Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408:front:0:p293
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00408
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of the Canberra community connected to Defence, this may add to the recognition of the importance of Anzac Parade.  Canberra people like to impress their visitors with the 'wow' factor in looking down the axis from each end,

    'The vision splendid does resonate very strongly with the Canberra community'  (Focus Group 2)

But as well, there is the pleasure for those who have served when they see 'others who have not served in the Defence Services show their respect and gratitude to those who did' (Pat, Focus Group 1).

Some focus group participants saw Anzac Parade as largely 'the preserve of people who have served the country in uniform' compared to the large number of visitors to the Australian War Memorial for whom Anzac Parade is,

    'mainly a view to parliament.  The memorials belong to the people who have served and their families... and for many visitors there is ignorance about its significance'  (Pete, Focus Group 2)

    'All who have served in Australian defence forces would be proud to march down there and would feel a sense of national pride – not in any vainglorious way but to say I served my country, I am proud to be an Australian, I am proud just to be here.'  (Peter, Focus Group 1)

Asked who would defend Anzac Parade if it was threatened, participants in the second focus group said that 'Service people would be in the vanguard'.

Doyle suggests the memorials are part of a larger military history narrative and also one that links to our perceptions and memories of the particular times associated with each conflict,

    'the axis of Anzac Parade inscribes the military narrative connecting the War Memorial to the Parliamentary triangle as symbolic of some aspects of a national image... the various memorials and monuments, even shrines, can be read as paragraphs within that narrative of Australian military history.  The variety of memorial, monument and statue along the parade speaks another series of narratives... in the vocabulary of public monumental or 'sacred' special space art.  And those narratives are reflective of their own times of construction as much as their designers desire them to be reflective of the times which they commemorate.  So the Korean Memorial is clearly aimed at being reflective of the 1950s, but is equally or more clearly a late twentieth century memory of the 1950s.'  (Doyle 2000, p. 9)

Each memorial is equally filled with symbols that require a careful, informed reading.  For example, describing the symbols contained in the Vietnam memorial, one participant commented,

    'The memorials while they have an explanatory plaque... it hardly scratches the surface of what the memorial is about... for example the MIA seats... Where are the seats positioned?