As an Aboriginal person who had family serve in World War I, I am acutely aware that there are many Aboriginal families who had relatives who fought at Gallipoli.I am nevertheless always deeply concerned each Anzac Day about the way in which Gallipoli has become so politicised in the evolving memory of so many Australians. As historian Don Watson has written, "the more politicians and media commentators talk of the values of Anzac Day, traduce it for convenient contemporary instruction and daub themselves with the soldiers' moral courage, the more like a kitsch religion it becomes".

In the process of the politicisation of Anzac Day and events almost a century ago on the Gallipoli peninsula, I feel that many Australians are further entrenching an attitude of denial about key aspects of their own history. They are seeking to divert attention away from earlier wars that had more to do with defining the Australian national character than Gallipoli did. By that I mean the colonial "wars" that many in Australia still have great difficulty in even accepting as wars.

Illustration: Simon Letch

The politicisation of our historical memory can be seen through two phases. The first phase was the sudden outburst of patriotic nationalism that emerged during the 1988 bicentennial celebrations. This event was tagged in a multimillion-dollar publicity campaign as the "Celebration of a Nation", a slogan that was at the time parodied by Aboriginal activists as the "Masturbation of the Nation". But it was this occasion, presided over by then Labor prime minister Bob Hawke, that led to the beginning of the phenomenon where young Australians bedeck themselves with Aussie flags and become patriotically drunk on nationalistic occasions such as Australia Day and Anzac Day.

The other phase occurred during the period of John Howard's prime ministership when two things happened. The first was when Howard attended the 90th anniversary of the ill-fated Gallipoli landing on Anzac Day in 2005 and declared that the Anzac legend had helped Australians define themselves. He said: "Anzac Day is a chance to reflect with pride on what it means to be Australian and the values we hold dear: determination, courage, compassion and resourcefulness".