This year’s Anzac Day Reflection was held at the traditional site of Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park on Thursday 25th April. Organised by the Marrickville Peace Group (MPG), it attracted over 100 people. In addition, a combined choir, assembled from three local choirs and comprising around 40 singers, sang a number of peace songs during the event. Continue reading Anzac Day Reflection – 25th April 2024
On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively.
It is estimated that the two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians. For months afterward, many people continued to perish from the effects of burns, radiation sickness, and injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition. As well, the loss of life from radiation-induced cancer occurred for decades afterwards. Continue reading Hiroshima Day Rally – Sydney 6th August 2022
This year’s Anzac Day Reflection was held in Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park. This was the eighth time that the event has been held in Marrickville Peace Park since 2014, with no event occurring in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Organised by the Marrickville Peace Group, the event attracted around 50 people. In the spirit of genuine remembrance, these events offer participants the opportunity to ask some hard questions, such as how our nation became involved in wars abroad, what purposes were actually being served, and what mistakes were made in prolonging hostilities. Continue reading Anzac Day Reflection 2022
This year’s Anzac Day Reflection was held in Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park.
The occasion offered participants an opportunity to remember the loss of Australian servicemen and women in WW1 and subsequent wars, along with the physical harm and psychological trauma suffered by others that served, as well as the grief endured by their families.
As the name suggests, however, Anzac Day Reflections aim to do more than recognise Australian casualties resulting from military service in foreign lands. In the spirit of genuine remembrance, they offer participants the opportunity to ask some hard questions, such as how our nation became involved in these wars, what purposes were actually being served, and what mistakes were made in prolonging hostilities. Continue reading Anzac Day Reflection 2021
For the fourth year in a row, members of Marrickville Peace Group have made their own, special contribution to the official Armistice Day event. This year, six stood in solemn vigil outside the cordon surrounding the service at the Cenotaph in Martin Place. Each displayed the Quaker slogan “HONOUR THE WAR DEAD BY ENDING WAR!”
Due to the coronavirus, no public gatherings to commemorate Anzac Day will be held around the country this year. This has also resulted in the cancellation of the alternative Anzac Day Reflection which was scheduled to take place at the Marrickville Peace Park in Sydney.
This circumstance, however, opens up an opportunity for the Australian community to move away from Anzac Day ceremonies that have become so commercialised and politicised in recent decades.
In particular, it offers the opportunity for people, young and old, to critically reflect upon the Anzac legend and the historical distortions that this myth entails.
As in past years, MPG will be active again on Remembrance Day – Monday, November 11. The group aims to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, Sydney. The wreath will have white and yellow flowers (white for peace and yellow in recognition of service personnel who have taken their own lives). It will bear the slogan used in previous actions – ‘Honour the War Dead by Ending War!’
Read the media release here.
Postscript
A wreath, procured by Antoinette Riley, was laid at the Cenotaph. Peter Griffin (in the photo) and Nick Deane represented MPG.
On November 11th members of Marrickville Peace Group plan to attend the ‘official’ Remembrance Day ceremony at the War Memorial in Hyde Park, Sydney. Whilst there, the group will display the slogan ‘Honour the War Dead by Ending War!’ and have a flyer with a message of peace ready for distribution.
Last year MPG members unfurled a banner with the same slogan at the Cenotaph. It caused some negative responses, so this year we aim to be more discrete. We intend hanging small (A5) placards, with the same slogan, around our necks.
MPG would be delighted if others choose to stand with the group.
Members of MPG attended the Cenotaph in Martin Place for the Remembrance Day service on November 11, 2017. They displayed a banner saying ‘Honour the War Dead by Ending War!’ and distributed a flyer to explain why they were there. There was a generally positive response, but some of the military community clearly resented our presence and our message. Another photo.