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Hannaford, John & Janice Newton: Sacrifice

Hannaford, John & Janice Newton

Sacrifice, grief and the sacred at the contemporary “secular” pilgrimage to Gallipoli‘, Borderlands, 7, 1, 2008

Looks at Gallipoli travel from a religious perspective. The authors were from the Australian College of Ministries and the University of Ballarat.

This article argues that the, sometimes contentious, behaviour of travellers to Anzac commemorations at Gallipoli represents in part a spiritual phenomenon and a true pilgrimage, indicative of general movements in Australia towards the episodic spiritual and the memorialisation of death. The argument derives from primary participant observation and interviews during Anzac 2000 at Gallipoli and interviews in Australia with a tour operator, a politician [Con Sciacca, then Minister for Veterans’ Affairs] who organised the 80th anniversary tour in 1995 and a young man representing his state on this tour. Travel to the Anzac commemoration at Gallipoli fits the paradigm of an ideal type pilgrimage. Patterns of grief and sacrifice and the search for a cultural centre support the notion that it can be seen as truly spiritual. The Gallipoli phenomenon may exemplify a current Australian trend towards re-sacralisation, embodying forms of spirituality beyond the institutional church. (abstract)