ANZAC Day, Australia + New Zealand (April 25, 2007)

"ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day." (http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.htm)

To honor ANZAC Day, why not watch a film from Australia, like Rabbit-Proof Fence, which tells how, in 1931, three half-Aboriginal children from Western Australia, who had been taken from their mothers, set out on an epic journey home, traveling 1,500 miles on foot with no food or water as they followed the fence that has been build across the nation to stem an over-population of rabbits. You might also like Breaker Morant, in which an Australian soldier in 1901 South Africa during the Boer War is ordered to oversee the execution of a prisoner who turns out to be a German missionary and is court-martialed for it. The Proposition is an Australian Western set in the outback of the 1880s, where an outlaw is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcement.

Or watch a movie from New Zealand, such as Whale Rider, the story of Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal Maori tribe, who believes she is destined to be the new chief. And don't forget to check out the work of the famous kiwi director Peter Jackson.

Kick back with some music from Australia and New Zealand. Waltzing Matilda is the quintessential Australian song. We also have the children's book and a claymation short in which a chorus of animated clay animals from the Australian bush sing the famous Australian folk song.

From the Mega Media Finder, check out some pictures of Australia (click on zoology under categories to the right of the results to find lots of pictures of animals, like koalas, platypuses, or kangaroos) or New Zealand. We also have a few 3-dimensional artifacts, like these Maori dolls and these boomerangs.

Learn more about Australia or New Zealand from some non-fiction videos, like Aboriginal Art: Past, Present and Future and Te Maori: A Celebration of the People and their Art.

Looking for something to read? We have children's stories and adult fiction set in Australia, as well as children's stories and adult fiction set in New Zealand. Why not try something by Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White? Or something by the well-known author Katherine Mansfield, who was born in New Zealand.