We woke up at 4:30 AM to go down to the Civic Center for the Anzac Day Dawn Ceremony. Today is a national holiday in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the landing at Gallipoli in the First World War, where over 10,000 Australia/New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) men died in a futile attempt to invade Turkey.

Here in Derby, the Police, Fire Brigade, Scouts and some veterans made a predawn parade through the streets to the War Memorial on the lawn in front of the Shire Offices. About 200 people stood in the darkness for the service, which included prayers, a short address, songs, the national anthems of both countries, and finally the Final Post, the Anzac prayer, and closing with Reveille.

Most of the crowd were European descendants, although there were a scattering of Aboriginal people present. After attending Anzac Services 2 years ago in New Zealand, we had been curious to see how Anzac Day was celebrated in the Kimberly, in this land where the indigenous people do not speak the name of the dead or look at their pictures. The SBS News tonite had coverage of the first-ever Aboriginal Anzac Day Parade in Sydney. My medical students were not aware that any Aboriginal people had served at Gallipoli, but the truth is that Aboriginal people have served Australia since the Boer Wars. It is hard to tell exact numbers, because they were required to deny their Aboriginality by passing as white, or Pacific Islander or Maori in order to join up. But current estimates place about 500 Aboriginal soldiers at Gallipoli and over 5000 serving in WW2, with more serving in VietNam, the Solomons, and now in the Middle East.

The Anzac service is meaningful and poignant. We arise at dawn, as traditionally soldiers were awakened before dawn to stand watch, it being the favored time for the enemy to attack. The grey light filters through the boab trees, turning crimson on the horizon, mixing with the words of remembrance, and the haunting sounds of bagpipes, and finally, the call of the bugle.

Winston Peters, the Foreign Minister of New Zealand spoke at Gallipoli today, and we found his words chilling. When talking about the needless loss of ANZAC troops due to failures by their British leaders, he said:

" "They were to learn that courage and natural ability cannot compensate for failures in planning, leadership and logistics."

It is sad to contemplate that 92 years later, similar mistakes have been made in the Middle East by our own country and our Australian and British allies.

Also from Winston Peters' speech:

"After the war, it was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a divisional commander at Gallipoli and later founder of the Turkish Republic, who paved the way for reconciliation.

His generous words, which are engraved on the battlefield here and on the memorial to Atatürk back home in Wellington, continue to have resonance for New Zealanders and will never be forgotten.

'In remembering the suffering and loss on both sides, let us commit ourselves to working for a world where differences between nations can be resolved without resort to war.

That is the way that we can best honour the men who fought and died here.' "

The ANZAC Dedication:
For the Fallen
by Laurence Binyon

They shall not grow old,
As we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.
We will remember them.