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ANZAC Day

I recently attended the ‘Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War’ exhibition at Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand. It was a very detailed, graphic and sensory exhibition. There were even giant sculptures of people crafted which had voice overs of stories being echoed. My sister and I noticed the detail in these sculptures, right down to the individual body hair embedded into them. The detail in this exhibition was prominent and something which we noticed throughout our journey. It was clear that a key goal of the exhibition was to transport people into the period of World War I and into experiences of soldiers. The specificity of the exhibition was what made it so important and had a real impact in informing, on what ANZAC’s really experienced and sacrificed. It’s important to maintain that level of awareness of history and understand atrocities in a way which does not induce lethargy. The connection of empathy over time, which I feel ANZAC DAY achieves, is incredible as often people experience emotional fatigue when remembering sad experiences and events. I think that within the world there is always so much going on with protracted conflicts and emerging crisis’ that a number of us mentally switch off to what’s going on. I don’t know the answer to maintaining healthy attention to world issues apart from finding a balance between sadness, grief and loss with joy, achievement and honour. I feel that many ANZAC Day ceremonies achieve this balance by commemorating people and showing support for peace; as well as expressing love and respect for all people who have served in war and conflict, who have now passed away. ANZAC Day is a public holiday for Australian’s and New Zealander’s, and a day which is celebrated and honoured by many. It is a good reminder to remember and honour people who have endured and sacrificed so much. The concept of not forgetting and trying to recreate experiences to share understanding is important. Ideally this should be a significant contributing factor in trying to avoid repeating history. There are some people who try to use ANZAC Day as a platform to advocate for remembering people who served in war in conjunction with lessons learned from war and conflict. The concept of ‘lessons learned’ is essential in every situation but especially in contexts like this. Too often through emotional fatigue do we then water down lessons learned from something or over time we forget or diminish the importance of what we have learned. In some instances we may forget completely and then repeat history or cycles of violence. I’ve always believed in remembering and giving time to reflect and honour experiences even the negative ones, as there is always so much to be learned from them. ANZAC Day has a strong association with not forgetting what people experienced in Gallipoli during World War I and more broadly across wars and conflicts. If anything can be taken from the day it should be to never forget and always remember what has been learned from history.

A Crane for Ukraine

Leave a Comment / Articles / Nitasha Akerman

I’m trying to think of a time when there wasn’t a dire humanitarian crisis around the world. I keep trying to reminisce on more peaceful times, even if they’re fiction. Perhaps that’s why many of us remember the past with such nostalgia and romanticise periods in history. Now we are experiencing the invasion and destruction of Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis which follows. At times I hear people echo the rhetoric that they care or want to help people but they don’t know what to do. I believe that even if people are unsure of how to help that support can still be shown in so many ways. When Ash Wednesday occurred, my workplace organised a large prayer to show our support with Ukraine. The feelings were shared of people who were grieving and wondering what action could be taken from abroad. What everything kept being brought back to was prayer. Even if people aren’t necessarily religious, prayer is something which has such a powerful effect on people and which drives many through such difficult times. I noticed that it is something which a number of people revert back to during tough and unpredictable periods. In instances of prayer often people will ask for guidance when being confronted with the unknowing. I do not necessarily have prayer to engage with in the same way as some other people. However, I have found that it is not always a religious symbol, place or practice which is required to find solace and guidance in. For Christmas one year my sister gave me a little box which has a glass ball in it and inside there is a paper crane. I remembered the story vaguely and was reminded of the beautiful story of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was impacted by the atomic bombing in Japan during World War 2. When she fell ill she decided to make one thousand paper cranes, in hope that she would be granted one wish. Her wish was world peace, hope and recovery from her illness. The story of one thousand paper cranes today represent world peace and creating a more peaceful planet. I may not have the same religious faith to revert back to when bad things happen but I often refer back to this little crane on my desk. It really gives me hope of the power of symbols, people and how movements around the world can be generated through what are considered such small gestures at the time. When my father passed away I wasn’t sure what to say when giving a speech at his funeral. It was a very complicated time but in this instance I referred back to my crane; my symbol for hope. I found some peace and solace in this and decided to share the story of Sadako at his funeral. I ended with a quote from Sadako, in reference to her paper cranes she made; “I will write peace on your wings and you shall fly all over the world”. I continue to hear the outrage, fear and hopelessness of many people; not just within the charity sector but more broadly. People generally appear to be quite supportive of helping the people of Ukraine and finding ways to support them. I hope that this reaction towards Ukraine is a domino effect, like the paper cranes, with other humanitarian crisis and that people can support other people when there is need.

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