“The support has been overwhelming.”

When Canberra music teacher CJ Shaw was asked to write a song for his students for Anzac Day, he never dreamt it would lead to an ARIA nomination.

The music teacher at Palmerston District Primary School in Canberra was nominated for the ARIA Music Teacher Award after writing a song about Anzac biscuits.

“It’s been wonderful,” Mr Shaw said.  

“The learning behind Anzac biscuits and the conversation about how the song relates to history and how boys and girls were able to connect to the front … it has been phenomenal.

“The support has been overwhelming.”

Mr Shaw wrote the song for the school’s Anzac Day assembly in 2019 after visiting the Australian War Memorial.

“I spent some time in the War Memorial, and how it impacted me ended up shaping how the song turned out,” he said.

“When I came to the War Memorial to research the Anzac biscuits song, I was moved by the artefacts of the early twentieth century and the idea of broadsheet music and how music was shared.

“I wanted to replicate a song that had a singsong quality that you could stand around a ukulele, stand around the piano, and play a song that would evoke something of the time.”

The song tells the story of a child who bakes Anzac biscuits during the war and sends them to the front line.

“The Anzac biscuits history is just incredible and it still strikes me,” Mr Shaw said. “If you had a parent who was on the Somme, or Gallipoli, and you made them and Anzac biscuits, the amount of love and care and tenderness and tears that would go into that biscuit is something that still rattles me to this day.”

He wanted the song to help students think about the complexities of war.

“The story of the Anzac biscuit is quite a good symbol of hope,” he said.

“I wanted the students to have that angle, that maybe they were making those Anzac biscuits, and what would they do about that.”

Mr Shaw performed the song in the gardens at the Memorial recently with some of his students.

“We’re very proud of that song, and I’m very proud of my singers,” he said.

“My grandfather was serving in Cowra when the Japanese soldiers escaped [during the Second World War], and my grandmother decoded classified information in Washington when she was 17.

“That generation, which I was fortunate enough to know, had a very rich and detailed military history.

“One thing about the War Memorial that always has a profound impact on me is the day-to-day lives of the men and women who get called up, and what they leave behind, and what they take with them: the artefacts, the things that remind them of home, the things that link them back to home, and the things that they were doing at home.”

Year 6 student Dylan was one of the singers who performed the song with Mr Shaw at the Memorial.

“It’s an amazing experience, and I’ve loved working with Mr Shaw to do this,” he said. “We voted for him, and we’ve also been working with him to do a studio recording.”

The song is particularly poignant for Year 5 student Isobel, whose mother is currently serving overseas.

“It kind of encouraged me to bake some Anzac biscuits and send them to my mum,” she said. “I’m going to learn to bake a really good cake for my mum for when she comes home.”

Year 5 student Rose was proud to be able to sing the song at the Memorial.

“Mr Shaw has made me believe in myself and that’s why when I grow up I really want to be a singer like him,” she said.

“It means a lot to me … and being here with Mr Shaw is like a dream come true because I’ve always loved the War Memorial.

“Whenever I come here I feel like I’m with my great-great grandpa who died during the Second World War. He was a bomb maker, and it feels nice around here. I feel like my family are here with me and supporting me.”

The ARIA awards will be announced in a ceremony on 25 November 2020.