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Touching the hope in security: reflections on the gas-mask display at the Australian War Memorial

ABSTRACT This essay begins with a celebration of the concept of hope. The essay then moves into examining the author’s personal doubts in sustaining her own commitment to the idea of hope. The question is asked: how to maintain the attitude that hope is real against the disciplinary imperatives and vocabulary of security as inevitably about conflict? The essay uses the image of gas-masks taken from the World War I exhibition at the Australian War Memorial. Using this image the essay explores choices, both historical and contemporary, over the reality of the security we choose to speak about, and, in the words of Laura Shepherd, ‘commit‘ to. The image and essay work to reclaim hope, from personal doubt, as real.