Day one : 209 Connecting Spirits Community tour begin their commemorative pilgrimage

Checklists complete and the group all present and ready, it was time to take off from Adelaide to Europe for this year's Connecting Spirits tour. Many thanks to all who are following our journey across a variety of social media platforms and also for your many messages along the way. If we don't reply to them immediately, please understand the demands of group travel: every day is packed and add to that the inevitable recovery from jet lag in the first few days, please know that we are grateful for all of your support and interest.
The flights went well with no major dramas and at 2.00 pm Paris time , we eventually landed in France. With a delay in Dubai plus a bit of convoluted walk to our mini bus and driver Paul Dennington, we were off and running! The driver to Amiens took a couple of hours and with a slick check-in , showers and pre- dinner drink, it was time for dinner at our favourite restaurant Oz'Orange. So with yummy duck dishes, creme brulees and a couple of house wines under our belts by 9.30 tiredness was really setting in. Today the focus of our tour starts in earnest with six soldiers being commemorated: Walter Kirlew, David Coulter, Arthur Walker, Miles Beevor, William East and William Simpson will have their stories shared and recorded.

Francesca returns to the battlefields ...

INTRODUCING OUR REPORTER, FRANKIE ATKINSON

In 2012 the RSL/Connecting Spirits Fleurieu Region Tour left for Singapore, London, France and Belgium. Of the group of 13, one of the young members Frankie Atkinson (age 16) , was studying her final year at school. Seven years on she will return and in the final year of her Professional Writing & Journalism degree at the University of South Australia, she will see the former killing fields through new eyes. She will be our reporter and throughout the tour will seek out the stories of our group and the soldiers we are commemorating. Her research and reports will form part of her assessment by the university and will receive accreditation for her work . The Connecting Spirits narrative continues and will be enriched by her work. Thank you Frankie...

PROFILE NUMBER 1: 'They Are Still There', by Francesca Atkinson

Frankie commemorating one of her soldiers in 2012

The young women of 2012: Mollie Sandercock (2015 Youth Leader for the CS tour), Madeline Stangewtiz, Nicole Campbell, Ashleigh Martin (Youth Leader for the Anzac tour in 2014...and will also take part in the 2019 tour) and Frankie Atkinson. 

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Community-based tours connect South Australians to the battlefields of WWI

South Australian retired teacher Julie Reece is thrilled to be just weeks away from her next overseas battlefield tour to the Western Front in Europe. Now a community-based commemorative tour, Reece takes groups of students and adults to the battlefields of WWI to commemorate family and community members who fought and died on the Western Front.  

“We’ll be there for Anzac Day and of course it will be after all of centenary events have finished, which I am really pleased about,” Mrs Reece says.

“The serenity of the former battlefields will return free from the increased numbers of day trippers and mass tours,” she says.

Reece hopes that by running her tours based in the community, the core tenets of the Connecting Spirits project, of research and commemoration, will continue to flourish. The project is about connecting those on the tour with their ancestors and family who fought in WWI, hence the name ‘Connecting Spirits’.

The next tour departs on 9 April 2019 and links many parts of South Australia with people from the Adelaide Hills, the Coorong, Fleurieu Peninsula and Adelaide. Reece is pleased communities can be brought together and connected through such a powerful project.

Connecting Spirits originally began on an untested idea for Reece who took two groups of Mount Barker students to Europe in 2001 and 2004. Admitting she had no previous experience in overseas tours for schools, Reece chuckled when looking back on those early days.

“I was much younger and I thought I could just do it,” Mrs Reece says.

“I sort of had this arrogance and thought I’d just wing it and now I look back, I cringe a bit,” she says. “I think when you’ve never done something and you’re younger, you’re a bit braver because you don’t fully grasp what can actually happen.”

Now experienced, Julie is able to reflect on the significant changes that have been made to Connecting Spirits since its inauguration. She only recently changed the tours to be community-based after setting up her business Julie Reece Tours, enabling the tours to be a more inclusive experience rather than being restricted to school sectors.

Reece often keeps in contact with past students who have been part of Connecting Spirits, with many returning as Youth Leaders to participate in new projects. She is pleased these past students are able to take the memories of their tours with them in life and describes Connecting Spirits as a project that is constantly evolving. The evolution and continuity of the tours is why Reece relishes the tours and she is pleased to continue to share the opportunity with many more people.

