Programs and Activities - 2005
Canada and Australia: Experiences of War
On the day before Remembrance Day, the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies and the War, State, Civilisation and Community research group at the University of Wollongong hosted a seminar about Canada and Australia's experience of World War Two featuring discussion by Professor Jeffery Keshen, from the University of Ottawa.
Professor Keshen, a 20th-century Canadian history expert, offered insights into the parallel experiences of the two nations during the war. He established that both countries grew as a nation after the war, in part because of its brutal human cost and the soul searching it entailed.
“The war was the most important event in 20th-century Canadian history,” said Keshen. “It left a stronger, more confident nation, it's just tragic that these realizations were made through war.”
Keshen argued that the war's end led to the basis for the modern welfare state, increased accessibility to remote Canadian regions, provided more opportunity for women and encouraged Canada to become involved in, and to try to solve, international grievances.
Audience discussion illustrating the similarities between Canada and Australia's experience followed. However differences between the two nations' war efforts were also discussed, largely in relation to American war efforts in Vietnam and the current Iraq War. One audience member suggested that Australia seems to embrace the American war stance because they are so geographically far away, while Canada pushes it away because of its proximity to the superpower.
The audience also sought to better understand the regional Canadian attitudes towards the World War effort. The French Canadian stance in particular was discussed with many audience members from the School of History and Politics offering their own interpretations of this unique regional relationship to the collective war effort.
Professor Keshen's keynote address was followed by an afternoon session of presentations by PhD candidates including: Linda Wade, who discussed ‘'Still Clinging Daughterwise: The Memorial to the AIF at Villers Bretonneux,' John Kwok, who discussed ‘The Australian 8 th Battalion and the Battle for Singapore ' and Karl James who presented ‘The Final Campaigns: Bougainville 1944-45'.
The event was a resounding success, both because of the contribution of the speakers, but also because of the way it brought a comparative light on one of the major events in contemporary world history. |
