Mateship Courage Unselfishness Responsibility
As each generation is further removed from the events that took place at Gallipoli in 1915, I find myself wondering how each new generation will reflect on the sacrifices made by regular men and women on behalf of their country and state.
The ANZAC Campaign was the first of its kind where the Australian and New Zealand forces suffered significant casualties during the First World War. Our individual reflections on these losses and the sacrifices made by our forebears will always be tinged with our own unconscious bias and at times swayed by political and economic influences that frame and re-frame such significant historical events to suit purpose or make sense of circumstances.
In my lifetime I have watched such influences see generations and sub-groups politicise, romanticise, and dehumanise war, each I believe missing the point. War isn’t something that we want to engage in, yet we each desire to retain our independence and right to live in a country where we and future generations can flourish without fear. So, thank God for our Armed forces, for those who stand in the breach to preserve what we hold most dear in Australia, our freedom.
I am personally grateful for people like Captain John Parkinson who spoke to our students about what we can learn from our servicemen and women, life lessons around mateship, courage, unselfishness and responsibility, lessons that serve our young people well and connect with our desire to grow young people of character.
I am grateful for the reflections shared by the guest speaker on ANZAC Day at the Kallangur Memorial Service. He did not speak of the history of the ANZAC’s, the nature of ANZAC celebrations or glorification or horrors of war, rather our attention was focused on the here and now. Acknowledging that days like ANZAC Day are a time to focus contemporary society on recognising that there are current servicemen and women who deserve our attention, and assistance in transitioning back into the way of life that we take for granted. That ANZAC Day isn’t glorifying sacrifice and loss or just about remembering an historical event, but an opportunity for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians to acknowledge and give back to those who had given much and suffered much.
As a College I am proud of our community. Proud that we take the time to remember, and that our remembering validates the commitment of those past and present whose sense of responsibility, courage, mateship, and unselfishness sees us continue to live in such a blessed land we call Australia.
Let us not ever forget.
Nicole Gregory
Principal
