ABSTRACT
In the early morning of 25 April 1982, some 500 or so women walked slowly and silently up Anzac Parade in Canberra towards the Australian War Memorial. They walked behind a banner that read ‘In memory of all women of all countries raped in all wars’. The women stopped at the top of the Parade in front of a cenotaph. In a short ceremony, one of the women read a letter written by a woman about the experience of rape in war and another made a statement about the significance of remembering women raped in war. Then a wreath was laid and one minute’s silence was observed. The women then sang a song called ‘Lest We Forget’, while some laid individual wreaths and flowers. The women then made their way, as a group, to a grassy hill to the left of the cenotaph. The walk and ceremony had taken about an hour and, as the women moved away, another march of ex-service people and veterans began at the far end of Anzac Parade and followed the route of the women. As the ex-service personnel marched up Anzac Parade, they did so to the muted strains of 500 women continuing to sing ‘Lest We Forget’. As the last group of soldiers moved into place for the ceremony at the Stone of Remembrance, the women’s singing serendipitously faded away and there was silence.
