Research Overview

Obviously the framing of whatever artifact I eventually chose is going to have a large impact on what sort of questions I am going to ask, and therefore investigate. By this, I mean in what realm are we framing this particular artifact, is it personal? Meant for only a few people to have and cherish and give meaning? Or is this artifact's existence destined for something widespread, impactful, and insightful?

I am currently thinking about doing a song called “And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” by Scottish born Australian singer Eric Bogle, written in 1971. The artifact itself is essentially a secondary source of the Gallipoli Campaign which began in 1915, when the Allied powers tried to make way for a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles strait in Turkey (which was at the time a part of the ottoman empire and who allied themselves with the central powers of WW1). The artifact was plainly made for a public audience, possibly because the writer thought that the younger generation of Australians didn’t understand the importance of the ANZAC tradition, even in the song Eric writes that there is a young boy asking him why they are marching in a parade. The artifact is a song, performed in many places, and recorded in Australia. Eric Bogle Even performed the song at the Dawn Service in Gallipoli in April 25th 2015 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli Campaign. The song is not like those of its time, there were not many war songs circulating the Australian airways in 1971, for the year was so long forgotten, but it may be seen that this song brought about a revolution in the way Australians celebrate Anzac Day and the commemoration of Anzacs in general.

This artifact can be seen as more than simply a “thing”. There are many reasons it was created, and people have made many more meanings for what it stands for. It is not disrespected in any way, for if someone were to disrespect such an artifact they would be disrespecting Australia in one of its most purest forms. For while Aussie nationalism lives in a similar fashion to American nationalism, there is not as much of a “Heck Yeah, Hoo-rah” feeling. The Australians think much more about their losses then their victories, and for the small amount of military involvement Australia has been in (Small compared to the United States, but very much still a big player), Australia does not celebrate almost single handed victories as the Americans do. Because of this, people give a lot of meaning to this one individual event because in truth there is not a lot of military involvement to celebrate or mourn.

The song was made to obviously bring up a somewhat forgotten subject in Australian life, although the subject is not necessarily controversial, for the event was simply forgotten, or not given as much attention as it should have been getting from the australian citizens. This song, while aimed at Australian and New Zealand soldiers, is a stark reminder for any war the tragedy that occurs when people try to kill each other. It is a universal story told from the perspective of a young Australian man. By combining this story with one of the most famous poems in Australia’s history “Waltzing Matilda” by Banjo Paterson. This poem, which is regarded as a “True Blue” piece of “Australiana” contains in it such a deep tradition of Australia, so when Eric Bogle combined this into his song about wartime with Australians, the Aussie Culture then also had to make it become a “True Blue”. This artifact is more so about the Australian culture than any others, which sort of bars other cultures from taking part in its meaning, although there is some reference to Turkish forces of the ottoman empire, there isn’t much for them to connect with.

The most important thing when looking at this song is looking at what historical questions can this artifact answer? What does it do for us? Yes there are benefits to asking questions about it, for certain we get a glimpse of what Australians think about the Gallipoli Campaign, but what else can we derive from it? Can we find unexplored emotions regarding this song or is its being actually limiting in some ways, by giving people one experience on a certain event that has possibly a thousand other accounts? These are the harder questions, just how much can we learn from something like this, will it be useful information that we find?