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Keepsakes From the First World War

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:27:18

Speaker 1

The program is called Keepsakes from the First World War. And we use artefacts, some original from the First World War, as well as some reproductions to help students to get into and understand the Shrine of Remembrance. It's a very large building, and the concept maybe is a little bit hard to grasp, and the numbers are certainly hard to grasp. The hundreds of thousands of people who served and the millions of Australians who were affected by the conflict.

00:00:28:03 - 00:01:16:14

Speaker 1

So we use stories. We use stories and objects to help the students to understand a little bit about the experience of the Great War and what other Victorians just like them lived through between 1914 and 1918. Basically, we want students to think about why did Victorians build the Shrine of Remembrance? And so we use those artefacts as triggers to help to explore and understand the stories. Kids, and I think probably adults as well, find it easier to understand real events and stories if you're holding items, if you're touching them, instead of just looking at a glass cabinet or listening to somebody talking to you.

00:01:16:14 - 00:01:34:21

Speaker 1

If you're actually holding artefacts that someone else collected more than 100 years ago, that can be a window into the past, a window into somebody else's experiences. So we use a number of items like these to tell our stories that explore Victoria's history.

00:01:53:16 - 00:02:20:10

Speaker 2

Today I learnt about what World War I was like for the people in Australia and also the people on the battlefield. I learned about what life was like back in Australia, about the white feather, about the families grieving the ones that are fighting in the war and the ones that have passed and how they receive special medals and items just to remind them of their family that did fight in the war.

00:02:20:20 - 00:02:36:18

Speaker 3

I learnt about the nurses. That's something I really didn't know about before. I didn't realise how many there were and what they really were involved with, and also the trauma that they faced with helping people.

00:02:37:14 - 00:02:46:01

Speaker 4

I really enjoyed the whole aspect of an entire building dedicated to soldiers and nurses and people who served and had to risk their lives.

00:02:46:02 - 00:02:57:23

Speaker 5

I was really surprised about how people would go and give the white feathers to the soldiers who didn't enlist in the war and who didn't sacrifice themselves.

00:02:58:02 - 00:03:21:10

Speaker 3

I was really surprised by the ages of some of the soldiers, like 14 and nine months, when he, one of the soldiers, died. And that's how old I am. So that really shocked me. I think the sacrifices that people made, like risking their lives to help others on the battlefield, because serving your whole country is a big thing.

00:03:21:10 - 00:03:34:02

Speaker 3

But then the nurses like risking their lives to save the soldiers, when it was air raided and like the fires and they still dragged the soldiers out. I thought that was really powerful and yeah, it really stuck with me.

00:03:34:11 - 00:03:43:01

Speaker 2

I've never really learned that much about World War One in the past, and then today it really helped me to know what it was really like for the people in the war,

00:03:43:02 - 00:03:51:17

Speaker 5

the soldiers. I really enjoyed today because I learnt a lot about the war and many different experiences.

00:03:52:04 - 00:04:09:18

Speaker 3

I really like the history. And this has just got so many stories to tell and I think it's really important to have something like this.

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