Battle lines: Contested Remembrance and the Anzac Centenary

Guest lecture by Prof Bruce Scates (Monash University, Melbourne)

Abstract

In the lead up to the Centenary of the Gallipoli landings, the Australian government invested vast amounts of Money in devising ‘appropriate’ commemorative programmes. They also sought the advice of academic historians. In what ways did historians seek to shape the Anzac commemorative programme? How has government responded to their key recommendations? And is there a possibility that the Anzac Centenary like the Gallipoli landings, might become a story of lost opportunities, bungled planning and colossal indifference to the waste of war? This presentation will centre on the 100 Stories Project devised to foster a more inclusive form of remembrance and highlight the cost of war to the entire community.

Prof Bruce Scates holds the Chair of History and Australian Studies at Monash University. He is the author of several books on war and memory, including Return to Gallipoli: Walking the Battlefields of the Great War (Cambridge 2006); A Place to Remember: a History of the Shrine of Remembrance (Cambridge 2009) and lead author of a forthcoming Cambridge title, Anzac Journeys. His imagined history of Gallipoli, On Dangerous Ground, has been listed on Australia’s first national curriculum for literature and commended in the Christina Stead awards. Prof Scates is the lead chief investigator on an Australian Research Council project charting the history of Anzac Day in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. He also served as the Chair of the Military and Cultural History panel advising the Anzac Centenary Board.