Multi-panel comic narratives in Australian First World War trench publications as citizen journalism

Although textual expressions by soldiers in their own trench and troopship newspapers are relatively well known, the way that the men created and used cartoon multi-panel format is not. Humorous visual self-expression has provided a record of satirical social observation from a 'bottom up' perspective. The contribution made by illustrative narratives of the armed forces needs to be acknowledged as early citizen journalism. Comic art by servicemen - mainly from the lower ranks - has contributed to the evolution of democratic self-expression in popular culture, and manifests aspects of collective First World War experience that can be construed as a form of journalistic observation. Soldiers' universal concerns about daily life, complaints and feelings about officers, medical services, discomforts, food and drink, leave, military routines, and their expectations versus emerging reality are emphasised. In this paper, we argue that perceptions of Australian identity can also be discerned in the detailed interaction between drawings, dialogue, and/or text that is unique to this early comic-strip form

Battlefield Tourism at Gallipoli: The Revival of Collective Memory, the Construction of National Identity and the Making of a Long-distance Tourism Network

The Battle of the Dardanelles (Çanakkale), also known as the Gallipoli Campaign, played a crucial role in the construction and endorsement of national identity, irrespective of the immediate consequences such as the prolongation of the war or the resignation of Winston Churchill upon failure. The Battle of the Dardanelles is commemorated every year in Turkey, Australia and New Zealand, as a day of remembrance. The battlefields at Dardanelles were reinstated as the Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park in 1973. The park covers numerous cemeteries of soldiers from both sides, memorials, museums and the battlefields in an area of 33,000 hectares. The park provides a vivid setting and depiction of the war experience, and stands out as the most important battlefield site in Turkey.The aim of this paper is to analyze battlefield tourism in Çanakkale in terms of its components and its impact on domestic and international tourism in Turkey. Battlefield tourism in Çanakkale encompasses not only the battlefield itself, but also the Çanakkale Victory Day in Turkey, March 18th, and the Anzac Day in Australia, April 25th. While domestic tourism contributes to the revival of collective memory and to the building of national identity, international tourism provides representations of national heritage as a source of political legitimacy. Unique to this case, battlefield tourism plays a significant role in the construction of a long-distance tourism network between Australia, and Turkey. The annual flow of descendants of ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) soldiers is an important source of tourism activity in the area.

Kunapipi 18 (2 & 3) 1996 Full Version

Kunapipi 18 (2 & 3) 1996 Full Version

'Soldiers and Shirkers': An Analysis of the Dominant Ideas of Service and Conscientious Objection in New Zealand During the Great War.

During the First World War, ideas of duty and sacrifice were a dominant characteristic of public discourse in New Zealand. Specifically, concern centred on a perceived inequality of sacrifice, which saw brave soldiers die on the front lines, whilst other men remained on the home front, apparently avoiding duty. This thesis charts the prevailing and powerful ideas that circulated during wartime New Zealand around these two stereotypes; on the one hand there was the soldier, the ideal of service and duty; on the other, the conscientious objector, a target for the derogatory label of 'shirker'. While there are a few select critical works which examine the experiences of New Zealand World War One conscientious objectors, such We Will Not Cease (1939) and Armageddon or Calvary (1919), there is a near complete absence of studies which examine the home front and ask how conscientious objectors were perceived and consequently judged as they were. It is the contention of this thesis that ideas around the soldier and the 'shirker' were interrelated stereotypes and that both images emerged from the process of mass mobilisation; a highly organised war effort which was largely dependent for its success upon the cooperation of wider civilian society. In sum, the thesis examines and analyses the ideas within mainstream New Zealand society as they appeared in public sources (notably newspapers, cartoons and government publications), and in doing so, tracks how social mores and views towards duty, sacrifice and service were played out at a time of national and international crisis

