We're all Australians now.

I'm a big believer in commemorating Anzac Day and remembering those who fought so we might be free. I'm also a great fan of our National bard, Banjo Paterson, and of the illustrations of Mark Wilson. Put them all together and you're going to have a pretty special book.

We're All Australians Now was published in 2015 but I only discovered it the other day in my local Australia Post store. Have a look and see if yours has a copy too. It was $9.99.

When Australians went to war in 1914, Australia had been a nation for all of 13 minutes. Well years, really, but it's still a really short time to forge a national identity, isn't it? The brave men and women who fought together in WWI as Australians played a great part in defining us as a people, as a country, as Aussies. By 1915, we had already suffered through Gallipoli when Banjo Paterson penned an open letter to Australian troops there at The Dardanelles , a poem entitled We're All Australians Now.

The book is Mark Wilson's beautifully illustrated rendering of that poem.

Here's a copy of the poem if you really can't find the book, but do try. As I say, it's pretty special. It's times like this that I remember that living books really are still being published. And that's a really good thing.

We're All Australians Now'

Australia takes her pen in hand

To write a line to you,

To let you fellows understand

How proud we are of you.

From shearing shed and cattle run,

From Broome to Hobson's Bay,

Each native-born Australian son

Stands straighter up today.

The man who used to "hump his drum",

On far-out Queensland runs

Is fighting side by side with some

Tasmanian farmer's sons.

The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar

To grimly stand the test,

Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,

With miners from the west.

The old state jealousies of yore

Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,

We're not State children any more —

We're all Australians now!

Our six-starred flag that used to fly

Half-shyly to the breeze,

Unknown where older nations ply

Their trade on foreign seas,

Flies out to meet the morning blue

With Vict'ry at the prow;

For that's the flag the Sydney flew,

The wide seas know it now!

The mettle that a race can show

Is proved with shot and steel,

And now we know what nations know

And feel what nations feel.

The honoured graves beneath the crest

Of Gaba Tepe hill

May hold our bravest and our best,

But we have brave men still.

With all our petty quarrels done,

Dissensions overthrown,

We have, through what you boys have done,

A history of our own.

Our old world diff'rences are dead,

Like weeds beneath the plough,

For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,

They're all Australians now!

So now we'll toast the Third Brigade

That led Australia's van,

For never shall their glory fade

In minds Australian.

Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,

Till right and justice reign.

Fight on, fight on, till Victory

Shall send you home again.

And with Australia's flag shall fly

A spray of wattle-bough

To symbolise our unity —

We're all Australians now.

Here's Wallis and Matilda's version set to music. It's pretty special, too.

 

One minute's silence

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

 

Did you remember our Diggers this morning? Did you recite the ode, listen to the Last Post and observe a minute's silence?

What did you think about as you stood in quiet contemplation?

You probably thought about the brave young Aussies risking their lives so that we could have peace in our land, but did you also think about the young Turks fighting to save their land from the invaders?

You may have remembered our fallen heroes, but did you remember the Turks who never went home again either? They're buried there together, side by side. Did you think of that when the second hand clicked slowly round?

Did you think about the tragedy and the futility of war, and honour the men in both sides of the conflict, who fought for the land and the people they loved?

One Minute's Silence written by David Metzenthen and illustrated superbly by Michael Camilleri tells the story of a class of young people observing a minute's silence, just like we did, and probably like you did, too. And as they wait, they imagine themselves as soldiers at Gallipoli, and they think about how it would have been.

In one minute’s silence……

you can imagine the grinding in your guts as the ironbark bows of the Australian boats bumped the stony shore of Gallipoli on the twenty-fifth of April, 1915… when twelve thousand wild colonial boys dashed across the shivering Turkish sand in the pale light of a dairy farmer’s dawn lashed with flying lead.

But can you imagine, in one minute’s silence, lines of young Turkish soldiers from distant villages, hearts hammering, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in trenches cut like wounds… firing on the strangers wading through the shallows, intent on streaming into the homeland of the Turkish people.

This is a wonderful book to share with your children as you commemorate Remembrance Day, and observe a minute's silence together.

Today when Jemimah and I stood together we remembered our loved ones who fought for us in the "war to end all wars", the men and women who have fought in other wars, our peacekeeping troops, and their loved ones left at home alone. But we also remembered the soldiers we fought against, and it was powerful.

