24 April

Originally Anzac Day was a day of solemn mourning, and marches were often near silent as many who lined the streets were relatives of those who died. It was like a symbolic funeral. It started in 1916, in the middle of a world war. Bizarrely you can see in the image they were also advertising for new recruits, during the march itself. Today Anzac Day is at a bit of a crossroads. For many Australians there’s no connection with its history, and historians point out more Australians died in our own frontier wars than in all of the offshore wars we took part in in the 20th century, combined. War is usually innocent young people dying for a fight that isn’t theirs. Between rival elites, home and abroad. That’s what we forget. I honour them. They should never have died.