PDF (Whole Thesis) - USQ ePrints - University of Southern ...

A people with a sense of a fair go for all carved deep into our national soul.
A people also alert to the needs of our friends and allies.
These are the values which summoned forth the sons and daughters of ANZAC
over the last 100 years from our smallest towns, our greatest cities and our most
remote outback. (Rudd, 2008, lines 19-29)
The portrayal of the ANZAC legend (within the context of the history/culture wars in
education) can be seen to have reached a pinnacle in 2006 with the selection of an image of
the well known WWI soldier, Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick 19 and his donkey for the
Australian Federal Government’s Department of Education, Science and Training poster,
Values for Australian schooling, mandated by the Australian Government to be posted in a
prominent place in every school across Australia (see Naylor, 2007 for a detailed response to
the selection of Simpson and his donkey and the ensuing debates). The decision made by
Education Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson to have Simpson as the face of values in Australian
schools was one which within itself caused controversy, not much less the debate surrounding
the actual nine values selected for Australian school children to learn.
The debate surrounding Simpson and his donkey, this time unlike most other major turning
points in the history/culture wars, originated from school discourses and then entered the
public domain. So fierce was the debate surrounding whether Simpson and his donkey
represented core Australian values, with a renewed call for Simpson to be awarded the
Victoria Cross made by one side of the debate and the other side against a soldier
representing Australian values in schools. The poster survived the public debates, a triumph
for the conservative Howard government. This did not go unnoticed by conservative-minded
commentators, such as Gerard Henderson, who in an article titled ‘A legend wins the culture
wars’ and printed on Anzac Day, wrote:
19 John Simpson Kirkpatrick has become the ‘face’ of Anzac Day, representative of Australian soldiers and a
more broad understanding of ‘mateship’. Nominated for, but did not receive, a Victoria Cross for Bravery,
Kirkpatrick, known most commonly as Simpson and his Donkey, taxied wounded soldiers on the back of a
donkey from the battlefield of Gallipoli to receive medical attention on the beach of Anzac Cove. He was killed
by gunfire within four weeks of landing at Gallipoli. He has since become synonymous with courage as part of
the Anzac legend mythmaking.
476