I think when you read this book, you'll think so too.

Lest We Forget

 

 

Remembrance Day 2014

This morning I snuggled up beside my daughter in her much loved double bed, and read aloud from some favourite picture books for Remembrance Day. She's almost thirteen years old, but still not too old for a cuggle and a story, for which I am profoundly grateful. What will happen when she is, I shudder to think.

The books we read are the ones shown above, and I'll admit to tearing up a little when I read them - as I generally do. Jemimah is, of course, too old to think this is okay. She mocks, she mocks. So cruel.

Remembrance Day in our home is a day for commemoration, not celebration. We read these books to remember those who have fought for the freedom we all hold so dear. We remember family members, and we mostly have a pretty good chat about other important stuff as well.

I'm surprised that there are so few books designed especially for Australian Remembrance Day. Most of our Aussie books are actually Anzac Day books. Still, these three are pretty good, even if one is Canadian.

You can read my pick of books for Remembrance Day here.

I'm also keen to check out One Minute’s Silence by David Metzenthen and Michael Camilleri. Have you read it?

Do you read picture books for Remembrance Day too? Have you a favourite? Do tell.

We will remember them.

For the fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables at home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)

 

Remembering

My family commemorated Remembrance Day early this year, as we remembered my grandfather's contribution to the Allied victory at Beersheba in 1917 whilst we visited The Park of the Australian Soldier in Be'er Sheva, Israel in October.

Three generations of Bolton women.

Our group gathered together at the Park, and had the privilege of hearing my husband reading the exciting account of The Charge directly from Grandpa's diary, and then hearing my mum reminisce briefly about her Dad. I felt incredibly proud.

Today, the anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War, at 11.00 am, we will observe a minutes's silence in remembrance of the Fallen in all wars. Will you join us?

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

Lest We Forget.

Archie's Letter

I was prepared not to like Archie's Letter when I realised that it was abridgement of another book called The Line by the same author.  Based on that alone, I put it aside for a year, and almost didn't bother reading it this year either.  Had I not I would have missed a really special book.  Archie's Letter is a must read for all Australians.

It's the true story of Arch Flanagan and his experiences in WWII.  Archie saw action in Syria before being taken captive by the Japanese in Java in what was then the Dutch East Indies.  Under the command of a very special man, Lieutenant-Colonel "Weary" Dunlop, Archie was transported by the Imperial Japanese Army to Singapore's Changi Gaol, and from there to work on the notorious Burma Railway.  The railway is known in Australia as the Death Railway, because it is said one man died for every sleeper laid.  Life in the camps was barbarous, and many men died from cholera, exposure, starvation and horrific treatment by the Japanese. Weary looked after them all.

After completion of the railway Archie was transported to Japan in a Japanese ship. Many of the ships were intercepted, and sunk by the Americans.  Eighteen hundred Australian prisoners of war died because they were part of Japanese convoys attacked by American submarines.  I did not know that until I read this book.

Archie was working mining coal under the see when the atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  A day later the war was over.

22,000 Australians were prisoners of war of the Imperial Japanese Army during WWI. One in three died in captivity.  In 2010, less than 1000 were still alive.  Archie was one of them.  That year, for the first time, Archie was unable to attend the dawn service.  He wrote a letter to the people who did attend.

"Thanks for coming.  Thanks for remembering them. Thank you so much."  These are Arch's concluding words.

I learned much from this book.  Even after a term studying WWII history, there is much I did not know about the war in the Pacific.  It's important for us to know the stories of ordinary men in the wars.  It is important that we remember them. That's why we commemorate Anzac Day.  Not to glorify war, but in the hope that it will never, ever happen again.

We will be at our town's service tomorrow. We will remember them.

Archie's Letter is harsh reading.  War is not nice.  I reckon it's good for mature 8 year olds up.  Even adults will learn from this book.

The Town that Never Forgets

The first inhabitants of Villers-Bretonneux to re-establish themselves in the ruins of what was once a flourishing little town have, by means of donations, shown a desire to thank the valorous Australian Armies, who with the spontaneous enthusiasm and characteristic dash of their race, in a few hours drove out an enemy ten times their number...They offer a memorial tablet, a gift which is but the least expression of their gratitude, compared with the brilliant feat which was accomplished by the sons of Australia...Soldiers of Australia, whose brothers lie here in French soil, be assured that your memory will always be kept alive, and that the burial places of your dead will always be respected and cared for...

