Latest news with #AnzacDays
NZ Herald
25-04-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Emotions high as Tauranga, Mount RSAs mark Anzac Day with dawn services
A mixture of veterans, service members, cadets and civilians lined the streets, with the crowd stretching on to the bank of Hopukiore Reserve. Former Warrant Officer Darryn Douglas, now riding with the Patriots motorcycle group of past and present service members, said the day was a chance to reflect on those who died for our country. Sentinel guard commander Dusty Roper, of the Western Bay Cadet Unit, was attending his fifth Anzac Day service and had looked forward to leading his group on to the cenotaph grounds. 'We have been practising, practising the drill movers, and practising the sequence and getting everything down.' At the Tauranga RSA, emotions ran high on a bittersweet day as the branch prepared to merge with the Mount RSA in February. 'It is a sad day,' Tauranga city councillor Marten Rozeboom said. Former president and Royal New Zealand Army Captain Fred Milligan enlisted in 1955 and fondly remembered his time there. He recalled an officer leaving a driver in his charge who had become 'irritating', when he was a lance corporal. 'He asked, 'What can I do'? So I told him, 'go away and paint The Last Post',' Milligan said. The man in his charge disappeared for some time before eventually reappearing. Milligan said it turned out the man had painted all the posts near a live training area. When he joined the army, it was a class of 30 people. 'Now, there are seven of us left.' Milligan has witnessed Anzac Days in Australia and New Zealand and placed a wreath at a service in Southport, Queensland. 'I couldn't believe it. The crowd they got there in Southport was just unbelievable.' The 'evocative' Pāpāmoa dawn service was initially set up to relieve pressure on the dawn service at Hopukiore and has grown larger yearly. It marked the third anniversary at Pāpāmoa, organiser Buddy Mikaere said. The dawn service included students from Pāpāmoa College and involved the local Turkish community. Anzac Day is special for Mikaere because his family has been involved in nearly every major conflict for more than 100 years. It featured a significant Māori component with the benediction in te reo, accompanying two waitai. After the dawn service, Mikaere said the Pāpāmoa fire brigade hosted breakfast. The Last Post and the placing of the wreaths were among the highlights of this year's dawn service, hosted by the Western Bay of Plenty Regional Council, District Mayor James Denyer said. 'It is important to remember the service and huge sacrifices made on our behalf.' Anzac Day also allows the mayor to see representatives from all sections of his community come forward to place their wreaths. 'It also gives us a chance to reflect on the suffering that wars create and learn the lessons of the past.' Denyer attended the dawn service in Katikati and the civic service in Te Puke. This Anzac Day marked Tauranga Mayor Mahé Drysdale's first in office, but the occasion has long been a chance for him to reflect and share memories with his family who served. 'It's a chance to remember and honour those who have served and continue to serve our country in theatres of global conflict.' Drysdale welcomed the crowd to the civic memorial service at the cenotaph in Memorial Park. 'On this day, we remember the event of 25 April 1915. The troops landed and cost the lives of many young soldiers and deeply impacted the families and communities they left behind.' Tauranga made a significant contribution in both world wars, general manager of community services Barbara Dempsey said. More than 500 men from Tauranga volunteered during World War I when the city had a population of fewer than 3000 at that time, she explained. Guest speaker Sub-Lieutenant Alex Eichelbaum, Royal New Zealand Navy, wished 100-year-old John Clark a happy birthday at the civic service. 'John enlisted in the Royal Navy just before his 17th birthday in 1942, becoming a telegraphist on the heavy cruiser HMS Suffolk until 1945.' 'He discharged as leading signalman in April 1946.' Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell said it was a 'very moving day' and a chance to reflect on those who made modern New Zealand possible. At the Waihī Beach RSA, club manager Mel Gearon said a crowd of over 1000 people turned up to the dawn service. Gearon said it was important to remember and honour the Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. 'The sacrifices they made should not be forgotten.'
