Writing and Editing Services
  Rosebud Communications
  • Home
  • About
  • Projects
    • Clients
  • Rose's Red Pen Blog
  • A Rose in Oz Blog
  • Photos Down Under
  • Contact

Remembering Animals in War on ANZAC Day

4/22/2020

4 Comments

 
Picture
Even though dawn services will not be held this year, and the Australian War Memorial is closed, there are other ways to celebrate ANZAC Day. One idea is to go on a sculpture hunt on the Memorial’s grounds to remember that animals have also served in wars.
​
The Australian War Memorial Sculpture Garden, found on the west side of the Memorial, opened in 1999. Included among its many commemorative works and memorials are those that honor different animals.
Picture
​The newest arrival is the Military Working Dogs Memorial, which commemorates all military working dogs and their handlers. The sculpture, called Circling into Sleep, by Steven Holland, is a series of 37 bronze paw prints arranged to represent a dog circling before lying down to sleep. 
The remains of Aussie, a Labrador in the Explosive Detection Dog Team, were interred here. Aussie was deployed four times to Afghanistan and then retired. He died in 2017 at 16 years old.
Picture


​Nearby is the Animals in War Memorial, also sculpted by Steven Holland. The bronze horse head represents all the animals that have performed essential duties alongside Australians in all conflicts, including horses, dogs, donkeys, camels, and pigeons. Holland placed the horse’s head on a granite plinth at a natural height to encourage visitors to take a closer look.

Picture


​​In the same area is a plaque that commemorates the many thousands of Australian pigeons and their handlers in the Australian Corps of Signals. They helped to maintain communications during the Second World War.

Nearest the main entrance to the Memorial is Peter Corlett’s sculpture Simpson and his Donkey, 1915. John Simpson Kirkpatrick may be Australia’s most famous soldier. A stretcher bearer at Gallipoli, he and his donkey carried water up Shrapnel Gully and brought the wounded back down to the beach on Anzac Cove. A book  by Jackie French tells the full story about the donkey who carried the wounded.
​Outside the Sculpture Garden, at the entrance to Poppy’s Café, is my favorite sculpture. Elevation of the Senses, by Ewan Coates, honors the contributions made by Explosive Detection Dogs and their handlers. The tunnel at the sculpture’s base symbolizes the dogs’ rigorous training, and the rocky outcrops represent deployments to foreign lands. The dog is elevated, making eye contact with the handler, emphasizing the bond the two share.  
Picture


​​Looking to the right, I spotted a low-key reminder that dogs are welcome here too. 

Other ideas for remembering ANZAC Day include walking along ANZAC Parade or exploring the Memorial without going anywhere through their innovative Museum at Home program. 
4 Comments

Celebrating the Winter Solstice

6/19/2019

2 Comments

 
Picture
The longest night of the year is coming soon for the southern hemisphere. On 21 June, the South Pole has its maximum tilt away from the sun, resulting in a winter solstice. How do Canberrans celebrate? Some may go to parties. Others, however, brave the cold for charity.

The annual Winter Solstice Nude Charity Swim raises money for the charities Love Your Sister and Lifeline. Participants plunge naked into the icy Lake Burley Griffin at daybreak. Last year, a bagpiper played before the intrepid swimmers launched. Although the event started with only four people three years ago, it is growing. Last year, sixty people participated, and this year, an estimated 31 teams and 122 people are signed up so far, with two days to go. The chilly dunk is scheduled for sunrise at 7:12 am, and the morning forecast is for partly sunny skies with the temperature a little below freezing.

The other charity event is the tenth annual CEO Sleepout sponsored by the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Australia. On 20 June, one of the longest nights of the year, leaders across Australia in business, government, and communities will sleep without shelter to raise money to battle homelessness and poverty. In Canberra this year, the CEO Sleepout will be held at the airport, in Hangar 47 on the Fairbairn RAAF base. Airport representatives say that temperatures regularly fall to below freezing and “aircraft noise will be a constant reminder of the harsh realities of sleeping rough.” The hope in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) is to raise at least $700,000 AUD for services to help the homeless.

While I don’t think I’ll be shivering in Lake Burley Griffin or sleeping rough in a hangar on this winter solstice, I’ll be supporting the people who do and celebrating the arrival of the longer days to come. 
Readers, if you have a moment, I'd really appreciate if you could complete the brief survey below. I'm looking for insight about the audience makeup for this blog. Thanks!

    Reader Survey

Submit
2 Comments

ANZAC Memorial

4/25/2019

6 Comments

 
Picture
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.
Picture
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.
6 Comments

The Rabbit-Proof Fence: A Different Kind of Easter Story

4/18/2019

4 Comments

 
Picture
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.