Villers Bretonneux Town Mayor 14 July 1919

It was probably foolish of me to promise a book review a day in the lead up to Anzac Day.  All it made me do is not want to blog.  And if I did blog, I didn't want to post about Anzac Day.  I wanted to talk about how we store our posters and the map we're using for David Livingstone, and all sorts of highly interesting, but totally unrelated to Anzac Day topics.  Foolish.  Still, here we are at the end of the day, and I am blogging, and I am going to tell you about a book.  I totally can control my contrariness when I work hard at it.

Today's book is an interesting one.  It's called The Promise: The Town that Never Forgets.  It's also called N'oublions jamais I'Australie, because it's a bilingual book, written in English and French.  It's written in two languages, because this is a book that belongs to both France and Australia.  It's the story of both the Aussies and the French in a little village called Villers Bretonneux in Picardie in Northern France at the end of WWI.

In 1918, the small town of Villers-Bretonneux fell to German forces.  Members of the 4th and 5th Division of the AIF were tasked with retaking the town, and after two furious battles, the town was recaptured by the Australian troops on 25th April 1918 at a cost of over twelve hundred Australian lives.  The villagers promised to never forget the Australian sacrifice, and they have kept that promise for almost one hundred years.

Derek Guille, The Promise's author is a music journalist and ex-radio presenter with the ABC, and in 2007 he was invited to join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on its 2007 European tour.  During their time in France, Members of the Brass Section visited Villers-Bretonneux, inviting Guille to recite the Ode of Remembrance at a private commemorative service for those who served.  Guille realised that the story of Villers Bretonneux was one that all Australians should know, and he also wanted Australians to realise the strength of the friendship that remains to this day.

THe book that came about tells the original story of Villers Bretonneux in 1918, but it also tells the story of the MSO visit in 2007. Guille is not a story teller - he's a journalist - and it shows, but the journalistic style, while surprising, actually works.  It sort of reads like a Sunday Magazine article, if you know what I mean.

The choice of illustrator is also a surprise.  Kaff-eine is best known as a street artist, and her works generally adorn the sides of buildings in Melbourne's famous cobbled laneways.  Her distinctive and unique style of artwork really makes The Promise different from the rest. Have a look at 6 of her illustrations here.

The journalistic style makes The Promise best for kids of 8-12, I reckon. The French language translation is secondary school level.

Vietnam Diary

These three books make up Mark Wilson's excellent Children in War trilogy.  Vietnam Diary, the most recent, was released in March - just in time for us to read this Anzac Day.

Here's an overview of the story:

Both Jason's father and grandfather had fought for their country - Jason was born on his father's return from WWII, and his grandfather had fought in WWI.  Jason and his older brother Leigh are inseparable as boys, and share a special love of cricket.

When Leigh goes off to university, he joins his friends in protests against the Vietnam War. "It is not our war", he says fiercely.  Jason is not so sure.  What if all the soldiers ran away, ponders the boy.  When Jason grows up and is conscripted, he decides to accept and heads off to fight.  Leigh is angered, and a tragic rift forms between the two brothers.

Eventually Leigh mellows - at about the same time as Jason away off in Vietnam begins to question the futility of war himself.  Leigh's first letter to his brother arrives the same day that Jason is to fight at Nui Dat.  He decided to leave reading the precious letter until he gets back...

I know I'm a sook with Anzac stories, but I cried. The story of the two brothers - one anti-war, the other willing to go and fight as his father and grandfather had, is really powerful.  It provides a wonderful platform for discussing Australia's conflicting opinions about the Vietnam war both then and even now.  Jemimah and I discussed the hostile reception the soldiers received upon their return home, and the subsequent post-traumatic stress disorder many of them still suffer.  Having recently studied the western fear of the spread of Communism in AO6 Term 1, this conversation was really timely.

Read my quick reviews of the other two books in the trilogy here.

I'll be posting my thoughts of some other new (at least to me) books each day this week in the lead up to Anzac Day.  Have you read any new books this year?  Do share.