BRENDAN Nelson professes no encyclopaedic grounding in Australian military history.
But the former senior politician and diplomat believes that will be an asset in his new role as director of the Australian War Memorial.
"Most of the people working at the memorial have forgotten more about our military history than I will ever know," he told AAP on his first day in the job on Monday.
"The people here have skills and knowledge I will never have, but I have skills and knowledge that complement that."
Dr Nelson sees the role of director as much like that of a government minister.
"It's not to be an expert," the former Howard government minister said.
"It's to listen, to read, then seek out the views of the experts and then to apply intellectual rigour to the process of exercising judgement."
Of the many duties Dr Nelson undertook as NATO ambassador in Brussels, it was the commemorative events that he enjoyed the most.
"It wasn't work, it was a privilege," he said, adding he had attended the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate memorial 73 times.
"If it had been in Brussels I would have gone every night."
The memorial honours the missing from the World War I battle of Passchendaele, and the ceremony has been conducted every night since 1928 save for the years of German occupation in World War II.
"The Australian sacrifice there was horrendous," Dr Nelson said, noting the names of 6169 Australian names are listed at Menin Gate.
"There are 12,900 Australians buried in Flanders from World War I."
Dr Nelson believes the soul of the Australian nation is represented by the war memorial and the sacrifices of the men and women who stood behind its collection.
"This building has as much to do with our future as it does our past," he said.
"I will do everything I possibly can to see that we have a meaningful respect and understanding of our history and are able to apply that for the future horizons we face and the challenges."
Increasing numbers of young people were looking for a sense of what it meant to be an Australian, Dr Nelson said.
"A lot of those young Australians are finding and will find the values that will best shape their lives by what's represented here."
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Nelson starts role as war memorial chief
Dengan url
http://beritasementara.blogspot.com/2012/12/nelson-starts-role-as-war-memorial-chief.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Nelson starts role as war memorial chief
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Nelson starts role as war memorial chief
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar