In a moving call for peace on Anzac Day, over 80 people gathered in the golden afternoon light at Peace Park in Katoomba to reflect on war and ask the hard questions about its grim reality. The day was interspersed with reflections, poetry, a minute of silence, and songs by The Bearded Ladies Choir.
MC Jon Atkins, from the Blue Mountains Peace Collective, emphasised that we need to “learn from past military disasters so that we can minimise them occurring in the future … an important way of honouring our war dead.”
Jon Atkins
He stressed that tributes paid to the victims of WW1 (and other wars) need to be inclusive. These victims include the 250-300 Indigenous Australians who lost their lives in WW1 (out of an estimated 1,000-1,300 who enlisted); “those that returned with debilitating psychological or physical injuries”; those that suffered on the home front when their loved ones were killed, maimed and traumatised; as well as those who campaigned against the war and opposed conscription and who were then “vilified and punished by the State for the principled stand they took.”
Dharug man Chris Tobin
Dharug man Chris Tobin recognised the sacrifice of those Indigenous Australians who lost their lives: but with sadness, not pride. He pointed out that Australia’s terrible past treatment of Indigenous people is still happening to Indigenous peoples around the world and “just because you take something doesn’t mean it’s yours”. Despite this, he urged people to put down their guns: “We’re going to win by love and education.”
“When we acknowledge Country,” he continued, “we’re dismantling the nationalism that is so destructive around the world.”
Rev. Mark Hillis
The importance of questioning the Anzac narrative was reiterated by Rev. Mark Hillis from the Leura Uniting Church, who read from Australian historian Henry Reynolds in Pearls and Irritations, and historian Dr Naomi Parry Duncan, the co-author of New South Wales and the Great War, who described herself as “a pacifist who wrote a book about war”.
Dr Naomi Parry Duncan
What is clear from history is that Australia in 1915 “was one of the most democratic, prosperous and well-managed societies in the world; the product of over a hundred years of nation building … The war opened up deep and damaging divisions in Australian society that were at best latent in 1914. Class division and resulting industrial strife intensified. The conscription debates of 1916 and 1917 tore communities, families and friendships asunder.” (Reynolds)
Naomi elaborated on this: “War sucked the life out of our economy. Sixty-two thousand people were killed; one hundred and fifty thousand were maimed … it’s not defence, it’s war mongering.”
She spoke with deep emotion about waking early that morning and seeing an incredible dark moon in the shape of a sickle and thinking of all those living in conflict today: “We are all people under one moon and one sun. Down with nationalism and up with collectivism!”
Rowe Morrow
Quaker Rowe Morrow spoke of how the impacts of war go on for generations, starting with the dispossession of Indigenous nations. It’s something she’s seen and felt as she’s worked in refugee camps around the world over the last 50 years. She recalled that even as a child she’d been haunted by “the terrible things they do to young men” when she visited convalescing returned soldiers at the Sunset Home in Perth.
She went on to speak of the “immorality of destroying peace for gain”, and the ‘fake news’ that sends young men to be maimed and die so that some may profit.
Rowe then read the poem Weapon by Judith Wright, which highlights the self-destructive nature of the types of power and ambition that drive this ‘fake news’: the power and ambition which take countries into war and destroy our compassion for those we kill.
“We will have to find a way through this age of untruth,” she urged.
Weapon, by Judith Wright
The will to power destroys the power to will.
The weapon made, we cannot help but use it;
it drags us with its own momentum still.
The power to kill compounds the need to kill.
Grown out of hand, the heart cannot refuse it;
the will to power undoes the power to will.
Though as we strike we cry ‘I did not choose it,’
it drags us with its own momentum still.
In the one stroke we win the world and lose it.
The will to power destroys the power to will.
_______________
Source: Judith Wright: Collected Poems. Fourth Estate: Harper Collins. 2016 edition.
© The Estate of Judith Wright, 1994.
Tom Coley’s ‘Peace Memorial’ in Peace Park, donated to Blue Mountains City Council by the sculptor in 2009.
