The day offers a welcome counterpoint in an age of fragmenting identity politics in which it is becoming more difficult to find agreement about Australia’s national identity.
In the swinging sixties, Australia’s cultural dietitians predicted that the “one day of the year” that celebrated the martial feats of the Diggers who stormed the beaches and scaled the rocky heights of Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, would die out as the ranks of marching veterans emptied over time.
Instead, over the past half century there has been a remarkable revival of Anzac Day commemorations as younger generations have embraced the legend. This is symbolised by the modern tradition of family members wearing their relatives’ medals of wartime valour at the dawn service remembrance.
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