A number of years ago I taught an ANZAC Day unit with Year 6 classes and we researched what every day life would have been like for the soldiers at Gallipoli.
I also shared with them one of my favourite poems called Ninety Years Ago by Rupert McCall who is one of our modern Australian poets. Rupert McCall wrote this poem to commemorate the 90 year anniversary of the Landing at Gallipoli. He shared his poem on ANZAC Day on the beach at Anzac Cove at Gallipoli just as the sun was rising over the water. To this day it is still one of the most stirring ANZAC Day moments I have ever watched. You can read Rupert’s poem Ninety Years Ago below…
Ninety Years Ago by smotlrc on Scribd
One of the Year 6 students was so inspired by the poem that he wrote his own poignant version of Ninety Years Ago that you can listen to here Ninety Years Ago – adapted by Chris B
The Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 2013.
When you go home
Tell them of us and say
“For your tomorrow,
We gave our today.
(John Maxwell Edmunds)
