This song is sung a lot during ANZAC ceremonies (especially by school kids) but for some reason i can only find one version of it in existence on Youtube.
Managed to make it to the ANZAC Dawn Service today. I usually don't because i am just...never awake at that time but the effort was made this year as it's the special centenary commemoration - 100 years since our ANZAC troops landed at Gallipoli during WW1. It's a big thing and a lot of Australians travel to France and Turkey etc to be at key places of the war for us (we have one student rep from our island school who managed to win a place in the Student Premier's Tour and is now in Gallipoli for the dawn service there).
Also my cousin was one of the masters of ceremony so we had to be there at like 5am.
Anyway literally set like 2 alarms with my aunty ringing as the last line of defense. Which was good because i slept through the first one, woke up at the second but lay in bed wondering what had happened for like 5 minutes before my phone rang |D I have had maybe 4 hours of sleep and couldn't tie my shoelaces in the morning so forgive me if this journal is kinda cut and dry lol.
It was really dark when we got there. Free coffee/juice and ANZAC biscuits. My phone does not cope well with distance or bad lighting in terms of photos.
Also my cousin was one of the masters of ceremony so we had to be there at like 5am.
Anyway literally set like 2 alarms with my aunty ringing as the last line of defense. Which was good because i slept through the first one, woke up at the second but lay in bed wondering what had happened for like 5 minutes before my phone rang |D I have had maybe 4 hours of sleep and couldn't tie my shoelaces in the morning so forgive me if this journal is kinda cut and dry lol.
It was really dark when we got there. Free coffee/juice and ANZAC biscuits. My phone does not cope well with distance or bad lighting in terms of photos.
It was a pretty moving if not serious ceremony, backdropped with the sound of waking frigates overhead and waves crashing against the cliffs and nearby beach (and frying bacon behind us). And i do mean serious. Like, you want to clap for things but it seems wrong to so you dont. Also i don't know if it was intentional because of the serious occasion but we didn't actually sing the national anthem at all - we just had the music which was odd.
We also had some Navy personnel come onshore for officiality and a haka performed by some of the local Maori community reps and their group (not all of them are Maori or part Maori but i think they all learned the dance to pad the numbers). The haka was really good, you can tell who's good at it cos they can do the full on scary faces for it. Skills man.
Two people ended up fainting during the ceremony. Not sure what happened to the first one (luckily her husband and the people behind her caught her) but the second one has a medical history of it. Luckily we had a lot of medical personnel that happened to be around. And some guy forgot to turn his phone of so halfway during the 1 minute silence his phone went off and ironically blasted the first few bars to U2's "Beautiful Day"
Afterwards we all had a community breakfast and i've now spent the rest of the morning switching through channels watching all the ANZAC Day specials. The relationship between the Turkish soldiers and the ANZACs is particularly moving - even though they were killing each other for different agendas they all seemed to have a great respect for one another where it mattered.
We also had some Navy personnel come onshore for officiality and a haka performed by some of the local Maori community reps and their group (not all of them are Maori or part Maori but i think they all learned the dance to pad the numbers). The haka was really good, you can tell who's good at it cos they can do the full on scary faces for it. Skills man.
Two people ended up fainting during the ceremony. Not sure what happened to the first one (luckily her husband and the people behind her caught her) but the second one has a medical history of it. Luckily we had a lot of medical personnel that happened to be around. And some guy forgot to turn his phone of so halfway during the 1 minute silence his phone went off and ironically blasted the first few bars to U2's "Beautiful Day"
Afterwards we all had a community breakfast and i've now spent the rest of the morning switching through channels watching all the ANZAC Day specials. The relationship between the Turkish soldiers and the ANZACs is particularly moving - even though they were killing each other for different agendas they all seemed to have a great respect for one another where it mattered.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
- Mustafa Kemal (1st president of Turkey)
