2022: ANZAC Day Dimming
April 25, 2022
By AHNZ
I’ve attended ANZAC Dawn Service at numerious towns in Australia and New Zealand but this year, once again, there are none within reach.
This year the Returned Services Associations are really phoning it in quite literally. It’s as if they were all getting government grants for AV equipment and large screens (perhaps with the requirement that they be purchased from some nephew or husband of a Labour 6.0 MP?) So, instead of getting out of bed and participating in the ritual we are told to enjoy a Youtube or Social Media Stream or watch Maori TV.
ANZAC Day was never built to last. It’s another day when New Zealanders avoid thinking and talking and remembering what really happened in our wars while simultaniously declairing ‘we will remember them.’ Of course we wont. Greeks and Romans long gone certainly will have said the same thing about their own wars and loved ones but who remembers for them now? Even our own New Zealand Southern Provinces Almanac from the 1850s is full up of battles and events and deaths that we today have absolutely no recolletion or connection to. Exception: The Anarchist History of New Zealand post about the same.
ANZAC Day has to pass away some time just as sure as Empire Day and New Zealand Day are gone and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the street who knew such days ever existed. It’s passing away more and more but not openly and deliberately. It has been undermined quietly and, especially this year, voluntarily.
Auckland Domain Dawn Service…Members of the public are encouraged to stay at home and watch the service on Māori Television
Auckland Domain Civic Service…Cancelled
Mt Albert Civic Service: Online service: 9.30am. This event will be live-streamed and displayed on a large screen outside the hall.
Mt Roskill Online Service: Note: There will be a small service held on site with a limit of 100..However, the service will be live-streamed, so the public can join.
Mt Wellington/Panmure Service and Ceremony…Entry will be granted to those with a Covid-19 passport and wearing a mask while inside. Those on the parade should also wear a mask and keep a minimum of 1 metre separation.
St Heliers Video Display: This year, there will not be an Anzac Day service held in St Heliers. The public is invited to watch an Anzac Day-themed video playing at the St Heliers War Memorial
Birkenhead Online Service: There will be no public service held this year as the RSA will be hosting an online service for the public
Devonport Online Service: There will be no public outdoor service held this year. However, the RSA will be hosting a live-streamed service for the public
Helensville Civic Service: Please comply with any Government mandates.
Few Auckland communities are holding Dawn Services at all. Only a generation ago that would have been an outrage. In 2019 the event was already being disrupted in an attempt to pacify possible terror threats. Ref. Auckland Council cuts 84 Anzac services down to 26 over terror fears, Newshub (2019) That year the ill-fated Titahi Bay RSA even tried to insert an Muslim prayer into their Dawn Service. Ref. Muslim prayer at Anzac Day service upsets RSA veterans, Stuff (2022.)
Then, in the pandemic year of 2020, the Government (NZ Defence Force, Prime Minister,..) insisted that “Anzac commemorations will have to be done differently this year.” That was the second year of disruption and it was called ‘Stand At Dawn’ where we bravely walked to the edge of our roads and called it a “parade.”¹
“Across the country, people stood at their driveways this morning to commemorate Anzac Day with “individual acts of commemoration”…Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said: “While we cannot physically come together, I know we are united by our respect for our veterans and our service personnel.” – Stand At Dawn, RNZ (2020)
“Initiated by the New Zealand Defence Force and the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association, the Stand At Dawn campaign calls for…Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Anzac commemorations will have to be done differently this year with Anzac Day being commemorated under lockdown or still highly restrictive level three conditions and all services cancelled around the country.” – Anzac Day commemorations at your doorstep, RNZ (2020)
“RSA membership peaked at 136,000 in 1947, with the influx of World War II veterans. Historian Stephen Clarke reckoned the movement “reached its zenith” in the 1950s. But societal changes have meant a slow decline for RSA clubrooms over the past two decades. In the RSA’s official history, Clarke wrote of many clubs having “cavernous, tired, unwelcoming environments”” – The battle for the Titahi Bay RSA, Stuff (2022)
“I doubt these old chains have ever missed a dawn parade and they aren’t going to miss one on my watch” – New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom in 2020 missing the dawn parade. Ref. Facebook 2020
Besides, according to Pressure and Release Statecraft the right move to make was to let up on we herd animals of the taxpayer plantation. “Pressure and release training is a form of negative reinforcement training that is commonly used with horses. If you are standing at the horse’s hindquarter and want him to take a step away from you, you push into his leg with your hand. As soon as he steps away, you release the pressure.”² The pressure came back again in our Third Quarter with Labour 6.0’s new version of COVID. When they had the Boomers buying in to the jab campaign in August 2021 it became clear we had been set up.
So, ANZAC 2022, as we see above, returns to this 4 year trend of covert dismantling. My objection isn’t so much that ANZAC has to go. Everything must pass. As a nation, however, we ought to be going through our development consciously and making transparent decisions about our identity. Instead, we’re being passively acted upon and duped and misinformed and misdirected.
I’m impressed by the few Auckland RSAs that did buck the trend and insist on holding a Dawn Service. Waiheke Island, Parakai, Pukekohe, Papakura, Otahuhu, Howick, Beachlands, and Wellsford who explicitly say ” Please note a Vaccine Pass will NOT be required at the RSA Clubrooms on the day.” Some of those places were Fencibles Settlers and perhaps the blood has not run thin?
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2 Ref. Horse Rookie
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