Dispatches from Anzac

Reports from frontlines of Anzac day culture. And Twitter provides a long-lost face for a voice.

By the time you read this, VOG events will have been presented in Christchurch and Palmerston North.

Over the next few days more VOG events will take place live and online.

• The New Zealand Army Museum at Waiouru from 23-26 April

• Toitū The Otago Settlers Museum on Anzac Day 25 April

• Zoom dawn services for UK and NZ for people who can't make a local ceremony presented by me - book your spot to join me here

  • It’s cool if you’re in UK and want to do the NZ one, which is more like 6.33pm on evening of Monday 24th, and similarly for Kiwis, feel free to join me at the UK dawn service, which will be mid-late afternoon your time on the 25th. If you’re in the US or Canada or wherever and a time slot works for you - welcome!

  • I’m don’t wish people to do this in lieu of attending a local, in person Anzac/Gallipoli day event - I just know from my own situation (heavily pregnant wife, live in rural Norfolk) that there are lots of reasons that local and in person isn’t accessible for many people - so here’s an alternative!

It’s cool to see the variety of local approaches each presenter is taking.

• Christchurch’s event incorporated the New Zealand String Quartet and members of the NZ Military Band.

• Te Manawa - the Museum in Palmerston North where it’s presented in association with Centrepoint Theatre has an exhibition of postcards and trench art from Gallipoli that is displayed while we they do it.

• At the NZ Army Museum at Waiouru, VOG will be presented alongside diary readings held in collection.

• Scott Base Antarctica will present a short excerpt out of respect for the fact that they do it outside in -20 degrees celcius!

I think the term for what I’m trying to encourage is ‘subsidiarity'

Defined - with apologies to EU law - as a framework that is flexible enough to permit

action… justified in light of the possibilities available at the national, regional or local level.

Talking of possibilities - there’s no way I can attend all of these events in person 😔

Luckily, I can receive dispatches from friends - like Michael Keir Morrissey, who lent his voice at the Christchurch event and reports from the frontline. 😊

It went very well indeed. 

Petty much seamless - the two soldiers, Lachlan who gave voice to Tony Fagan - and Jean-Luc, who blew the horn perfectly and handled the minute silence and rouse with great aplomb - were trustworthy and good.

The young Māori actor Kris Jones drew the audience with his quiet voicing of George Skerrett.

And Tom Trevella was perfect as Hartley Palmer.

The NZ Quartet were wonderful in their mournful rendition of Barber’s Adagio - and were right into the performance as a whole.

Maia’s karakia and Ode of Remembrance were a great Māori connection.

The whole thing went off without a hitch.

Audience was open faced and concentrated.

Plenty of kids, gratifyingly, who were rapt (I’d love to know what they were thinking).

And the reaction afterwards was universally positive.

Got people talking about war and its calamities quite animatedly over Anzac Biscuits.

You’ve hit on a great way of making Anzac commemorations personal - something people really appreciated.

They got the lending of voice as an act of remembrance perfectly - and accepted it unquestioned.

In fact it gave them an enhanced appreciation to hear the living speak the dead.

Michael goes on to mention something that’s on my mind. Can we do more? Can we have more voices, from more conflicts? I hope so. For the moment, I’m happy to be achieving what I’ve been able to achieve for Year 1 of what I hope will become an established Anzac tradition, that includes Voices of Gallipoli and beyond.

So far, so good.

Here’s a picture of Dan Curham - one of the Voices of Gallipoli 😮

I’ve seen a picture of him as an octogenarian. Here’s how he looked at this moment in his life:

I was a clerk, working in an office at Whanganui, when war broke out in 1914.

As soon as the news came, I volunteered for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

I had to get my mother's permission first, because I was underage.

But she gave it.

Dan is the great-great uncle of the stepson of my image source @NZLainey on Twitter.