Every year hundreds of thousands of Australians participate in ANZAC Day. Some attend a dawn service at a local memorial or go to a religious service. Many take part in a march, or watch that march on the spot or at home on television. At sporting events on ANZAC Day crowds maintain a minute’s solemn silence, while a bugler plays the "Last Post".

Clearly, ANZAC Day is a significant national day for Australians. It is a day when the community is saying something about where it has come from, what it values, what it expects of its members, and what it hopes for the future. This set of meanings and hopes and expectations is often summarised in the phrase: the Spirit of ANZAC.

This activity provides a basis for participants to examine the Spirit of ANZAC using the imagery and legend surrounding one of our most famous ANZACs, Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, 'the man with the donkey'.

Working through the activity

The activity is designed for a class, consists of 16 'investigations' to be completed in numerical sequence, and is completely self-contained within a single, 21 page Acrobat™ file (156kb).

All that needs to be done is to download the Acrobat™ file, print pages from it as required and distribute them to activity participants. The pages have provision for students to record, in writing, their comments  or answers.