April 25th is Anzac Day, however please don’t forget the aboriginal soldiers/black diggers who served us. Despite being second class citizens, they served Australia. When they came back they expected there courage to be respected. However this wasn’t the case in fact they were not even allowed to march in the Anzac parades. [ learn more here ]
Lest We Forget, Every Single Solider.
It wasn’t just that they were second class citizens, though they truly were, it was that they were legally prohibited from joining up in the first place. The Australian identity that the government wanted to project was one of proud British whiteness. Keeping in mind that this was also the era of the White Australia Policy.
So despite being discriminated against and legally disallowed from joining the AIF hundreds of indigenous Australians managed to join up anyway. Numbers are very difficult to gauge because their records were falsified by recruiting officers to allow them to join. They used pseudonyms, had their race changed and joined up far from their homes.
They suffered through the same terrors of the War as their white comrades, and whilst on service many noted that their treatment was as that of equals. They had the same expectations put on them and they lived up to them. Their race was acknowledged, but generally, not looked down on.However after the War and on their return to Australia it was as if nothing had changed at all. Many were refused pensions, kicked out of Anzac Day parades and barred from joining the Returned Servicemen’s League. For people who had been treated poorly by their country and decided to fight for it anyway, their treatment was despicable.
Aw Yiss 