9 minute read
Remember for the Future
BY BAI YANG POGOS-HILL
The Premier’s Spirit of Anzac Prize is an annual competition open to students enrolled in Years 9 to 12. The Prize encourages students to explore the Anzac legacy post-First World War and its relevance in twenty-first-century society.
This year’s entrants were asked to explore the significance of the Shrine or a local community’s war memorial in honouring Australians who have served in war and peacekeeping. Bai Yang Pogos-Hill responded to the prompt by writing a speech for the opening of a new imagined memorial, ‘Remember for the Future’.
Wominjeka! This means to ‘welcome and to come with purpose’. It’s from the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people.
Thank you, Aunty Jude, for the smoking ceremony and for giving us permission to use the image of the Indigenous Warrior Pemulwuy.
My name is Bai Yang, and I’m very proud to be speaking here at the opening of this Garden Memorial ‘Remember for the Future’.
This memorial is set in a garden of rosemary, a plant which is a symbol of fidelity and remembrance, and which grows wild in the fields of Gallipoli. The memorial consists of three parts: four figures at the back, two children at the front, and a canopy of birds.
First, I would like to talk about these four figures at the back.
The man on the right is Pemulwuy, an Indigenous warrior and one of 60,000 First Australians who died in massacres or fighting the British settlers in the Frontier Wars.
Indigenous Australians have served in all wars. In the First World War, it is estimated that around 1000 to 1300 Indigenous Australians served in the Australian Imperial Forces, of whom 250 to 300 died.
In the middle, we have Dr Lillian Cooper, standing beside her lifelong partner Josephine Bedford.
In the First World War, due to the Australian Minister for Defence only allowing women to join the Australian Army Nursing Service, Lillian and Josephine travelled from Brisbane to join the Scottish Women’s Hospital so Lillian could work as a doctor to support the Allies. Lillian operated in Serbia in outposts close to the front line, so the soldiers had a better chance of survival. Josephine worked day and night transporting the wounded, as well as supplies. These Australian women, like thousands of others, went to war to serve our country.
Finally, the person on the left is Private Ronald Baden Thomas, who served in Indonesia during the Second World War. He died on 20 February 1942, at the age of 15, the same age as me. It is important to remember that 10 per cent of men who enlisted in the Second World War were under the age of 20, and 40 per cent were under the age of 24.
‘Remember for the Future’ was planned, funded, and built by the community. Local artists were chosen to create ideas for the memorial, then the community voted to pick the one they preferred.
Our design brief took guidance from Sir John Monash, who in 1926 noted that the Shrine of Remembrance should be “a beautiful conception, eminently suited as a memorial of great service and sacrifice, without that ridiculous note of victory and conquest”.
Community groups and businesses came together and raised money for the project. The local Scouts and Cadet groups ran sausage sizzles. There were trivia nights, fundraising dinners, working bees, raffles, and donation boxes were placed in restaurants. Each fundraising activity was a memorial event in its own way. People connected with each other, reflecting on the past and working together with a common community goal. Strong friendships have been forged over the past two years. Even during the current cost of living crisis, people opened their hearts and their wallets to build this memorial.
But we live in a new suburb with a new library behind us and a new Community Centre across the road. Why was there such commitment to building this memorial in 2024?
You can understand how during and after the First World War, people needed a place to mourn. Pretty much everyone at the time would have known someone who had served in the Armed Forces. Two thirds of people who served returned injured or didn’t return at all.
Communities were driven to build memorials as a place to go to reflect and remember those who died or were injured, especially because there were no graves. One of the first memorials was erected in Adelaide in September 1915, less than six months after the Anzacs first arrived in Gallipoli. The memorial was a granite obelisk shaped like the hills that the soldiers climbed.
Communities were constructing memorials at such a high rate, a War Precautions Act prohibited building memorials costing more than 25 pounds until the war was over, so as not drain funds from “more urgent patriotic efforts”. But after the war concluded, communities around Australia constructed thousands of memorials.
Memorials took many forms. In Ballarat, an Avenue of Honour was created; a memorial of trees that lined the streets with each tree representing one of the 3801 people who served in the First World War. It runs for 22 kilometres and also recognises immigrants who adopted Australia as their home and fought to defend it. There are 22 Australians of Chinese heritage commemorated in Ballarat’s Avenue of Honour, five of whom were killed in action.
But why here and now?
Memorials are still important now. If anything, they are even more important. According to the War Memorials Trust, memorials “act as historical touchstones. They link the past to the present and enable people to remember and respect the sacrifice of those who died, fought, participated or were affected by conflict”.
We still have a huge number of Australians joining our armed forces to serve our country. According to the 2021 Census, more than half a million Australians had served, or were currently serving, in the Australian Defence Force.
Memorials are also a place for younger people to learn about the history of war in Australia, and to gain an understanding and appreciation of the sacrifices made.
And for our new immigrants, many who have fled conflict and war, these memorials serve them by respectfully offering a place for their own quiet reflection.
In front of the four figures there are these two children, a young boy in a wheelchair, and a Japanese-Australian girl. They hold between them a birdbath and the girl has an outstretched hand offering feed to the birds. Those who fought for us stand behind them, looking over them and protecting them.
The girl represents the multicultural aspect of our country and reminds us that those who once were our enemies can become our friends.
The boy has a physical disability. After thousands of soldiers returned from the wars, suffering amputations and disfigurement or blinded by shrapnel, the Australian government introduced proper systems and programs for those with disabilities. With the increased numbers of people with disability they all couldn’t be institutionalised, and this demographic change acted as a step towards disability as a better recognised condition.
Finally, I would like all of you to look up at the canopy of birds. We have different native birds from all over the world: Australia, Spain, Columbia, the United States, South Africa, India, China and Egypt. These birds remind us that we all share the same sky. We, as a community, want to acknowledge and thank all of those who went to war for us to have a free and fair country, as well as those who served in peacekeeping operations around the world, helping other countries out in times of conflict and unrest.
Sir John Monash encourages us to “adopt as your fundamental creed that you will equip yourself for life, not solely for your own benefit but for the benefit of the whole community”.
This memorial celebrates those who did just that.
Before you go, please feel free to wander around these beautiful figures and pick some rosemary to take home. We also have bird seed on
sale. All profits will be utilised in the upkeep and maintenance of this memorial.
Thank you all for attending and don’t forget: we must look to the past and remember for the future.
Personal statement: I was born in China, I have albinism, am legally blind, and have prosopagnosia, so cannot recognise faces. At 16 months old I was adopted and came to Australia. My parents sent me to Richmond West Primary School, which taught in Mandarin and English. Growing up I became interested in Asian culture and history.
I love languages and after becoming fluent in Mandarin, started learning Vietnamese and became interested in the Vietnam War. I started researching and asked my parents if we could visit the Australian War Memorial. We went in January 2023 and I spent time mostly in the Vietnam War section. My interest expanded to other wars, including both World Wars, the Frontier Wars and global conflicts involving Australia. I convinced my parents to visit there again this year, and also the Shrine of Remembrance. I’ve been watching documentaries and reading articles. I recently watched a Shoah Foundation video featuring my Jewish Grandfather, who joined the Red Army to fight the Nazis when he was 19. He marched on Anzac Day every year until just before he died in 2021. I also learned his father, my Great Grandfather, fought the Germans during the First World War. In wars, men and women place their lives on the line for their country. I find that incredibly powerful.