4 Comments

Numbers for New Year's

12/28/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
About 3.5 hours away from us on New Year's Eve, Sydney will be staging a stupendous display of fireworks, with a show at 9 pm for families and one at midnight to usher in 2019. Sydney's world-famous fireworks for the new year began in 1976, and the displays have grown in size and popularity. This year's show will be one of the largest and most technically advanced in the world. Just looking at the numbers is impressive:
  • 8.5 tons of fireworks
  • 18 shipping containers of equipment
  • Cost to Sydney: $5.78 million
  • Money it brings in to Sydney's economy: $133 million
  • Expected attendance: 1.6 million people
  • Expected worldwide viewing audience: 1+ billion people
  • Individual pyrotechnic effects: 100,000
  • Length of midnight display: approximately 12 minutes
Given that the big event only lasts about 12 minutes, I'll be staying comfortably at home this year and watching it on TV. Happy New Year, everyone!
2 Comments

Christmas in Oz: 5 Ways Australians Celebrate the Holiday Differently

12/20/2018

4 Comments

 
Picture
A surfing platypus Christmas ornament
Celebrating Christmas at the hottest time of the year takes a little mental adjustment. Australians parted ways with some of the snowy, cold-weather traditions of the Northern Hemisphere to make the holiday undeniably their own. Here are five ways Australian Christmases differ from ones in the United States.
  1. The traditional ugly Christmas sweaters are rendered uniquely Australian with ugly Xmas rashies. Also called rash shirts, they offer protection from the sun and come in Christmas patterns with kangaroos, koalas, or cockatoos. The sale of these shirts raises money for Cancer Council Queensland's research, along with awareness about the high rates of skin cancer in Australia. Ugly Xmas rashies will be my go-to Christmas gift next year, much to the dismay of my husband, daughter, and the rest of our family back in the States.
  2. Australians have written their own Christmas songs that leave all the snow behind. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard "Aussie Jingle Bells" by Bucko and Champs or "The 12 New Days of an Australian Christmas." Check out the rest of the top ten Australian Christmas songs.
  3. Santa leaves the department store to head straight for the beach. Surfers dressed like Santa are a big deal this time of year. And his sleigh? Pulled by six white kangaroos, or boomers, of course.
  4. Christmas dinner becomes Christmas lunch, and seafood is often the main course. On Christmas Eve or early Christmas morning, family members go to the local seafood market to do “a prawn run.” Other favorites are cold ham or other cold dishes. Pavlova—a soft meringue cake topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit—is a must for dessert. Fresh cherries and mangoes also make an appearance. And forget eating inside—a beach barbecue or park picnic with family and friends is far more likely.
  5. And after dinner? No napping on the sofa or walking in the snow here. It’s down to the water or out to an impromptu street party instead.
Australians really know how to make the most of the delightful weather this time of year. Happy holidays, everyone. 

Picture
Melbourne decorated for Christmas
4 Comments

Remembrance Day: The Poppies Project

11/7/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row”


-John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields” 
In Australia, 11 November marks Remembrance Day, which we call Veterans Day in the United States. Remembrance Day commemorates the Armistice and end of the First World War after four years of the bloodiest conflict the world had known. The poppy became a symbol to remember the day, thanks largely to John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Field.” Corn poppies were among the first plants to grow on the battlefields of northern France and Belgium. They also flowered in Turkey when soldiers from Australia and New Zealand (the ANZACs) landed at Gallipoli.

This Remembrance Day is especially important because 11 November 2018 is the centenary of the end of the First World War. To mark this poignant anniversary, 62,000 handcrafted poppies are displayed on the grounds of the Australian War Memorial, one for each Australian life lost in the First World War.
To give some idea of the scope of sacrifice, Australia had a population of fewer than five million at the time. More than 416,000 enlisted, of which 62,000 were killed and 156,000 were either wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner. The names of the 62,000 dead are individually listed on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour.
Picture
A section of the Roll of Honour, decorated with poppies
The Memorial itself plays multiple roles simultaneously—that of a shrine, a museum, and an archive. It commemorates the sacrifice of Australians who died serving their country and helps its citizens understand the experience of war and its impact.
Picture
Australian War Memorial in Canberra
The massive display of poppies at the Australian War Memorial began on 5 October and will end on Remembrance Day. The poppies were made as part of the 5000 Poppies Project
by members around the world, as a tribute of respect and remembrance. The display was designed by award-winning landscape designer Philip Johnson and includes a musical program developed by artist-in-residence Chris Latham.

Other events at the Australian War Memorial for Remembrance Day include a “soundscape” as voice recordings of the names on the Roll of Honour are played. Those same names will be projected onto the Memorial’s façade from sunset to sunrise every night from 5 October to 11 November. Images of the First World War from the Memorial’s collection will be projected from 8 November to 10 November. 

2 Comments

Father's Day

8/30/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
While my friends and family celebrated Father’s Day months ago, I’m doing my gift-shopping now. The United States and the United Kingdom both honor dads in June, but Australia waits until early September. (Australia celebrates Mother’s Day in May like much of the world.) Different sources date the first celebration of Father’s Day in Australia to 1935 or 1936. An article from the Western Herald in 1964 dated the celebration to 1935 and explained that it was now officially designated as the first Sunday in September throughout the Commonwealth.   

