Fighting for Peace.
The Anzacs revisited: A Century of Spirit and Sacrifice.
A commemorative exhibition about shifting socio-political paradigms over time and changing approaches to the paradox of achieving harmony.
Cross-cultural Exhibition.
RSL Historian, Sally Duncan, received a portrait of her mother, Betty at the exhibition’s opening. The photograph was gifted to Sally as recognition of her mother's longstanding and innovative involvement in the RSL. Like her mother, Sally continues to make valuable contributions to the Clunes RSL and local community. The photograph by, Bohnchang Koo was part of a cross-cultural exhibition with Korea in the spirit of Goldfields-born, nineteenth and twentieth century photographer, George Rose.
Mosiac of Experiences.
Curated by Dr Michael Taffe, from the Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History (CRCAH) at Federation University, the space established a reflective tone among visitors from within and outside the region.
We were fortunate to also collaborate with the RSL through using the space to display some historical information, memorabilia and artefacts that shed light on Clunes and district connections through various war contexts. The approach complemented existing pieces at the RSL, including contemporary sculptural artwork created by Rebecca Russell.
We were also privileged to have Dr Carolyn Holbrook, Director of Australian Policy and History at Deakin University, attend the Exhibition Opening as a guest speaker who noted how: Patsy Adam-Smith understood that a mythology based on the Anzacs could plug the national identity hole. ‘In the almost epicless land that is Australia the diaries of these men became our Homeric Iliad’, she wrote in The Anzacs. Things in the Fighting for Peace exhibition were part of the mosaic of experiences of ordinary men and women at the heart of how we remember Anzac…
“The ‘one’ that I am is composed of narratives that overlap, run parallel to, and often contradict one another”
– Glenn Ligon