I woke up today to news that some protestors had shown up to Anzac Day events in Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney to protest about something. I was shocked and bewildered about anyone finding any cause to protest on one of Australia’s and Aotearoa’s most important days. The truth, as it turned out, was much worse.
For those readers who may not be aware of Australian and Aotearoa history, let me explain a bit about Anzac Day and what it has come to mean. When England entered World War One against Germany and the other Axis powers in 1914, her colonies and former colonies followed suit. Australia had gone through federation in 1901, and was independent, but still answered the call. Troops were sent to Europe, but were diverted to Egypt for training out of consideration of the Anzacs’ perceived sensitivity to an English winter. When Turkiye entered the war on the side of the Axis powers, a plan was hatched to take them out of the war and open a supply route to Russia, an ally of England and France. The plan was to land troops on the Gallipoli Peninsular and drive towards the Bosporus and open up the sea lane to the Black Sea.
On April 25, 1915, Anzac troops landed on a beach now called Anzac Cove early in the morning. The beach was narrow with a steep climb up to extremely hilly country, full of gullies and steep ridges. The Turkish troops, commanded by the brilliant Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, were waiting on the cliff tops above and on the ridges around Anzac Cove. Anzacs suffered extremely heavy losses, but stayed on the beach and eventually pushed the Turks back. Other landings on the peninsular also met with withering resistance. The campaign lasted until October 1915, marked by battles which reduced units by as much as ninety percent. Ironically, the evacuation, assisted by an ingenious device which dripped water into cups attached to rifle triggers until they fired, was executed without a single casualty. With rifles still firing, the Turkish troops were unaware the Anzacs were legging it back to the boats.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives …
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours.
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
— Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, First President of the Turkish Republic, 1934
The experiences of Gallipoli not only forged a bond between former foes, as expressed in the words of the first president of the Turkish Republic, but it forged part of the identity of an emerging nation. For the first time, in 1915, Australian and Aotearoa troops had fought under the flags of their own nations. The bravery, the heroism, and the losses seeded the Australian ideal of the “digger,” someone who go the job done, no matter what barriers there were. The first Anzac Day was commerated in 1916, just a year after the landings.
In recent years, a Welcome to Country ceremony has been added to many Anzac Day events to acknowledge the First Nations people as custodians of the land veterans of many wars have returned to. This has been an important evolution in the Australian mindset regarding the indigenous people who have the longest continuous culture on the planet.
In 2026, it was this Welcome to Country ceremony which these so-called “protestors” were disrupting (1 News NZ). They were not protesting a war. They were not protesting atrocities being carried out in places like Nigeria, Gaza, Iran, and countless others. These “hecklers,” as they have been politely referred to, were simply racist wankers with delusions of adequacy.1 The individuals who took part in this insulting, shameful display were only there to try to put down the First Nations people in the name of a long history of abuse, oppression, and dispossession of the original people of the land. Their “protest” and their presence was a blight on Australia.
The response of the wider crowds was, in contrast, something to be admired. Crowds clapped louder and louder so these racist bags of crap could not be heard, and police acted quickly to move them on. They arrested one of the scum, and I personally think they should have arrested a tonne more. The wider response, “outrage” as it has been described as, speaks of a wider sense of awareness and acknowledgement that the First Nations have been treated atrociously in Australia and it is well past time they were not only acknowledged, but fully involved in the public and cultural landscape of the nation.
On a day when two nations pause and reflect on the sacrifices of their fallen, which is pretty much the only time the two nations pay any attention to that history at all, communities should be allowed to come together and remember their ancestors in peace and in solidarity.
For any who hold to the myth of race, and then presume to denigrate another human being for their perceived differences, I say “screw you.” What happened in Australia was sickening and vile.
These are my thoughts on Anzac Day 2026.
Lest We Forget.
Thank you to Weird Al Yankovic for this epitaph. See his song “White and Nerdy.”