On 26 April 2020 John and Sue McKinnon presented an Anzac Day reflection. You can see it here. Following the service, Gordon Cooper wrote some reflections. These are copied below:
John and Sue’s reflection on Anzac Day, last week, drew out in me reactions I was not expecting. Discussions afterword confirmed that I was not alone. I found the presentation hard hitting and confronting on issues that many have ‘kept to themselves’ regarding the treatment of indigenous peoples. I think John referred to it as National Amnesia when referring the ‘The Frontier Wars’.
I suppose we got our first inkling of the tone of the message in John’s acknowledgement of county when he acknowledged that the Dharawal people were forced off their land in an act of war. Brooke Prentice (in her wreath laying ceremony shown in the video that was sent within an email sent to the congregation on 29 April) read from Cook’s own notes describing his landing at Kurnell as less than welcome and that there were four musket shots fired to enforce their presence.
I liked John’s story about Bob, who with his brothers went to the Western front where his brother Peter died. Bob returned from the war an ‘avowed pacifist’ and became a Methodist minister, in which capacity he preached about following Jesus to bring about a better and peaceful society. Bob emphasised Jesus’ teaching of the Sermon on the Mount to bring God’s kingdom to a broken world.
John used his Grandfather’s story as a link or bridge from one who fulfilled his role in serving his country to one who preached and called for a better world of Jesus’ way of non-violence and justice to all including Australian indigenous people.
To a few that I have spoken to since, these remarks generated a wide range of reaction from “inappropriate” to “challenging”.
This has got me thinking; why would the indigenous plight be inappropriate for Anzac Day? I realised that we all have different perspectives on what Anzac Day is.
For some, it is to honour and pay tribute to those who have served their country in conflict putting their life on the line and giving it for many.
For others it is seen as an opportunity for a booze up and two-up in the parks.
For yet others it is an opportunity to display medals and honours won in campaigns by those who have returned and those who did not, remembering lost relatives and friends.
For others who have returned, the memories are too painful and avoid organised events.
I was moved this year to hear and see the quiet tributes that the public made on their street fronts with candle and in many places, musicians played “The Last Post” on their instrument of choice. These are the images that we will remember particularly in these days of social separation. Our memories of Anzac Day have coloured our perspective of what the meaning is and what we expect to remember (lest we forget).
For us oldies (born in WWII or just after) it is understandably confronting to also consider the injustices to victims of war; the welfare of indigenous soldiers, the plights of refugees and the manipulation of our soldiers as fodder for political ends. We are not used to looking at the underbelly of war and we settle into what Sue described as an Anzac myth. Sue’s words were strong, but they do question how we share Anzac Day in this modern context.
I would start by acknowledging the shared and firm alliance Australia has with its neighbour New Zealand with whom we are partners in every Anzac moment. For me the day does not need to be any more than that.
During my visits to Germany in the nineties, I was impressed at how the younger generation was dealing with their national shame of Nazi-ism. It seems to me that since Kevin Rudd said Sorry, we are still dealing with our own National shame of how our English forbears took control of this land. Stories that have remained buried are now surfacing which are shameful and unpalatable.
We need to be tolerant and understanding of the message that people like Brooke Prentis of Common Grace, bring to us if we truly want this land to be harmonious and accepting of each other.
Perhaps that is a subject for further comment.
My Thoughts:
Gordon Cooper
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