“It’s been life changing for a number of people without a doubt,” Mrs Reece says. “It’s like chucking a rock in the pool creating all those ripples; in some ways those ripples are still going,” she says. “None of this was originally planned; it has a life of its own and has morphed into lots of different things.”

On previous tours many unexpected events have occurred, including taking soil from the traditional lands of the Ngarrindjeri people to the grave of a young indigenous soldier from Raukkan, Private Rufus Rigney in 2004. Once home, Reece gave the soil to the niece of Private Rigney, the late Doreen Kartinyeri, who wanted to commemorate her uncle in the lead up to Anzac Day in 2005, thus giving birth to Connecting Spirits as we know it today.

In 2015 another CS tour group had the opportunity to attend the reburial of six unknown British soldiers. While on the Western Front, Reece works alongside Rod Bedford, the head of the Royal British Legion on the Somme. In the lead up to the reinterment, Rod made arrangements so that the CS members could attend this ceremony.

“That was incredible, I’ve never seen that before and to be there when just the day before, we had been at Fromelles and we’d spoken about the Known Unto God’s, who were never found, never identified,” Mrs Reece says.

“To be at the reburial of six unknown British soldiers blew us all away,” she says. “Those sort of random things that happen, are always surprising and along with personal commemorations to your family, are right up there in importance”.

Since the beginning of Connecting Spirits, Reece has taken students to the grave of her great uncle James Martin Clement Neagle (Marty) in Polygon Wood. Uncle Marty, as Reece’s mother affectionately knew him, enlisted in 1916 and was killed in action in 1917.

Through her mother’s stories of Marty, Reece has shared the story of her great uncle and wrote the children’s book ‘Jimmy’s Anzac Pilgrimage’ to honour this man from Port Pirie. Reece described how several failed attempts of writing the book led her to write the story from the perspective of a close grandfather and grandson bond.

“I was staying with my friends in Sutton Veny (a small English Village) and one Sunday I went and sat in their local cemetery, where over 170 Australians who died during and after the war are buried,” Mrs Reece says. “By that stage my husband and one of our grandchildren had developed a really close grandfather-grandson relationship, which to this day is very special,” she says. “I sat there and thought about a kid going on a journey with their grandparent, rediscovering the trail of a soldier and that’s where the story was born.”

Reece included many family artefacts her mother had kept from Marty, including postcards he sent home from Europe. By reprinting them as part of her book, she was able to cherish the original copies, while also sharing them with others.

As Reece sat explaining her family history, inside a quant coffee shop in the middle of Adelaide Arcade, it was poignant to see how one family member who she never met, could have such an impact on her life. Showing a copy of Jimmy’s Anzac Pilgrimage, Julie began telling the story of Marty’s time serving on the Western Front.  And so, as the story was told, it became obvious that the pain of losing Marty was one that Reece’s mother never forgot, even though she was only a young girl at the time of his death. She explained how the telegram of his death would have arrived before the Christmas card he had sent home.

“My mum had memories of that telegram coming to the home, the two grandmothers were there and her mother, they didn’t say a word and they were crying,” Mrs Reece says. “The telegram was scrunched up and she said I found it really shocking because there were adults crying,” she says. “She had never seen that, it was a different era.”

For those keen to learn about future Connecting Spirits tours, you can register your interest with Julie via email and welcomes any who would like to participate in the Connecting Spirits project. You can follow this year’s tour via the links below:

Email:                         julie@juliereecetours.com.au

Follow on:                    www.facebook.com/JulieReeceTours

Project website:            www.connectingspirits.com.au

Private James Martin Clement Neagle (2233A) KIA October 18,  1917 in the Battle of  Passchendaele, buried in Buttes New British Cemetery, BELGIUM 

(Uncle of Cathy Royal / great uncle of Julie Reece) 

The Journey of Remembrance continues

THE POPPY, ICONIC SYMBOL OF REMEMBRANCE, CONNECTS SOUTH AUSTRALIAN COUNTRY WOMEN ...across regions and cultures...

