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…