Armistice Day is always a day for reflection, but today
it is particularly so being the centenary of the Armistice which ended the ‘war
to end all wars’.
There has been a surfeit of media coverage and thoughtful
commentary, which I won’t attempt to summarise or repeat. It seems to me that
setting aside time (and a place) for a minute’s silence is a better way for us
all to reflect on the events of a century ago, and the consequences and
reverberations, good and bad….
My purpose today is merely to point to two Indigenous
related publications related to Indigenous veterans. The first, which I am yet
to see, was mentioned on the ABC Radio’s Awaye! program yesterday (link
here) and will be screened on NITV tonight. It is Erica Glynn’s documentary
Truth be Told: Lest we Forget and will
no doubt be available on SBS on-demand.
The second is a publication of The Aboriginal History Research Services at the West Australian Department of
Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries titled No Less Worthy. Here
is a link to WA Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Ben Wyatt’s media release, and here is
a link to the publication.
The book documents the experiences
and subsequent lives of 80 Aboriginal men who volunteered to serve in the
Australian armed forces in World War One. It also documents a further 53 men
who volunteered but were denied permission to serve for one reason or another. Many
were rejected o the grounds that they were ‘Not of European origin or descent’.
At the time, there was a legislative restriction on Aboriginal men serving in
the armed forces, so those who did manage to serve in each case overcame the
formal restrictions.
The book is thought provoking
on many levels, perhaps most poignantly in terms of providing a window into the
lives of so many individual Australians, men of their time, who faced
extraordinary challenges right throughout their lives. In particular, the book
documents the hardships many volunteers suffered upon their return. In a
similar vein, in a blog post in April 2016, I remembered a South Australian
Gallipoli veteran, Ben Murray (link
here).
The common thread between Truth be Told and No Less Worthy is the way in which they document how the nation’s our
institutional frameworks operated to exclude Aboriginal men from joining and
most particularly operated upon their return to exclude them from full participation
in Australian society. While on active service, Aboriginal soldiers were
apparently mostly respected as comrades by their non-Indigenous mates. But this
meant very little upon their return.
My current research is
focussed on the ongoing levels of institutional exclusion which operate in
Australia. Like the nation’s approach to returned Aboriginal soldiers, institutional
exclusion is generally difficult to identify and recognise, and operates in
ways which most of us are unable to see.
I recommend readers have a
read of No Less Worthy, and watch Truth be Told if you can. But in reflecting
on the consequences of World War One and the century which followed for Aboriginal volunteers, it is worth also thinking about whether there are similar
institutional dynamics at play today which deny Indigenous Australians (and other
disadvantaged groups) full access to the benefits of Australia’s extraordinary
economic and social system.