2018 10 12 Visit to War Memorial – Exhibitions and Honour Their Spirit Poppy Display
This was an excursion with Melba Shed men to the Australian War Memorial to see After the War Exhibition as well as to see the Honour Their Spirit Poppy Display which is part of the 100th Year Armistice Remembrances
Featured image is a view of the Poppy Display outside the Australian War Memorial Canberra
A large number of us old guys from Melba Shed visited the AWM hoping to see a new exhibition and look at the Poppy Display outside.
The weather was cloudy and cool and some slight drizzle was falling outside at times.
One reason to visit the AWM was to see the new exhibition After The War which runs from 5th Oct 2018 for one year. The exhibition’s objective was to explore the impact and legacy of conflict on Australia from WWI until the present. It looks at a range of issues such as soldier settlement, dealing with disability and the impact on those whose loved ones did not return.
While an admirable objective and no doubt it contains a vast quantity of great stories, I found it hard to absorb as much of the displays were in a dark environment with lighting behind. Lighting should have been directed onto the display so that the objects were easy to see and text easy to read. Yet the opposite was my experience, with many things hard to see or read. There were many cases of reflections and shadows compounding the issues. There were some nice displays where you could scroll to various images, enlarge them and even enlarge the text. However the overall context was of darkness.
Maybe this was the intention as the aftermath of war is often sombre reflection or extreme darkness for many. However in an exhibition people need to be able to see things clearly. In the latter I think the exhibition failed.
After looking at this exhibition and briefly visiting the Aircraft Hall, I and another, Steve went outside to look at the extensive hand crafted poppy display which is part of activities to Honour Their Spirit in the run up to the 100th anniversary of the Armistice in WWI on 11th Nov 2018. The Poppy Display is indeed impressive with one poppy having been crafted and laid out for each of the nearly 62,000 Australian servicemen and women who lost their lives in that horrible war, including one of my Great Uncles, Fred Craig of the 12th Battalion, 1st Division. Fred served at Gallipoli and much of the Western Front before dying in North France on 24th April 1918.
