I think it is timely to again take up our tradition of sharing stories so we will have something concrete to use to educate politicians and, more importantly, our children. Many of us have stories about our heritage. I have put these examples on the ANZAC page of Women’s Web stories actions womensweb.com.au:
- What about our heritage of activists who opposed WW1 such as Vida Goldstein?
- What about our heritage of veterans who, as quoted by the army chaplain who preached the Anzac service on the ship Orsova in 1919, were concerned about the social conditions that had killed their comrades before they entered the trenches and ... made them resolve that when they returned to civil life they would do all in their power to ‘right the wrongs under which their comrades had lived.’ (see below)
- What about our heritage of veterans the war didn’t damage greatly but the unemployment they had to endure when they returned did. A great-uncle of mine spent WW1 in New Guinea and didn’t see a shot fired, but on his return was unemployed and killed himself with rat poison.
- What about our heritage of those who didn’t make the war such as another great-uncle of mine who couldn’t enlist because of rheumatoid arthritis, but as he had no family and had an independent income when the war was over he gave his job to a returned soldier with a family to support, became depressed and - it is believed - suicided.
- What about our heritage of the War Widows Guild that decided it would ‘no longer take part officially in the Anzac Day Service in 1953 and organised a Remembrance Day (November 11th) ceremony in 1954 in its place for war widows, mothers and other relatives to mourn and grieve.’ (see below)
- What about our heritage of war widows living in unacceptable poverty and children brought up in unacceptable poverty because of war, and children who were proud of their fathers but acted as if they were pleased they didn’t return because of what they heard and saw of same men who did come home.
And, of course, what about the shocking story Joy Murphy Wandin told us.
As a child I overheard stories of returned WW2 soldiers who could not recover and in their despair inflicted violence on their families. I felt the utter helplessness of the woman who recounted ‘this isn’t the man I married’ after her hero husband had raped her.
I remember my grandmother seemed to shrink as she observed so sadly ‘it happened after the last war, too’. Even though they were the lucky ones, those strong women seemed powerless in the face of the consequences of war.
If we neglect stories like these, we are accepting a distorted and incomplete version of our herstory/history.
This is what our children will learn; our children, grandchildren and on to the future. What about truth?