Various theories explain why Australia celebrates Father’s Day in September. I call my two favorites the Empty Calendar Theory and the Retail Therapy Theory.

The Empty Calendar Theory

According to this theory, Australia’s spring calendar is too crowded. There’s the long weekend for Easter, ANZAC Day, and the Queen’s Birthday. There’s also Mother’s Day, Labour Day, and May Day.

Dads need their own space, so Australians wait until September to celebrate.

The Retail Therapy Theory

This is the retail version of the Empty Calendar Theory. Retailers prefer their holidays spaced out because consumers need some recovery time after all the spring holidays mentioned above.

Also, when Father’s Day falls in September, it’s at the beginning of spring Down Under. Retailers can market gifts for Dad like camping, fishing, and sporting equipment—all big sellers with the coming of warmer weather.

This year, we decided to embrace the Australian way of celebrating Father’s Day. Next year, my husband promised, he’s lobbying for celebrating both in June AND September.
0 Comments

The Queen's Birthday

6/7/2018

8 Comments

 
PictureQueen Elizabeth II
Many of Australia’s public holidays are different from those in the United States, so I have eagerly anticipated each one and the chance to learn something new.  

This Monday, 11 June, is the public holiday for the Queen’s Birthday. Australia’s states and territories celebrate it on the second Monday in June with two exceptions. The state of Western Australia celebrates the public holiday on 24 September, while Queensland waits until 1 October.

The holiday is celebrated because Australia is a constitutional monarchy and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The official head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, the Monarch of the Realms. She is also the head of state of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and many other countries and territories. Crowned in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest reigning British monarch in history.

I discovered that Queen Elizabeth’s real birthday is April 21, 1926. If her birthday is in April, then why do we celebrate in June? History provides the answer.  

In 1788, Australia celebrated for the first time a public holiday to mark the Monarch's Birthday on King George III’s birthday. The holiday continued to be celebrated on the actual date of the monarch’s birthday until 1936, when King George V, Elizabeth’s grandfather, died. His birthday was 3 June and since then the holiday has been celebrated in early June.

While tradition seems to account for the June date, I’ve also read speculation that celebrating on the Queen’s actual birthday would place the holiday too close to Easter and ANZAC Day.

The Queen’s Birthday is celebrated with sporting events, including an Australian Football League (AFL) game played between the Collingwood Magpies and the Melbourne Demons at the Melbourne Cricket Club. Public fireworks displays and parades are also part of the festivities. In Canberra, the Royal Military Academy at Duntroon holds the Queen’s Birthday Parade every year. The Queen’s Birthday honors list is released as well. This list includes the new members of the Order of Australia along with those who have received honors from the Australian government or the Queen. The Queen’s Birthday also marks the official start of the snow season in the mountains of New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, and Tasmania.

This long holiday weekend features lots of things to see and do, and I’m looking forward to celebrating the Queen’s Birthday.


8 Comments

Reconciliation Day

5/24/2018

6 Comments

 
Reconciliation Place stands in Canberra’s Parliamentary Zone.
Reconciliation Place is constructed on the traditional land of the Ngunnawal people.
"It's a long road we have come and it's a long road we can go. We have to walk together and talk together. If you never listen to me, I will never listen to you. I will not follow you. Walk side by side and let's get there."

Conrad Ratara, Arrernte elder, at a ceremony for the return of ancestral lands


In the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) this year, 28 May is the first Reconciliation Day Public Holiday. It’s an opportunity to focus on reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians and to come to terms with Australia’s history. As Kevin Rudd, Former Prime Minister, noted: “There comes a time in the history of nations, that in order to embrace fully their future, they must fully reconcile with their past.”

When European colonialism began in the late 1700s, thousands of indigenous Australians were forced from their land. They died from disease or were killed by the colonists. By the 1850s, what was left of the indigenous Australian population was confined to reserves (similar to the experience of Native Americans in the United States). Between 1910 to 1970, government officials removed many indigenous children from their families, placing them into state care for “assimilation” into white culture. These children were known as the
stolen generations.

In the 20th century, a civil rights movement in Australia led to a referendum in 1967. More than 90 percent of Australians voted to remove clauses from the constitution that discriminated against indigenous Australians. In 1993, the Native Title Act allowed indigenous Australians to claim land when they can establish unbroken occupancy of an area. In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered a national apology to the stolen generations.
Despite these advances, there’s still a long way to go. Indigenous Australians still struggle with basic inequalities in healthcare, education, and housing as compared to the rest of Australia’s population.
 
ACT’s new Reconciliation Day public holiday is another step in a long road and part of a National Reconciliation Week in Australia, which runs from 27 May to 3 June.
6 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Rose Ciccarelli is an American writer and editor living in Canberra, Australia.

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018

    Categories

    All
    Daily Life
    Events
    History
    Holidays
    Nature
    People
    Places

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.