Bernard Whimpress’s 2006 paper on ‘Creeping Anzacism’ has been on our site since 2013 (although we now have a version of it with footnotes, thanks to the author). We draw attention to the paper again for two reasons, first, because of its excellent analysis of what we have come to call ‘Anzackery’ – the overblown, sentimental and jingoistic version of the Anzac myth – particularly how Anzackery is shamelessly enlisted by politicians for their own purposes, and, secondly, because the examples the author uses (especially the football ones) are particularly relevant to South Australia, a state which, we must admit, does not feature as much as it should on the Honest History site and, indeed in the Australian commemoration canon as a whole. A couple of exceptions to this are the review by Peter Stanley – once resident of Whyalla, SA – of Valour and Violets, an official commemorative effort, and the review by Marian Quartly of the Griffith Review number on South Australia, State of Hope.
17 October 2018