Poets Brian Bell and June
Peace Building
The Anzac Day Reflection was organised by the Blue Mountains Peace Collective. This local group formed in June 2023 when Don McGregor, Bruce Cornwall, Kathie Herbert, Eunice Goodberg, and Rev. Mark Hillis and Rev. Myung Hwa Park from the Uniting Church in Leura, met to see what they could do to advocate for peace. Their first event, a Vigil for Gaza, attracted around 70 people on 18 October of that year.
In his last reflection, Jon Atkin recalled an Anzac Day address in 2013 by the former Governor of Tasmania, Peter Underwood AC, who said:
“All our remembrances and honours are meaningless, unless we also vow to become resolute about peace because that is what those whom we remember and honour on this special day thought they were dying for.“
“At the time, Peter Underwood also called for a Peace Institute to be created – not a bad idea!” said Jon.
Jon then went on to outline the Peace Collective’s recommendations for peace building.
1. Support official recognition of the Frontier Wars and the impact they had on Indigenous dispossession.
He quoted historian Henry Reynolds who has said:
“Our National Day of Lament is for those that died overseas in wars chosen for us by our great and powerful friends, most of the time against enemies who would never have been able to threaten Australia.
How is that commensurate with frontier wars fought in Australia about ownership and control of the continent itself? For us, this must be of far greater significance than the balance of power in Europe or the scramble to carve up the remains of the Ottoman Empire.”
2. Call for substantial reform of war powers by the Commonwealth Parliament
The Peace Collective supports the Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR) and their long campaign to democratise existing war powers.
In response to the parliamentary report on how Australia makes decisions to send service personnel into international armed conflict, which was tabled in Parliament on March 31, 2023, Australians for War Powers Reform argued that the outcome of the review was very disappointing.
While the Committee recommended some changes by promising better transparency and accountability, Australians for War Powers Reform criticised the report for refusing to adopt a fully democratic system where MPs are able to vote before Australia joins an overseas war.
Compared to many European parliamentary democracies, Australia can still be classified as having weak powers related to parliamentary action required for the deployment of military force overseas.
3. Back the signing and ratification of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (also known as Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty)
The Treaty has been signed by 94 nations. Of these 73 nations have proceeded to ratify it.
Australia has yet to sign and ratify the Treaty.
4. Call for independent foreign and defence policies
As Paul Keating has argued, both the Coalition and Labor’s commitment to the AUKUS pact diminishes our security and compromises our sovereignity.
Do our policies serve to defend the nation or are they geared to serving the hegemonic interests of ‘a powerful ally’?
Given Australia’s membership of the United Nations, and in accordance with the UN Charter, do the policies serve to maintain international peace and security and uphold international law?
5. Support genuine ‘remembrance’ on Anzac Day
How can we protect Anzac Day as an occasion devoted to reflection and mourning and prevent it from becoming a political tool or a justification for future bloodbaths?
Take Action:
- Learn more about the Blue Mountains Peace Collective who meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month: https://www.blue-mountains-peace-collective.net/ The next meeting will be at 3pm on Saturday 17 May at the Leura Uniting Church. Follow on FB at @blue-mountains-peace-collective and Insta at @bm_peace_collective/
- Learn more about history as well as future predictions to inform your decision making in the present. You can do so at these upcoming local events; Blackheath History Forum: 24 May 4-6pm, Blackheath Public School. Historian Stephen Gapps will be in conversation with Dr Naomi Parry Duncan about his latest book Uprising: War in the Colony of NSW 1838 to 1844. Dr Keith Suter’s presentation on Global Directions, 5pm Sunday 25 May, Leura Uniting Church
- Blue Mountains City Council has joined ‘Mayors for Peace‘: a global movement calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons and lasting world peace. Help grow this Reflection on Peace into an even bigger annual event. See similar actions being taken in Marrickville by the Marrickville Peace Group: https://marrickvillepeacegroup.org/ )
