The Anzac Iliad: Early New Zealand School Journals and the development of the citizen-child in the new dominion

Abstract

The New Zealand School Journal was established in 1907 to provide reading material across the primary school curriculum. Linked to reforms of the school curriculum, the School Journal aimed to introduce curriculum content relevant to New Zealand children. With the outbreak of the First World War, however, the School Journal became harnessed to the war effort, becoming entrenched in civic instruction and an upsurge in imperialism. Inclusion of patriotic reading material strongly reflected notions of self-sacrifice and reinforced concepts of the dutiful citizen-child. This article explores how preparation for war, and portrayal of war, fostered a particular notion of New Zealand’s developing identity and the role that the citizen-child had to play in the new dominion. Literary integration of subjects and genres, collapses of time and location, along with juxtaposition of items within the School Journal, particularly through the use of the Anzac story, solidified this emergent New Zealand identity. The School Journal, as de facto curriculum, became complicit in the creation and maintenance of the Anzac myth as a basis for the ideal New Zealand citizen through annual commemorative issues of the School Journal, culminating with Anzac Day as a newly created national holiday in 1923.