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ANZAC Memorial

4/25/2019

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The Kemal Ataturk Memorial in Canberra. Photo by Diane Williams.
On this ANZAC Day, I think I’ll go to ANZAC Parade, Canberra’s major ceremonial avenue, which opened in 1965 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ANZAC landing in Gallipoli. ANZAC refers to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers who landed at Gallipoli in the First World War.

Although more than a dozen memorials stand on ANZAC Parade, there’s a special one I’d like to revisit: the Kemal Ataturk Memorial. This memorial honors Kemal Ataturk, who commanded the Turkish forces at Gallipoli and later became the first president of Turkey. It also honors both the ANZAC and Turkish soldiers in the long, hard Gallipoli campaign. Soil from ANZAC Cove in Turkey lays underneath the dedication plaque.
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Dedication plaque. Photo by Diane Williams.
It may seem odd to honor one’s enemy in a capital city, but Turkey and Australia agreed to recognize the bravery and heroism of soldiers on both sides to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.

The aim of the Gallipoli campaign was to gain control of the straits of the Dardanelles, which would allow Great Britain and France to directly attack Constantinople, thus forcing the Turks out of the war. The ANZACS landed at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, a mile away from the intended landing. The soldiers met sharp cliffs and deep ravines, which came as a surprise since they had the wrong maps for the location. The ANZACs faced Turks fighting for their homeland led by the capable and determined commander Kemal. Conditions were harsh: poor food, water shortages, and flies led to disease. The temperature extremes over the eight-month campaign caused sunstroke and frostbite.

Although the Turks eventually forced a withdrawal, the cost was enormous: they had lost more than 80,000 troops, while Australia had lost more than 8,000. For both, the punishing campaign helped to forge national identities.

The combatants came to respect their adversaries. There are tales of soldiers going over to enemy trenches to exchange supplies during lulls in fighting. When the ANZACs withdrew, they left notes for the Turks, thanking them for a fair fight and assuring them that the food left behind wasn’t poisoned.

Later, long after the war ended, this tribute to the ANZAC soldiers buried at Gallipoli was often (and perhaps erroneously) attributed to Kemal Ataturk:
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
The Kemal Ataturk Memorial recalls the heroism and sacrifices made by soldiers on both sides. Rather than demeaning adversaries or seeing them somehow as less than human, it asks us to instead acknowledge our shared humanity—a worthwhile thing to do on ANZAC day.
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The Rabbit-Proof Fence: A Different Kind of Easter Story

4/18/2019

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In Australia, you won’t find much cooing over rabbits as cute Easter bunnies. Here, they are an invasive pest. Introduced in 1788 for their meat and bred in enclosures, they were then released into the wild by at least one English settler in the mid-1800s for hunting. They multiplied, well, like rabbits. The warmer weather in Australia allowed them to breed year-round, and they could eat almost any part of any plant: leaves, bark, and twigs. With few native predators, rabbits flourished.

By the late 1800s, rabbits had ruined much of the farmable land in the southeast by eating and burrowing . Their spread west was uncontrollable; trapping, shooting, poisoning, and warren destruction all failed to permanently reduce the population. Not that the farmers cared, but rabbits were also pushing out native species like the bilby.

The solution was to build a so-called rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia. From 1901 to 1907, three intersecting fence lines were surveyed and built to keep rabbits out of the western part of the continent. The fences stretched from the northern coastline to the southern one for an astounding 2,023 miles.
Map showing location of fences
Section of the original fence
Section of the original fence
Unfortunately, the massive undertaking was a failure from the start. Even during construction, rabbits hopped around the fence, moving ever farther west. While the rabbit-proof fence may have been ineffective at stopping rabbits, it did serve as a landmark for three girls trying to find their way home.

The Aborigines Act of 1905 allowed the Australian government to forcibly remove indigenous children from their families and resettle them to assimilate into white culture. These children became known as the stolen generations. In 1931, Dolly and her younger cousins Gracie and Daisy lived in Jigalong, a settlement that had been established to maintain the rabbit-proof fence. The three girls had white fathers, and the government’s removal policy focused on "helping" those that were part-white by moving them away to  assimilate quicker. The three girls were torn from their families and moved to Moore River Native Settlement, around 1000 miles away from Jigalong. Dolly soon decided to escape, trusting in her bushcraft and ability to follow the fence to lead her and her cousins back home.

Author Doris Pilkington Garimara recounts the story of her mother Dolly’s epic trek in the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence. The book was later made into an award-winning 2002 movie by Phillip Noyce.

