Reflections on Anzac Day 2026, Marrickville Peace Park.
Over 100 people from a wide range of backgrounds and age groups attended this year’s Reflections on Anzac Day. As in previous years, the event was held in Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park. This was the eighth time that the event has been held in the Peace Park since 2016.
Organised by the Marrickville Peace Group (MPG) and facilitated by Nick Deane, the program included:
- Songs performed by a local combined choir
- Introductory remarks by MPG’s convenor
- Welcome to Country by Auntie Donna Ingram
- Speech by Melanie Morrison, Executive Director, Sydney Peace Foundation
- Speech by Councillor Izabella Antoniou
- Vivienne Martin’s commentary on the symbolism of the white poppy
- Additional songs by the local combined choir
- Laying of a bouquet at the Peace Tree
- Speech by Councillor Olivia Barlow
- Reading by Malcolm Fraser of Michael Thwaites’ poem ‘The Anzac Graves on Gallipoli’
- A minute of silence
- Raffle draw and refreshments.
Anzac Day Reflections
Anzac Day has become Australia’s principal occasion of remembrance for all the lives lost during WWI, including Gallipoli, as well as in the nation’s many foreign wars since then. Few people would query the significance or the need for such an event, regardless of the nature, the cause or the legitimacy of particular conflicts.
However, compared to official Anzac Day commemorations, an Anzac Day Reflection encompasses a number of distinctive features.
First, the tributes paid to the victims of WW1, and other wars, are inclusive. They include Aboriginal servicemen who lost their lives, those who returned brutalised and maimed by war, the grieving of loved ones and relatives on the homefront, as well those who were vilified and persecuted for opposing war and advocating peace.
Second, it rejects all the ‘add-ons’ that now seem inseparable from Anzac Day commemorations, including the pernicious fictions associated with the Anzac legend such as the nation was born as Gallipoli, our national identity was established in war time, we fought at Gallipoli for freedom and democracy and that our national values are military values.
Third, it raises hard questions about the disastrous Gallipoli campaign and other military engagements, such as: Why did we so readily go to war? What was achieved? and Were our overseas engagements in our long-term national interest?
It is contended that rather than glorifying military valour, we need to learn from past military tragedies so we can minimise the possibility of them occurring in the future.
Official Anzac Day commemorations, by militarising our history, have discouraged critical inquiry and contributed to suppressing public opposition to Australia’s engagement in foreign wars in support of ‘great and powerful friends’. In the past, this was Great Britain. Today it is the United States of America.1
Community Choir
A combined community choir comprising around 50 members opened the event by singing three songs. These included ‘Vine and Figtree’ and two songs by local musician and songwriter Christina Mimmocchi entitled ‘Let There Be’ and ‘Barraandjii, Yaguu, Barraabuuguu’, translated as ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow‘ from the Dharug language. These songs can be accessed here.2
Introductory Remarks
Nick Deane’s introductory remarks covered MPG’s formation in November 2002 which was prompted by the threat of a US-led invasion of Iraq. The invasion actually took place on 20th March 2003 and was carried out by a United States-led coalition of mainly American, British, Australian, and Polish troops.
This act of aggression, illegal under international law, was based on the lie that Iraq possessed ‘weapons of mass destruction’, a lie perpetrated by George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard. The war destabilised Iraq by creating a profound security and governance vacuum, causing widespread violence and sectarian conflict. These conditions significantly contributed to the emergence of the ‘Islamic State’.
Neither John Howard, nor anybody else in Australia, has ever been held to account for this crime.
In Britain, a public inquiry into the nation’s role in the Iraq War, known as the Chilcot Inquiry, was undertaken. In Australia, no comparable inquiry has ever taken place, despite calls for such an inquiry to be held.3
Moreover, the opportunity to learn from the intervention and to reform war powers, in other words to give the parliament responsibility for deciding to go to war, has been strenuously avoided by the major parties.
Prior to the Welcome to Country, words from former prime minister Paul Keating’s famous 1992 Redfern speech were read out, starting with the following passage:
“Isn’t it reasonable to say that if we can build a prosperous and remarkably harmonious multicultural society in Australia, surely we can find just solutions to the problems which beset the first Australians, the people to whom the most injustice has been done.”
As Keating pointed out:
“[I]t was we who did the dispossessing.
We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life.
We brought the diseases. The alcohol.
We committed the murders.
We took the children from their mothers.
We practised discrimination and exclusion.”
Regrettably, to this day, just solutions to the problems besetting Indigenous Australians have yet to found and implemented.
Later, Nick also quoted from historian Douglas Newton’s article ‘Anzac Day: remembering the perils of imperial subservience’:
“This Anzac Day, our leaders should resist the ‘jingofication’ of the day. They should acknowledge that the big lesson of 1915 is the peril of imperial subservience – if we cling like a pilot fish to a shark. They should vow that they will never deploy Australians to war, unless, incontrovertibly, it is as a last resort in a war of self-defence.”
Welcome to Country
Introduced by Joyce Fraser, an eloquent Welcome to Country was presented by Auntie Donna Ingram who currently lives on Bidjigal Country, near La Perouse, but still spends most of her time in Redfern because of family connections, social life and work.
Donna noted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples represented Australia in every war, even before they were counted as citizens in their own country. She also said: “With what is happening overseas, calling for peace has never been more urgent than it is now.”
Speech by Melanie Morrison
Following the Welcome to County, a speech was given by Melanie Morrison, Executive Director, Sydney Peace Foundation.4
During Melanie’s speech, mention was made of her mother, Marty, a dedicated human rights and peace activist for most of her life. Melanie said that she was lucky to have inherited many of her mother’s activist tendencies, among them letter writing and protesting.