The Guardian
24-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
While secularism is growing in Australia, Anzac commemorations remain fervently Christian
The official commemorations for Australian military personnel who've died on the battlefield or whose lives were marred due to war service have long been adorned with ecclesiastical language. Friday's services across the country are the most profound cases in point even though, after almost 110 years of Anzac Days, many Australians may have become culturally inured to the way our national remembrance has become – and remains – so imbued with religiously inflected rhetoric. That's why we will hear referenced, repeatedly on Anzac Day, the 'spirit' of Anzac and of those killed on the battlefield, of their 'sacrifice' and how death somehow transforms them into the 'fallen' though not as often these days do you hear them referred to as the 'glorious dead'. Surrounding it all will be Christian prayer. When previously writing about the politics of commemoration I've referenced an Australian Vietnam veteran Jim Robertson who wrote a submission to the federal government ahead of the centenary of Anzac in 2015. His words are just as salient today. He took exception to the term 'fallen' (which I agree is something of a sanitisation of battlefield death) as used by politicians when speaking of the war dead. For, Robertson pointed out, they 'did not trip over a stick or a garden hose, they were drowned, burned, shot, gassed and eviscerated to lie face down in mud or sand at the bottom of the ocean'. To think of the war dead as fallen may once have been comforting to some in the same way that the famous though historically highly dubious Atatürk letter (whereby the 'Johnnies and Mehmets' lay side by side in the earth at Gallipoli) gave solace to the families of those killed on an obscure finger of the Ottoman Empire which must have seemed a world away then. The Australian War Memorial's Anzac dawn service is popularly revered as a solemn and respectful commemoration of Australia's participation in the Gallipoli invasion in 1915 – an event many still (fallaciously, I've long argued) cling to as the birth of the Australian nation. But not everyone believes the ceremony ought continue to include elements of traditional Christian worship as it conventionally has, and as it did last year and doubtless will again this year. Last year, again, there were Christian hymns. The Lord's Prayer. A presiding Christian chaplain. There is no doubt many soldiers of the First Australian Imperial Force took solace in their predominant Christian faiths amid the horrors of Gallipoli, the European western front and the Middle East. But times change as do religious affiliations, as reflected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which records that at the last Australian census (2021) the most common religions were Christianity (43.9%), Islam (3.2%), Hinduism (2.7%) and Buddhism (2.4%). Some 38.9% of Australians said they had no religion. The census found, 'The number of people affiliated with Christianity in Australia decreased from 12.2 million (52.1%) in 2016 to 11.1 million (43.9%) in 2021. This decrease occurred across most ages, with the largest decrease for young adults (18-25 years).' It can be reasonably assumed the affiliations and beliefs of contemporary Australian service personnel are reflected in these numbers too. While secularism is growing in Australia, particularly in younger demographics, official Anzac commemorations across the nation (especially the biggest, televised and most observed – that at the war memorial in Canberra) remain fervently Christian. The memorial, generally slow or resistant to cultural change on a range of salient issues (not least on appropriate commemoration of the Australian frontier wars between First Nations resisters and British troops, settler militias, vigilantes and police) is not, it seems, about to lead the way when it comes to de-Christianising the Anzac Day service. The memorial hosts the annual service on behalf of the Australian Capital Territory Returned and Services League, which apparently remains intransigent on lowering the Christian tempo of the performance. The Rationalist Society of Australia has been at the forefront of the push to expunge the Christian rites and practices and prayers from the service, complaining to the ACT Human Rights Commission that the service has discriminated against and excluded some Australians who might otherwise commemorate Anzac. As Australia's first world war veterans (all dead now) fade from living memory, just as those of the second world war will too within a generation, commemoration of Anzac and its profound impact on Australian society and identity must surely evolve with the times. An abundance of Christianity in Anzac Day services stands to emotionally and culturally isolate more and more people. Many Christians, in their celebration of Jesus as a peacemaker, also feel uncomfortable about the pervasiveness of Christianity in military commemoration, not least Anzac and 11 November, Remembrance Day. They've got a point: it does seem increasingly anomalous, given the pervasive capacity of religion and its territorial affiliation with land to spark wars. Look at the TV any night. In that, perhaps, might be found a parallel with the war memorial's acceptance of sponsorship funds from weapons manufacturers. Religious faith, of course, gave considerable succour and comfort to the men in opposing muddy, bloody trenches during the Great War. To have God on one's side was comforting – even when another avowed Christian was shooting at you from the enemy dugout. Paul Daley is a Guardian Australia columnist
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Popular RSL scraps Anzac Day tradition
A Sydney RSL will scrap the traditional game of two-up this Anzac Day. North Bondi RSL management says the move - aimed at keeping the venue family-friendly - was prompted by a request from veteran members. The club will still host its annual Dawn Service at Bondi Beach and open the venue from 9am. Waverley Council Bondi Ward Councillor Margaret Merten said she believed the club had made the right decision, as Anzac Day remained a 'solemn occasion'. 'I think we should respect the club's and veterans' wishes to keep the space family-friendly throughout the day,' Ms Merten told NewsWire. 'It is a valid and important point (and) I think the club has made the right call.' 'There are plenty of other places in Bondi that are hosting two-up games and anyone who wants to go along and play will have lots of choice.' North Bondi RSL Club chief executive Blake Johnson said they wanted the club to remain a place for 'respectful rememberance', and that the absence of two-up was a minor change to the day's proceedings. 'On past Anzac Days, when the club commenced two-up mid-afternoon, the environment became significantly more rowdy and most younger families left the venue,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'But on Anzac Day, our priority is remembering our veterans killed in service and supporting their families … we anticipate that not offering two-up may result in some small reduction in revenue on the day, but our families are more important.' The North Bondi RSL Club's founders included Australian members of the Rats of Tobruk. Anzac Day is one of only three days a year in which two-up is legally able to be played in NSW, and has long been a staple in the day's commemorations. The betting game involves placing coins on a wooden paddle - called a kip - and tossing them in the air, with bets placed on which side of the coin is facing upwards when it lands. A number of other pubs and clubs will still host rounds of two-up for those looking to throw around a little cash in the name of remembrance.