Despite drought, rural depression and ongoing struggle on the land, Connecting Spirits is privileged to receive hand knitted poppies from the women of the mid north of our state. Thanks to the 'poppy knitter' Faye Hitch from the district of Morchard /Willowie, we received this special contribution to our project today in the post. We now have 35 poppies, each one hand made...one for each of the soldiers and nurse we will be commemorating on the forthcoming Connecting Spirits Community Tour. 

To put this act of generosity into perspective for those readers who are unfamiliar with the issues our rural people have faced for many years now, South Australia has been gripped by drought for some time now and recently endured the hottest summer ever on record as had many other parts of our country. For those who work on the land in marginal regions, life has been very tough and the day to day struggles of keeping properties going, is something those of us in urban areas have little real understanding of. 

My contact in Ororroo, Mrs Sue Ellery, is part of a family who have worked the land for generations and one of our soldiers Edward Ellery, worked on the farm that his direct relatives still own and  make a living from. Yet despite enduring all these daily stresses just waiting for the  much needed rain to fall, these women have found time to send us these treasures for our tour. I have not yet met Sue face to face, but have shared many lengthy conversations  about our shared history. I feel that I have known her all my life!

And now let's move onto another group of women in an entirely different region and cultural background, the women from Raukkan who use their skills to make the traditional Ngarrindjeri feather flowers. Isabel Koolmatrie and Anyupa Giles, both of Ngarrindjeri backgrounds and both educators at Meningie Area school, have made flowers as well...theirs are from the feathers of pelicans gathered from the edge of Ngarrindjeri country and waters. Isabel took part in the 2015 tour and this year Anyupa will travel with her grand-daughter Felicia to continue the journey of remembering kin and family. Hand knitted poppies and feather flowers cross cultures and regions but symbolise all that Connecting Spirits represents; that we have a shared history born in the blood of our ancestors lost in foreign fields.

We must NEVER forget...

'The future depends on forgotten memories'...taken from the 'Coming world remember me' project

One hundred years ago on Sunday November 11, in a week's time, many countries will stop and remember the silencing of the guns on the Western Front. For over four years the Great War ravaged its way across France, Belgium, Turkey, Russia and Germany. Eleven million plus, dead, landscapes destroyed, poisoned and forever changed many to this day, lay in the wake of this 20th century tragedy. To this day in many places the war continues through the recovery of human remains and their subsequent reburial plus many thousands of acts of commemoration across Europe and throughout the countries of the Commonwealth. Physical memorials and commemorative events continue to remind contemporary generations of the war that was meant to end all wars. As we know that phrase was never going to be one of truth or reality as war and conflict continued to this day. 

Over the last 4 years there have been numerous functions commemorating various events and significant aspects of World War One. The 'Commemoration industry' has been thriving with tour groups, mementos (some tacky ...some precious) and  local businesses cashing in on the upsurge of visitors to places like Amiens and Villers Bretonneux on the Somme, Ypres and other regional centres. Money has been made and some are unsure of  'what next' after November 11. New museums and commemorative projects have been built, some transitional and others permanent. It would be easy to become very cynical if your only experience was the hurried 'Three day discovery battlefield tour across the Somme and Ypres...pick up in Paris...drop off back to same.' Drop in for a brief photo opportunity at 'key sites' ...click click...back on the bus. Make sure you buy yet another poppy badge or fridge magnet for the folks back home...very moving!!

Yet there is SO much more to these sacred places.  I prefer to visit them when they are empty at times of the year when there aren't any special events and the accompanying crowds. And if you allow time to immerse yourself  in these regions you will discover another world. 

On my recent stay in Ypres I had the enormous privilege to see commemoration in action in a variety of ways. The daily ritual of attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate is a must when you are in Ypres, though with so many groups attending now in the lead up to Armistice Day, the wreath laying part of the 8.00 pm ceremony has become problematic as some nights over 20+ wreaths are laid. On one of the nights next week there will be 40+ groups laying wreaths! In my opinion it seems to detract somewhat from the power of this incredible event as school groups, tour groups and individual tourists all jostle and squeeze to the front for a better view. Mmm...mass tourism has its moments! However despite this it still has the power to move as one reflects on why this has taken place every night since 1927 (excluding the years of W.W.2 )

