The rise and rise of Anzac Day

In the 1970s it was feared that the Last Post may have to be played for ANZAC Day itself, but today it is the uplifting notes of the Reveille that best characterises the modern observance. RSA Historian Dr Stephen Clarke explores the factors underlying the phenomenal growth of interest in ANZAC Day:

Sense of Identity
It is first and foremost about a search for our sense of identity as New Zealanders. ANZAC Day provides a key marker in that search and increasingly a day to publicly display our progress to date.

History Appreciated
The growth of interest in New Zealand history, particularly our military heritage, through the increased teaching of New Zealand history and the telling of our own stories through film, books and websites provides the context for the growth of interest in ANZAC Day.

Family History
A major element of the search for identity is the growth of genealogy. The discovery of soldier ancestors provides an avenue into ANZAC Day through personal remembrance.

Natural Increase
With each new generation, furthermore, so increases the number of descendants who can potentially trace a soldier ancestor and thus participate on ANZAC Day.

Empathy
The present generation seeks to understand the human experience of war rather than the politics of war, which is a unifying force while the latter has at times been a divisive one. The fact that the experiences of New Zealand servicemen and women in past wars are so foreign to most young New Zealanders today explains the latter’s sense of awe and appreciation.

Veteran Icons
The previous points underpin the widespread appreciation today of veterans and the desire to attend ANZAC Day services to actually see a veteran in person and acknowledge their service. This is the beginning of a new trend to celebrate veterans, less developed but nonetheless identifiable with the Australian observance. The Trans-Tasman ANZAC Day litmus test of celebration vis-à-vis commemoration still remains: Australians cheer their marching veterans while New Zealanders watch in solemn silence.

Family Day
The post-World War II baby boomers, the generation that lived in the shadow of that war and the ‘Great Silence’ of their fathers/uncles and of whom a proportion protested during the Vietnam War, are also revisiting their view of ANZAC Day. This is the result of their own children directly asking grandparents about their war experiences and requesting their own parents to accompany them to ANZAC Day services. The modern ANZAC Day has become an inter-generational experience for many families.

Ritual
The popularity of the Dawn Service with its greater symbolism, over those later in the day, suggests that it is the ritual itself that provides the fillip to participation. The act of rising early in the morning to attend a Dawn Service can be read as a ‘sacrifice’ itself, albeit small and symbolic, with first-time participants certainly come away feeling uplifted for having made the effort. In a country with little public ritual, furthermore, ANZAC Day is the one day of the year that brings New Zealanders together in considerable numbers and one when we show emotion – not only wearing a poppy on our chest but our heart on our sleeve. In an increasingly secular population ANZAC Day – which has always come close to fulfilling the role of a civil or secular religion – provides a rare public opportunity for spiritual expression.

Gallipoli Pilgrimage
The rite of passage for young New Zealanders – a pilgrimage to Gallipoli – is the ultimate expression of many of the previous points. Those who have experienced a Gallipoli ANZAC Day often speak of it in terms of a ‘spiritual experience’ and coming away with a heightened sense of identity as New Zealanders. In future years these pilgrims will remember and recall to their own children the year that they were actually at Gallipoli. These new ‘Gallipoli veterans’ have the potential to become the strongest advocates for the day in the future.

State Activism
Finally, the State has followed the public mood and re-entered the remembrance arena through an array of initiatives, including various memorial projects, veteran pilgrimages, battlefield guides, school essay competitions, oral history projects and online exhibitions. These are worthy projects and while remembrance is an acknowledged outcome the main object of much of this activity is nation-building and fostering a sense of national identity. Not for the first time in its history ANZAC Day is being conscripted into service and the State has acknowledged that it would dearly love Waitangi Day to work in a similar manner. However, ANZAC Day has always been the day of the people, by the people, for the people, in stark contrast with the State-initiated Waitangi Day. Whatever the agenda, this State activism has injected further momentum into the observance of ANZAC Day and encouraged New Zealanders to remember.

What is the future?
Who can predict? The historian’s crystal ball only looks into the past but this can provide clues to the future. ANZAC Day will always be about remembrance – about remembering New Zealanders who have served and died just as New Zealanders are still serving and dying in dangerous operations throughout the world. History teaches us that this will continue. Modern warfare also dictates that the numbers involved in future wars will never see ANZAC Day again become a mass grieving ritual as it was in the years immediately after the World Wars. In the future, therefore, we will have considerably fewer living symbols of ANZAC Day – the veterans. In short, the current process of passing the torch of remembrance to the next largely non-veteran generation needs to continue. For one thing is certain, if the day does not have meaning for future generations it will not survive. The current embrace of ANZAC Day by young New Zealanders but, more importantly, the reasons they are remembering provides positive signs that the observance has a bright and meaningful future.

Prediction
As the sorrow fades so pride will come to play a larger part in the future observance and ANZAC Day will be about remembrance in a wider context, that is, about remembering our past and celebrating who we are. Whatever path the observance takes as long as we come together on 25 April we will be keeping faith with the promise we affirm each ANZAC Day:

We will remember them

Dr Stephen Clarke completed a MA thesis at Otago University on the history of ANZAC Day in New Zealand 1946-1990 before taking a PhD at the Australian Defence Force Academy and is currently writing the history of the RSA. Dr Clarke is the Official Historian and Research Officer for the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association.