As the Anzac Centenary approaches, Monash University in Melbourne has launched a new project designed to capture community memories of World War 1.
Monash Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Ed Byrne, said that Monash was the most appropriate university to lead research in the field.
“We are not just a centre of scholarly excellence, we are also the University that bears the name of our country’s most distinguished soldier, General Sir John Monash,” Professor Byrne said.
“The University is developing 100 stories, symbolic of the 100 years since the outbreak of World War 1.”
The stories are to be drawn from across the length and breadth of Australia, mindful that every community was affected by the conflict, and will highlight the ongoing cost of war to the community as a whole.
“The centenary is less than two years away. We need to find new ways of remembering that speak to the culturally diverse society that we live in today,” said Professor Byrne.
“It is important to remember not just the men and women who gave their lives, but also those who returned to Australia, the gassed, the crippled, those irreparably damaged by war.”
The project will also highlight the contribution of women and Indigenous Australians, two groups often marginalised by conventional military history.
Monash recently released the first 20 of the 100 stories, sending them to every secondary school in Victoria and offering them to major government agencies, such as the National Museum, the National Archives and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
“This is an instance of the University placing scholarship at the service of the community, and is very much in keeping with the Monash tradition,” Professor Byrne said.
Monash University has invited Returned Services Groups and the wider community to nominate further case studies for the 100 stories program.
The research team is being led by Professor Bruce Scates from Monash University’s National Centre for Australian Studies, a leading authority on war and remembrance and the chair of an expert panel appointed by the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board.
For more information on the project or to nominate a story, visit arts.monash.edu.au/anzac-remembered/.
