Julie delivered the 2016 ANZAC Address at the Mt Roskill Civic service, at Mt Roskill War Memorial Park. Thanks to David Slack's Sunday Star Times column for the inspiration.
ANZAC
From the
initials of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp
Throughout
the years the use and meaning of ANZAC has changed, evolved, from a simple
short hand reference to a group of soldiers formed in Egypt in 1915.
Biscuits and
poppies. Friendly yet
serious rivalry on the sports field. At times a justification and even a glorification of war, at others a firm
rejection of conflict and violence. A frigate, a
bridge, a square, a town, a movie. A date on
the calendar – a public holiday, a ceremony, a day.
A cove on
the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
So much now
that goes into those five letters ANZAC.
The ANZAC
spirit is considered to represent the unique Trans Tasman relationship, a
shared commitment to endurance, courage, comradery, service and sacrifice,
forged in the brutal violence of the first World War, when we were the invaders
not the defenders, fighting as part of a clash between empires now long gone.
Australians
and New Zealanders have fought many times in the same wars. The first time Australian
troops fought on the same battlefields as New Zealanders was in fact over 50
years before Gallipoli, during the Taranaki Wars, an assault on Te Atiawa. At Gallipoli along with the Turks there were
also soldiers from India, Britain and France.
Many
families from all over the Pacific sent sons, fathers, brothers, via New
Zealand, not least those of Niue. It is
a great honour to have now in Mt Roskill War Memorial Park a stone to the soldiers of Niue,
building on the intention that this area become a place of remembrance and
peace for our community. I thank the Niue RSA for their hard work to bring this important project to fruition.
I
acknowledge the descendants of those who have served, from many countries and
in many times, who live in Mt Roskill now, alongside those who have themselves
served directly, our veterans, and those who have come here from places of conflict
as migrants seeking peace.
While war is
synonymous with violence, for many of those who went, for those who served at home
and abroad in so many vital roles, wartime was not without bright spots.
And much of
that brightness was about comradeship.
Friendship, goodwill, service to others, solidarity.That most
Australasian of terms “mateship”.
The ANZAC
spirit is woven through with ideas of mateship, yes initially between New
Zealanders and Australians, but also, as many visitors to the memorials of Gallipoli
will know from first hand experience, between Turks and those of the Antipodes.
Some of
those who fought did so no doubt for King and Country. Yet when the trenches were dug, and the
bullets flew, they fought for their mates, they fought for each other.
At home
women took on new roles, keeping farms and businesses running, families as
whole as could be, for each other. For
those with them and those far away, they fought, in a different way, and they
served too.
The nurses
and medical staff, the stretcher bearers and truck drivers, all gave in their
own ways, perhaps for some larger concept of answering the call of Mother
England, but also, certainly, out of care for the humanity, the people, around
them, in need of their help, for each other.
Even for
those who refused to fight, who objected to New Zealand’s involvement in that war, they did so for the children of
those here and there, they went to jail for each other.
That is
mateship, the sense that we are greater than the sum of our parts, and that we
will give, we will sacrifice, we will serve, for each other.
If, as we
build and shape the Mt Roskill of today and the future, we keep in mind that
ANZAC spirit of mateship, of solidarity and service, we will leave our
community better than we found it.
As today we
commemorate together and pledge to remember, so we shall leave this place
together, and carry with us a piece of this day and our collective commitment
to service, as the ANZACs did,
For each
other.
