ANZAC, forging a national identity

Marrielle is a Brit currently living in Australia who has become embroiled in that nation's search for a national identity in the face of massive immigration changes and issues that pose a risk to national stability and security. That Australia would choose a WWI defeat involving Australian and New Zealand volunteers at Gallipoli in Turkey upon which to forge a national identity - the ANZAC spirit - amazes her and most everybody else.

"Everyone I speak to here (not so much in NZ) talks about ANZAC Day's remarkable transformation over the past 25 years from a veteran's event to a jingoistic national identity event and they cannot understand it," says Marrielle. "I tell them it’s very likely to be a deliberate ploy by the republican movement to galvanize immigrants into believing Australians are special and separate and distinct from everybody else on earth (but particularly the British)."

"ANZAC Day should have ceased to exist when the last of the original ANZACs died - just like Trafalgar Day or Spanish Armada Day commemorations ceased over time," says Marrielle. "So, to understand why the public holiday wasn’t scrapped (as was the old Empire Day) and suddenly became more important than any other public holiday in Australia's national calendar – promoting bigger and bigger crowds at dawn services around Australia (and particularly at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli) each year – you need to examine the conditions that led to the formation of ANZAC Day in the first place (Australia's post-WW1 thirst for regional power and global recognition) and the conditions that are necessary for a republic to be formed (breaking all ties with Mother England and becoming a global power)."

"In order to forge the separate and distinct national identity the republicans deem necessary for the success of their cause there has been a deliberate shift in immigration policy over the past 25 years from being predominantly British to being predominantly Asian," says Marrielle. "There has also been an equally dramatic shift in Australia's economic and political ties (away from Europe, towards Asia and America), and with these shifts has been a deliberate mythologizing of the ANZAC spirit and the demonizing of everything British."

"The ANZAC spirit – courage, endurance and humor in the face of crushing adversity is a human trait, not something peculiarly Australian," says Marrielle. "Gallipoli was a human disaster, not just an Australian disaster, and incompetence in wartime is not something peculiarly British - Australians had their incompetents too."

"So, it's disingenuous for the Australian government to indoctrinate school kids with the ANZAC spirit as a national identity and to fund war commemoration in all forms - services, monuments, films, TV shows, books, songs, etc – particularly as funds supporting the welfare of vets is woefully inadequate," says Marrielle. "Also, it's disingenuous to give the impression that Australians went to war to fight for freedoms (when freedoms had already been won long ago by peaceful means) and to promote the myth that the ANZACs were bronzed 'Australians' when in actual fact many were British born and were voluntarily fighting at Gallipoli for Empire (not Australia) and for higher wages and adventure (not heroism)."

"Empire Day has long gone and Remembrance Day, Nov 11th, already exists to honor the sacrifices of Australians and others in wars," adds Marrielle, "but is not a public holiday and it has been deliberately eclipsed by ANZAC Day in order to separate Australia's military sacrifices from that of others.”

“Australia Day represents nationhood, not independence, and ANZAC day, it appears, has now taken on the mantle of the war of independence Australia never had from Britain," says Marrielle. "Seen in this light ANZAC day must necessarily be preserved and revered by the republicans' as the most important day in Australia's calendar because when they finally achieve their dream, the Queen's Birthday holiday will go, and because of its commemoration of Captain Cook's arrival in Australia (and the subsequent decimation of the indigenous population) Australia Day has to go, too, along with the Union Jack in the corner of the Australian flag."

"As a Brit I am saddened that Australia needs to deny its heritage and demonize everything British in order to forge its national identity," says Marrielle, "and after speaking to a lot of immigrants here, from all corners of the world, the ploy may in fact backfire on the republicans."

"What the republicans fail to understand is that many immigrants chose Australia as their new home because of its British heritage, traditions and ties and cannot relate to the ANZAC spirit because it is related to war, not peace, and happened so long ago that it is totally irrelevant in today's world."

“I think republicanism should come from the people, not be imposed on them by ambitious politicians wanting to play on the world stage, and the same goes for national identity," says Marrielle. "And while it may take a very long time for a multicultural immigrant country like Australia to forge its own national identity, I don’t particularly think it is necessary in order for a republic to be successful.”