Sentimental Equipment: New Zealand, the Great War and Cultural Mobilisation

During the First World War, New Zealand society was dominated by messages stressing the paramount importance of the war effort to which the country was so heavily committed. Reflecting the total nature of the conflict, these exhortations regularly linked individual duties to the war effort and associated that effort with larger, or higher, purposes. It is often perceived, or presumed, that the dominance of this material arose from general wartime hysteria or was the result of imposed propaganda - with all the manipulative trickery that term connotes. Either way, such perceptions dovetail with notions that the war represents a historical rupture and that wartime discourse might be characterised as insincere, inauthentic and abnormal. Challenging this interpretation, this thesis considers wartime messages as emblematic of deeper cultural sentiments and wider social forces. Specifically, it argues that they represented the results of a cultural mobilisation; a phenomenon whereby cultural resources were mobilised alongside material resources. Consequently many pre-existing social dynamics, debates, orientations, mythologies, values, stereotypes and motifs were retained, but repurposed, in response to the war. A range of subjects illustrating this phenomenon are surveyed, including collective identity, anti-Germanism, gender archetypes, gender antitypes and social cohesion. This study highlights two major dimensions of the phenomenon: firstly, the relationship between the pre-war social/cultural landscape and the mobilised results; and, secondly, how the ideological war effort operated by layering meanings upon wartime developments. Analysing these aspects of cultural mobilisation sets New Zealand‘s military involvement in a broader context and enriches our historical understanding of the society which entered and fought the Great War

War heroes too : military mascots of the First World War and their legacy : a thesis presented to Massey University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History

As many historians write about the deeds and sacrifices of soldiers during the recent centenary celebrations of the First World War, it is important to also remember the contributions of soldiers of a different kind. During the First World War a menagerie of animals became honorary soldiers in all armies, including New Zealand and Australia. Whether for the sake of comfort, combat or ceremonial occasions many regiments adopted all types of species from the domestic canine to exotic primates. There has been a recent surge in academic acknowledgment of animals during warfare and their importance in our history. I am especially glad to have explored this topic on mascots which has left many doors open for further historical examination. Animals have always been a vital part of military campaigns, yet the role of the mascot, also known as soldiers’ pets, has often been overlooked in the historiography. I will create a brief hypothesis by exploring issues such as what purpose did mascots both official and unofficial serve? How many Australian and New Zealand units in the First World War had mascots? How were they selected? Finally, what legacy have they left

Education or the bush: The origins of the Anzac legend

The Anzac legend is one of the formative stories of the Australian national character. The Anzac character has its origins in the diverse cultural symbolism of the late Victorian and Federation decades in Australia. The Coming Man, the idea of the Australian as an evolved, stronger variant of the Anglo-Saxon type, the idea of the individualist Bushman who was toughened by having to survive a hostile environment, and the pioneers who risked life and forwent basic comforts to bring civilization to the edges of settlement. Many of these ideas were masculinist, involving the profession of close cooperation and bonds between men—mateship—and extolled risk-taking and the use of innovation to succeed in life. Most of these ideas involved the unique element of the Australian landscape—the bush. C.E.W. Bean, as a man of letters, had all these concepts in mind when he extensively travelled the New South Wales outback between 1906 and 1910 settling on the notion that the Bushman was the distinctly Australian type and the source of the Australian character. Bean and many subsequent scholars, the most critical being Russel Ward in his seminal The Australian Legend, argued the bush sets the standard for the Australian character. This thesis proposes that Australian education reforms of the 1880s and 1905–1907 made a significant contribution to the formation of the Anzac legend and therefore the national characer. The particular type of education that resulted from these reforms also helps to explain the ready reception and embrace of the legend by the general public. The Australian public were literate and culturally aware as well as engaged in civic society. This was because of mass education which made them receptive to the Anzac legend in the form in which it was promulgated by Bean, John Treloar, Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett and others. Ironically the education that Australians received also promoted the idea and narrative of the bush as the definitively Australian scenario in children’s literature and school reading material, and so they were predisposed to accept the bush explanation rather than their own experience of Australianness experienced in large measure in childhood in the schoolyard and the classroom