Book cover
Movie poster
Today, sections of the original fence still exist. They're maintained by landholders and regional councils to keep dingos, emus, kangaroos and goats from entering farming country. Western Australia has included and extended some of the original rabbit-proof fence into the State Barrier Fence.

The Rabbit-Proof Fence Walk in 2017 commemorated the girls' journey. It was a chance for women to connect with each other and understand their roles in reconciliation.

The rabbit-proof fence may have been a utter failure at stopping rabbits, but at least it helped guide some stolen children home.

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An Australian Living Treasure: Leunig

4/11/2019

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Cartoonist Michael Leunig
"Gardens of the Human Condition," 1988
From Leunig Animated, 2001
In the recent Inked exhibition at the National Library of Australia, I discovered the weird and wonderful work of Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig. Typically referred to as just “Leunig,” he was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999.

Born in 1945, Leunig attended Melbourne’s Monash University and worked on the student paper. From there he moved to the new Nation Review, a satirical magazine that began publishing in 1972. When that magazine closed, he went to the Melbourne Age. For more than 40 years, his cartoons observed politics, culture, and the emotional life of Australia. His work appears in the Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Leunig collaborated with animators Andrew Horne and Deborah Szapiro to produce a series of short films based on his cartoons.
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Diorama produced for "Democracy and How It Really Works.”
Leunig describes his approach to his work as “regressive, humorous, messy, mystical, primal, and vaudevillian.” The result—full of curly people and birds—is odd, whimsical, and always thought-provoking.
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Learning About Australia Through Its Cartoons

4/5/2019

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Commissioned work by David Pope, 2018
In societies where making sharp observations about one's leaders or protesting policies in writing landed you in trouble, in prison, or worse, cartoonists soon learned to express all that with images. The National Library of Australia's collection contains more than 14,000 editorial cartoons, and the best of them are on exhibit now. Running from 7 March to 21 July, the exhibition is called Inked: Australian Cartoons.  

As an American in Australia, it was a chance to learn more about a culture by understanding its cartoons. The exhibition includes cartoons that capture the beginnings of Australia at Botany Bay all the way up to those that comment on current events. Wandering through the galleries, I felt like an anthropologist happening upon dozens of tiny time capsules.

Early cartoons explored Great Britain's relationship with this exotic new land. In the cartoon on the left, British cartoonist John Boyne suggests in 1786 that the planned penal colony would be a fitting home for the Prince of Wales. Notice that the prince wears a jester’s cap and sits on a barrel of tokay, a sweet fortified wine. His mistress and two moneylenders bid him farewell. In one image, Boyne suggests the prince’s crimes: drunkenness and promiscuity with both women and money. In a later cartoon from 1868, William Wyatt memorializes the arrival of an important visitor to Australia. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, was the first member of the royal family to visit. A bevy of exotic animals greet him, including a kangaroo, wombat, wallaby, and an emu. The British Lion stands behind the prince.
Non-commission Officers Embarking for Botany Bay, John Boyne, 1786
The Duke of Edinburgh’s Welcome by the Natives, William Wyatt, 1868
After Federation on 1 January 1901, with a new constitution and federal government, the young nation struggled to establish its identity on the world stage. During the World Wars, the new country identified with the image that was developing of the Australian soldier: brave, practical, down to earth, and suspicious of authority. 
The Light Horsemen, Stan Cross, 1915
‘Arf a Mo, Hitler! Mick Armstrong, 1939
In more modern times, Australian cartoonists have covered many political and social issues. Below, the cartoon on the left shows a Sydney police officer reporting on young peace protesters. The center cartoon by Alan Moir shows Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam, leaders of the Liberal and Labor Parties, in their 1975 standoff following the Liberals' decision to block supply (the funding of the government), resulting in Australia's one and only government shutdown. The cartoon on the right by Geoff Pryor comments on how race became an issue in elections in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He shows the spectre of White Australia policy breaking out of its grave to haunt the country again.
They’re Carrying Only Flowers and Olive Branches … Rather Heavy Ones, I’d Think, George Molmar, 1967
Political Oblivion, Alan Moir, 1975
White Australia Policy, Geoff Pryor, 2001
Perfect Sunset, Judy Horacek, 2003
Global Warming – Two Positions, Matthew Martin, 2010
Surprise Discovery at the Politics Resource Management Facility, David Pope, 2017
In the second row above, cartoons comment on our obsession with technology, approaches to global warming, and the referendum on same sex marriage. Cartoonist David Pope found signs of life and optimism when Australia voted "yes" for same sex marriage late in 2017.

The exhibition was eye-opening. I could definitely do worse than studying cartoons to try to understand a country and its culture.
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    Rose Ciccarelli is an American writer and editor living in Canberra, Australia.

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