Anzac Day Research Paper

Reflecting on the time that I’ve been in Australia is exciting but somewhat bittersweet. I have experienced so much while being in this country and surprisingly most of it has tied back to the themes we’ve been talking about in Discover Australia. I have been able to first handedly experience sports in Australia and Anzac day. I have also been able to learn so much about Terra Nulls and Aboriginals. Being able to discover Australia has influenced and made me realize I want to travel and discover not just Australia, but the world. Reflecting on what I did over our week off for Anzac, I decided to explore the city, observe, and go to a few museums.

Although I did not go to my first footie game over Anzac break, it was a great experience and

related back to themes in this class. The first theme I got to experience was Australian sports. When I attended my first footie game I was blown away. We learned in class that Australians consider themselves a sporty country, I did not believe this until I attended one sporting event. I would consider footie to be the one sport Australians go over the top. Everything at the game was bigger, better, and louder. I believe Australia to be just like any other country when it comes to sports. Every country gets excited and wild about certain sports and has Olympic winners in other sports. I would not point Australia out as a “sporty nation”, or have sports as part of their identity. Footie is the base sport in this country and is not played anywhere else and for that I consider Australia unique.
The second theme I got to experience first hand was Anzac day.

I compared this holiday in Australia to memorial day in the United States. Memorial day is a day of remembrance for people who have died serving the country in the armed forces and that is what I believe Anzac day to be. I thought it was crazy how everything was closed on this day and everyone took it very seriously. In the United States memorial day is a time people plan to have an extra long weekend, relax, and don’t really think of the meaning behind the national holiday. Anzac day in Australia as talked about in class and the articles is slowing changing. The Anzac legend used to be a collection of how the soldiers of the wars felt and their letters and poems of how they perceived war (Beaumont p. 151). The Anzac legend today has transformed into a remembrance of all the soldiers who are either fighting or the ones who have fought in the wars. This is the representation I saw when experiencing Anzac day first hand. Many different services are held for remembrance and marches throughout the city are taken place. The Anzac legend started to be thought about in the early 1900’s and although its lasted this long it has transformed and its traditions in society have changed with it. I did not know what Anzac day or the legend was before I came to Australia and did not think it would be that important of a day until I experienced it and realized this day was taken very

seriously.
Reflecting on what I did over our week off for Anzac, I decided to go to a few museums, explore the city, and observe. The first thing my friends and I did when arriving in the city was go to the Melbourne Museum. There were few parts of the museum that stood out to me. One of those things would be the WWI remembrance. This part of the museum ties back to the Anzac legend. There was a quiet section of the museum that was a tribute to all of those who had fought and died. There were plaques with some important stories that helped shape the war into what it was and some stories that weren’t as memorable but were still important and meant something. There were so many stories to be told and the museum included war crafts, book and diaries that were kept during the war. All of the stories were about soldiers who believed they had a duty to protect their country and wanted to be apart of the war. This all comes back to the Anzac legend because this is how the legend had been seen in the beginning. Anzac was meant to be the stories of the soldiers and how they felt during the war. This section of the museum was a great tribute and good representation of the Anzac legend.
After the museum, we decided to walk around the city and explore. Australia is very multicultural when walking around and observing. No one seemed to be bothered by other races or cultures. This brings me back to “the land of the fair go”. According to our lecture notes, “the land of the fair go” is a country where any person can expect to be taken the way that they are. I have noticed throughout the semester that there are a lot of people of Asian decent. With that being said, they all seem to be living their lives almost just as they would in Asia. I would consider this the land of the fair go. Being able to come to another country, keep speaking your home language, continue eating your home countries food and just living life as you would back home is exactly what I pictured when we discussed “fair go” in class. How I have observed the Asians is what the land of the fair go is described as. They are able to live their life the way that they are and not have any problems.