Honouring all

Untitled
(Gallipoli Art Exhibition, Sydney, 2006)

This year at the remembrance ceremony at the war memorial in Canberra the didgeridoo was included in the for the first time, joining the trumpet and the bagpipes. Ninety nine years of not including our most recognisably Australian musical instrument is a very long time. (The ceremony was broadcast on ABC, but the ceremony that followed it honouring Aboriginal soldiers was not.)

At the remembrance ceremony in Sydney this morning one speaker noted the fact that new Australians had not been brought up on the Anzac myth and publicly wondered how this new generation could be motivated to take part. Including our first peoples in more than a token gesture would be a good way to start.