenna appeared in 2010 it was greeted with uproar. Public opinion in Australia remains vociferously divided, despite the official rhetoric that insists that Gallipoli was where the Australian nation was born. The immediate result of Australia’s involvement in the First World War was friction, between classes, between right and left, between religions, between Anglo and Celt. The stand-off persists. It is only now that the survivors are no longer around that the myth of Gallipoli as the fount of national identity has become holy writ for the yea-sayers. The naysayers are simply that.
Ballots held by the governments of Australia and New Zealand have selected those lucky descendants of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) who may attend the centenary ceremonies on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The Turkish government has decreed that only the Dawn Service at the Anzac Commemorative Site, the Australian Service at Lone Pine and the New Zealand Memorial Service at Chunuk Bair will be allowed. No informal memorials at other sites, no surf boat races and no sporting events. No alcohol. Cruise ships may not anchor off Anzac Cove; the ceremonies will be relayed to the passengers by video. There are many times more Turkish, British, French and Indian bodies buried on Gallipoli than there are Australians and New Zealanders, but it will be the Antipodeans who make a big deal of it.
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