ABSTRACT

This paper examines the convergence of national identities and war heritage, among first-, second- and third-plus-generation Australians. In Australia, interpretation of a First World War event, the Anzac story, is promoted as war heritage central to national identity. What meaning might this discourse have in today’s multicultural Australia? Qualitative interviews were conducted with 93 adult visitors to the Australian War Memorial, 37 of whom had recent migrant backgrounds from 20 countries of origin. The analysis applied ‘authorised heritage discourse’ (AHD) as a theoretical framework. Visitors displayed three different orientations to an AHD that merged war heritage with national identity. The dominant group positively aligned with the war heritage/national identity AHD. In this group, national identity is reinforced by those qualities typically ascribed as being forged out of the ANZAC’s experience. Those consciously aligned critique the mythological status of the Anzac legacy yet embrace it as important for national identities. Those resisting the war heritage/national identity AHD disrupt the often-assumed links between history, heritage and identities. These three orientations appear to be independent of the participants’ country of birth or cultural background, showing the constructed nature of heritage and fluidity of national identities.

摘要

本文研究了第一代，第二代和第三代澳大利亚人中民族身份和战争遗产的融合。在澳大利亚，人们将对第一次世界大战事件即安扎克故事的解释作为民族传统的战争遗产而得到推广。在当今的多元文化澳大利亚中，这种话语可能意味着什么？对澳大利亚战争纪念馆的93名成年访客进行了定性采访，其中37名具有来自20个原籍国的移民背景。该分析采用“授权遗产话语”（AHD）作为理论框架。参观者展示了AHD的三个不同方向，将战争遗产与民族特征融为一体。优势群体积极地结盟具有战争遗产/民族认同的AHD。在这个群体中，通常由于归因于ANZAC的经验而具有的那些特质，增强了民族认同感。那些自觉一致地批评安扎克遗产的神话地位，却认为它对民族认同很重要。那些抵制战争遗产/民族身份AHD的人破坏了人们通常认为的历史，遗产与身份之间的联系。这三个方向似乎独立于参与者的出生国或文化背景，显示出遗产的固有性质和民族身份的流动性。