WW100 – New Zealand's First World War Centenary Programme ran from 2014 to 2019

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NZ'S FIRST WORLD WAR CENTENARY 2014–2019

The Women’s Studies Journal of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Special Issue on Women and the Nation at War

24 August 2016

Is the Anzac biscuit recipe worthy of a spot on the United Nations intangible cultural heritage list? Do the diaries of World War One nurses deserve recognition as reservoirs of New Zealand’s wartime history? Or could the war stories of family history be hiding lesbian subplots? In 'Women and the nation at war', a special issue of the Women’s Studies Journal of New Zealand dedicated to the commemoration of World War One, Joanna Cobley, Hannah Clark and Hilary Lapsley unequivocally answer yes.
Made possible by support from a Lottery Environment and Heritage, World War One Commemorative Fund, this special issue provides a little balance to the otherwise masculine focus of much of New Zealand’s wartime narrative. Women participated in World War One as nurses, but also as bakers, lovers, mothers, and pacifists. When we make space for the history of New Zealand women and war, we enrich our understanding of World War One, and also our understanding of what it means to be a New Zealander during the years 1914-1918.
In addition to covering Anzac biscuits, nurses’ diaries, and skeletons in closets, this special issue of the journal features articles by Sarah Christie on the sinking of the British transport ship the Marquette, and by Nadia Gush on the work of World War One sex reformer Ettie Rout. Robin Woodward discusses Helen Pollock’s contemporary commemorative war sculptures, while Celine Kearney and Megan Hutching reflect on the work of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in New Zealand.
For this commemorative special issue the Association brought New Zealand historian Nadia Gush on board as guest editor. Read it online at the Women's Studies Association.
The Women’s Studies Journal is published twice yearly by the Women’s Studies Association (NZ)/Pae Akoranga Wāhine.
Image: The women staffing the Lowry Hut canteen in Etaples, World War I. Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association: New Zealand official negatives, World War 1914-1918. Ref: 1/2-013435-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand.