Folklore, History and Myth at an Anzac Memorial

Abstract

This paper uses a small case study of a World War 1 memorial in suburban Perth (WA) to show how the local, the state and the national resonances of Anzac have been mythologised from 1915 to the present. It looks at the folklore of the digger, the official observation and maintenance of Anzac and the relationship between these elements of the mythology and Australian national identity. In closing, this paper also makes an argument for the importance of accounting for myth as well as history in understanding the powerful complexities of remembrance, mourning, nation and identity.