Aboriginal ANZACs
24 April 2008 by Robyn Van Dyk. Battlefield Tours, News, Gallipoli. Comments (8)
There are only five known Aboriginal servicemen buried at Gallipoli, however, it is estimated that 500-800 Aboriginal diggers served in the First World War. Ethnicity was not recorded in the enlistment process and research into indigenous service can involve trawling across many different sources, sometimes we may never know who these servicemen were.
Garth O’Connell, a fellow member of the battlefield tour, has been researching Aboriginal service. Garth works at the Australian War Memorial and in his spare time created a website that includes information on researching Aboriginal Servicemen. On the tour he took a few moments out to give an interview with Channel Seven about his research: You can view Garth’s interview here.
April 25th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Good post Robyn. I hope you enjoyed ANZAC Day at Gallipoli. We’ve been flat-out back home and you’ve been missed.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:15 am
Hi Garth
I was interested in your research on the Aboriginal service men. I too have been doing a little digging about for this information. I teach indigenous students in a community south of Cairns in QLD. I recently attended the History Summer School with the ANU in January this year and we visited the War Memorial twice during our studies. On Thursday 23rd we held an ANZAC service for the 39 indigenous men from the Torres Strait who served in the Torres Light Infantry Battalion in WW2. The only Indigenous Battalion ever formed in our military history. It gave my students a real sense of pride and they now realise that ANZAC day is not just a white Australian celebration. I have some footage that will be available soon, if you are interested?
Regards Dean
April 27th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Thank you to Robyn and Garth for the infomation posted here. I am a Year 6 teacher in Western Australia and this term we are working on a unit of work entitled Australians at War. I am interested in obtaining as much information as possible on Indigenous Australians involved in the armed forces. If you have any ideas on where I can find more information I would greatly appreciate your input.
Regards Erica
April 28th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
hi Garth,
Great work finding those war graves. Look forward to hearing about your trip when you get back. regards, AIATSIS Library Staff.
May 12th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Hi Garth, I really appreciate what you are doing in acknowledging Indigenous soldiers. My aboriginal grandfather landed on the first day at Gallipoli with the 16th Batt. Do you know if there were any other Aboriginal soldiers landing on the first day, and if so, how many?
Regards,
Michael
May 29th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Hi Garth,
I don’t know if you remember, but I recently came on a school camp to the Australian War Memorial. I’m a year 10 student at North Sydney Girls High School, and you gave a very informative talk to us about your experiences (if you don’t remember, it was the time when a big bunch of girls came and you printed out a lot of photos to talk abot….impromptu) I jsut wanted to thank you for giving up your time because I really appeciated it. I’d like to refer to you in the assignment we were researching in Canberra if that’s ok. Thanks for doing what you do; they really deserve to be acknowledged.
Thanks again,
Rebecca
October 16th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Attention: Michael Laing (who commented May 12th, 2009) and others,
I am a local historian and history teacher living in Warrnambool, Victoria and have been compiling a database on Aboriginals who served in WWI. I am also in the process of producing an educational PowerPoint on the diverse range of contributions made by Aboriginals to Australia’s war efforts as well as working with local Aboriginals seeking to get the local council to provide some recognition (memorial) for the amazing contributions made by local South West Victorian Aboriginal servicemen.
I am keen to hear from anyone with interest in Aboriginal war time contributions especially those who could provide me with information on any WWI Aboriginal servicemen.
phbakker@bigpond.net.au
October 19th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Hi Peter
Identifying our Indigenous service personnel for all wars is a frequently asked question of the Australian War Memorial and difficult to research as ethnicity was not formally recorded by the military. Aboriginals who put themselves forward for recruitment were often turned away on the basis of race, especially in 1915. Their ability to enlist was often on ‘a don’t ask don’t tell’ basis; later the regulations became more relaxed.
Lots of people are interested in identifying who our Indigenous servicemen and women are and their stories. There are many informal lists compiled by cultural institutions (or donated to their collections) floating around throughout Australia. The Memorial has several lists that have been donated to our collections or compiled by staff and volunteers in the past. We know of about 3,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service personnel for all wars starting from the First World War.
We are intending on developing an Indigenous database identifying Australian Indigenous service personnel and with links to relevant items in our collection for display on our website. There is a still a lot for us to finalise and work out but it is getting underway.
We will blog about it more when it is off the ground and Peter we should keep in touch!
Robyn van Dyk
Senior Curator Published and Digitised Collections