Melanie also said that her mother, who passed away in September 2021, saw the beauty in life and had an abiding trust in humanity. This, however, was one attribute that Melanie did not share:
“As I see what’s going on in the world today, with the wars, the military build-up and the erosion of civil liberties, it’s hard to stay positive.”
Nevertheless, she said:
“Everybody here can make a difference. Everybody. You need to strategise. You need to organise. Even if it’s what you buy, where you invest your money, where your super is invested … Even gathering here today makes a difference.”
Melanie noted that last year the Sydney Peace Foundation awarded its Peace Prize to Judge Navi Pillay. Pillay was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa.
In a remarkable legal career, she also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court, was President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In more recent times, Pillay was Chair of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory which investigated Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Melanie’s speech concluded with the following quote from Pillay:
“We live in a world where voices for justice are louder, more connected, and more courageous than ever before. The path ahead is neither easy nor short, but it is a path we must walk together – with integrity, with compassion, and with determination.”
Speech by Councillor Izabella Antoniou
Cr Antoniou began her speech by noting that Sydney was the site of first invasion:
“On this day, and all days, we must remember the brutal slaughter and dispossession of First Nations peoples on this land – for the Frontier Wars, stolen children, and its current manifestation in police brutality towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Everything this government and this nation does, directly stems from this original violence and the attempt to sever knowledge and culture from this land and its custodians.”
Cr Antoniou emphasised that it is up to us to build an alternative world of peace and healing:
“Despite what many may say, peace is not a silent act. Peace is not soft. It is bold. It is tenacious. That is why I put my hand up time and time again to represent this area, because we deserve to be radical in the way we push back against wars and conflicts our governments continue to fan.”
Symbolism of the White Poppy
Following Cr Antoniou’s speech, Vivienne Martin stepped forward and talked about the white poppy’s symbolism.
She noted that the red poppy, born from the battlefields of Flanders to remember the soldiers who had died in the war – the ‘war to end all wars’ – quickly came to glorify war and ignored all those women, children and civilians who also died in war.
Vivienne noted that in 1933, the Co-operative Women’s Guild started making white poppies, an anti-war symbol used to protest against the glorification of war and to promote a “never again” message.
White poppies had been crocheted by local anti-war sympathisers and were made available to participants at the reflection.
Additional Songs
Next, the combined local choir sang two additional songs, namely the Palestinian ‘Lullaby’ and ‘Sing Peace Around the World’.
Laying of a Bouquet
The gathering then walked down to the Peace Tree which was planted during the Anzac Day Reflection held in 2016. There Auntie Donna Ingram was invited to lay a bouquet, donated by the Inner West Council, at the base of the Peace Tree.
Speech by Councillor Olivia Barlow
Cr Barlow began her speech by saying that when she was younger:
“I was told we were meant to remember so that we would never repeat the mistakes of the past, that we should reflect on the cruelty and futility of sending the poor to fight rich men’s wars so we would make different and peaceful choices.”
However, since then, Cr Barlow said:
“(W)e have stubbornly and purposely ignored every lesson from WWI, other than how to glorify war in the service of profit. Australia’s involvement with AUKUS is just the latest in generations of aggressive imperialist agendas that leave tens of thousands of innocent people across the globe dead, wounded, starving, separated from their families, unable to ever return to their homelands.”
It was emphasised that we can all find ways to advocate for peace in our own spheres of influence.
Cr Barlow said that recently she put a motion to the Inner West Council, which will be voted on at the upcoming National General Assembly (NGA) of Local Government, calling on the Federal Labor government to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in this term of government. The NGA will be held in Canberra from 23–25 June 2026.5
It was noted that we have waited too long for this commitment from Federal Labor who have been elected twice since they made it their campaign promise.
Cr Barlow concluded her speech with the following plea:
“Don’t give up even though the world seems always to be on fire. Keep advocating for peace in all that you do.”
‘The Anzac Graves on Gallipoli’
Following Cr Barlow’s speech, Malcolm Fraser from MPG recited some verses from Michael Thwaites’ poem ‘The Anzac Graves on Gallipoli’, a poem he said that acknowledges the human cost of war and asks if we will decide to engage in a struggle for peace.
At the end of the reading, a minute’s silence was observed.
Raffle Draw and Refreshments
The gathering subsequently returned to the upper part of the Peace Park where a raffle was drawn. The prizes included a cookbook with a focus on native ingredients and the book ‘A Time for Bravery: What happens when Australia chooses courage?’ donated by The Australia Institute.
Refreshments, including homemade snacks, were provided after the raffle.
Annual General Meeting
MPG is to hold a general meeting in the Pavilion next to the Marrickville Library on 20 June 2026 to discuss plans for the peace group’s future. More details about this meeting will be available on MPG’s website closer to the date..
Notes
1. Refer to Marilyn Lake’s lecture ‘Beyond the Legend of Anzac’, for a discussion of the primacy of military history in Australia’s national story, and how this has led to other aspects of the country’s history being forgotten. ABC RN, Hindsight, 26 April 2009.
2. Below are links to the YouTube videos used in this post:
– https://youtu.be/
– https://youtu.be/
3. David Wroe, ‘Chilcot report: Andrew Wilkie blames Iraq invasion for Lindt Cafe siege as inquiry sets off aftershocks in Australia’, SMH, Jul 7, 2016.
4. The Sydney Peace Foundation officially became an independent not-for-profit organisation in mid-2025, ending a 27-year affiliation with the University of Sydney. While separating legally to pursue broader advocacy, the Foundation maintains ties through a multi-year sponsorship agreement with the university’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for key events.
5. TPNW’s signature and ratification status among independent Pacific countries can be found here.