Some of the most beautiful and evocative examples of commemoration in Ypres are three projects worthy of comment. 'Coming World Remember Me' has been ongoing over the last 4 years and involved 600,000 volunteers making clay models to represent ONE person they wanted to remember who was killed in the Ypres Salient during the war. Each person also had a metal tag with the name of the soldier they were remembering which was deposited in a large glass case. When the 600,000 clay models (which equals the numbers lost in the region during WW1) were finished they were laid out in a field as part of an art installation to be removed after November 11. My co-project leader of Connecting Spirits, Mal Jurgs, suggested last year that we involve our group when we were there in 2017. At the time, (to my regret) my feeling was that it seemed a bit tacky and commercial so we decided against participating. Here comes my public apology to my colleague Mal....sorry mate..I was wrong. This was something we should have done as when I walked past and around all of those hand made clay models each with little individual markings made by their artist, it was something quite profound. It was the physicality of it that made its emotional impact. 

Another equally powerful but very different project, one that has a strong personal connection, is the Polygon Wood of Peace. Thanks to wonderful locals like Gregory Verfaillie and Frank Mahieu an oak tree wood has been planted containing over 500 oak saplings. Family members could apply to have a tree named in memory of their relative who died in the Passchendaele battle thus creating an ongoing living memorial to the lost. To see my great uncle Martin Neagle's name on a living tree so far from home, was strangely comforting. That sense of loss seemed to be softened by the ongoing life of the tree. Here commemoration takes on a whole new direction as no money changed hands, the time spent by these beautiful Flemish residents is provided on a volunteer arrangement. And when you talk about this to the Franks and Gregs of Belgium and the Somme the reply is consistently the same...'Your family came here to MY country on the other side of the world to protect MY family. We will never forget..'

Finally the 'missing chair at the table' initiative by the 'In Flanders Fields Museum' team. During the war families would wait for the return of their loved one as their chair at the table remained vacant. The research team discovered that soldiers came from over one hundred countries to fight in the Ypres Salient. So to represent all of those missing family members at the table, each country was invited to send a single chair..100 in total. Each chair is different and we saw chairs from Shetland, Hong Kong, Thailand, Melbourne, Angola, Poland and so on. Such a tangible symbol and once again potent in its impact. Simple yet pure as an act of remembrance.  

So when the clock ticks over at 11.00 am on the 11th of November this year, I will reflect once more on those who gave and lost so much not only in the 1914-18 war but all those since then.

LEST WE FORGET....

The sun soaked region of Tuscany and Umbria captures one's soul.

'The sun soaked region of Tuscany and its hills towns of central Italy  offer the quintessential Italian experience.  Wispy cypress-lined driveways lead to fortified 16h century farmhouses set in rolling fields and atmospheric enoteche serve famous wines alongside homemade pasta.'  (Steves, R, Best of Italy, pg. 222)

This intro sums up our experience here in Palazzo Bello  not far from the hilltop village of Cetona. A glorious part of central Italy, our accommodation is fabulous where each of our small group have their own well appointed and private apartment.  The villa can accommodate a couple up to larger groups up to 20 with the luxury of comfort and personal space. In 2019 and beyond Julie Reece Tours will be able to  organise fully supported holiday stays for groups between 2 -6 people where you can have the option to enjoy the Tuscan and Umbrian experience with your friends and or family. For those who do not want to have the pressure and stress of driving a hire car, I can have a driver pick you up in Rome or Florence and bring you here to the villa. Your driver lives locally and can provide transportation for up to 6 passengers in a new and very comfortable 'people  mover'. The vehicle is spotlessly cleaned every day and being local, the driver knows a lot about the region and can assist you with ideas and advice re your time in Tuscany and Umbria.

You are able to self cater as each of the apartments is very well appointed with kitchen items, crockery, cutlery and glasswear. A cook can provide catered meals as well as cooking classes as requested depending on your group's needs. 

So if you want to travel throughout  this region but don't want to join a tour in a bus of 20+ people you don't know and might have to endure over a two week period, then having your own friends and family with you to share this beautiful location is a great way to travel. Contact me on julie@juliereecetours.com.au  to discuss your ideas and possible options.  I will do all the organizing, bookings and arrangements so all you need to do is sit back and soak up the Tuscan sun.