03 December 2012
Multiculturalism will play a significant role in commemorating the Anzac Centenary according to a new BBC World Service documentary produced and presented by University of South Australia researcher Sharon Mascall-Dare.
Five years in the making, the radio documentary ANZAC is part of Mascall-Dare’s PhD research into the Anzac legend at UniSA’s School of Communication, International Studies and Languages.
Co-presented with renowned author and historian Thomas Keneally, the documentary includes an interview with Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, Chair of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board. It also features interviews with Australian veterans and historians as well as younger Australians from a range of cultural backgrounds, taking listeners on a journey from Australia to the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey.
“The Anzac story is an Australian story, a story of courage and resilience, but it’s also about mateship in an international context, connecting Australians to other nations who’ve also experienced the horrors of war in the last century,” Mascall-Dare says.
“After spending time at Gallipoli and attending Anzac Day services in Australia and Singapore, I discovered that multiculturalism has always been part of this Anzac story. Australian troops fought alongside many nationalities at Gallipoli including troops from French Colonial Africa and India as well as France, Britain and New Zealand.”
Mascall-Dare, who wrote The Anzac Day Media Style Guide earlier this year, says the documentary will also reveal the forgotten stories of Anzac Day.
“The documentary includes Australians who have been left out of the Anzac story until now. We hear about Anzacs from Chinese backgrounds and Indigenous backgrounds. Their stories are now being rediscovered, as Australia prepares to mark the Anzac Centenary in 2015,” she says.
ANZAC will be aired by the BBC World Service from Saturday December 8 and rebroadcast in Australia via ABC radio. The first broadcast will coincide with the anniversary of the start of evacuations from the Gallipoli peninsula 97 years ago in 1915.
Mascall-Dare will present a preview of the documentary at the launch of Legacies of War, the latest publication of UniSA’s Narratives of War Research Group. The launch will take place on Friday December 7 at UniSA’s Magill Campus.
For more information and broadcast information, click here.
Media Contact
Rosanna Galvin office (08) 8302 0578 mobile 0434 603 457 email rosanna.galvin@unisa.edu.au
