Writer, award-winning broadcaster, lawyer and research professor at Monash University and Adelaide University’s JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice, Steve Vizard, gave a very interesting and informative presentation recently at the ANU’s Kambri Centre. Speaking about his latest book, Nation, Memory, Myth. Gallipoli and the Australian Imaginary, Professor Vizard described how it shows the power of symbolism and myth in unifying a nation and its citizens. In describing what a myth is, he made the point that it can be so powerful as to “make people do things that are irrational”. He went on to outline how many features of the Anzac legend including spirit, egalitarianism and mateship have been enthusiastically enunciated by the media, politicians and others, with the story becoming unchallengeable, and sacred. “Anyone who dares to challenge the myth” would be dismissed and put in their place. And that people in their thousands “turn up at 4am every Anzac Day to attend Anzac events” across Australia demonstrates the power of the myth. Hardly surprisingly, Professor Vizard’s talk was scintillating, and the book a good read. He is renowned for his roles in helping to create, write and produce many television shows such as Fast Forward, Big Girls Blouse, The Micallef Program and Seachange, has hosted his own Gold Logie-winning show, Tonight Live and written and/or edited books on many subjects including Australia’s Constitutional Convention. Among his other roles, Professor Bongiorno is currently President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Whitlam Institute Distinguished Fellow at Western Sydney University.
