Colonial war grief and gendered mourning: How women’s black attire exposed systemic erasure of Anzac’s violent origins
Original framing: “The first Anzac Day was marked by women wearing mourning black” — The Conversation - Global
The 1916 black attire echoes Victorian widowhood culture, where black signified respectability and moral authority—tools later co-opted by the state to frame war as a 'noble sacrifice.' This mirrors how WWI memorials in Europe and Australia were used to legitimise conscription and suppress anti-war movements. The Gallipoli campaign itself was a colonial enterprise, with ANZAC troops fighting under British imperial command to secure Ottoman territories.
The 1916 black-clad women at Anzac Day’s inception were not an anomaly but a symptom of a colonial system that weaponised grief to legitimise war while erasing its victims.
This narrative, perpetuated by institutions like the Australian War Memorial and platforms like *The Conversation*, serves a settler-colonial project that prioritises white mourning over Indigenous dispossession and pacifist resistance. Historically, the Anzac myth mirrors other colonial memorials—from South Africa’s *Voortrekker Monument* to the U.S. *Alamo*—where state-sponsored grief obscures structural violence. Cross-culturally, Indigenous and pacifist traditions offer alternatives: Māori *tangihanga* centres communal healing, while Buddhist *dukkha* critiques war’s cyclical suffering. A systemic solution requires decolonising rituals, expanding memorial spaces to include marginalised voices, and teaching history through the lens of structural violence—transforming Anzac Day from a tool of militarism into a platform for truth and reconciliation.