WE WERE ALL THE SAME

BY KATRINA NICOLSON

The experiences of Victoria’s First Peoples in the Australian Defence Forces and on the homefront will be explored in a new exhibition at the Shrine opening in April 2022.

Watching VFL football one Saturday afternoon, in perhaps the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, my family were surprised when our father suddenly said: ‘I reckon I played footy with that bloke’s grandfather— best footballer I’ve ever known— he plays just like him.’ Not a bad accolade from Dad, who was a highly regarded player in the local league in his youth and an avid, and knowledgeable, VFL fan. The ‘bloke’ in question was an Indigenous player from Western Australia, so we were mystified as to when and where Dad, who was born and bred in Western District Victoria, would have encountered his grandfather—if Dad was right.

Stuart Nicolson in football uniform 1947

Reproduced courtesy of the Nicolson family

During the Second World War (1939– 45) while training in Queensland, Dad played inter-battalion footballthe man he recalled played with him in the winning team. Post-match, they all went to a pub to celebrate, but the Indigenous soldier was refused entry in no uncertain terms. Dad and his teammates were disgusted. In Dad’s words:

We were all the same like then. All in the same war, in the same team. So, if they wouldn’t have him, they couldn’t have us. We got some beers [elsewhere] and went and drank them behind the grandstand.

This story sheds light on an important aspect of First Peoples’ service in the Australian military. While racism could and did still occur behind the lines, it was greatly reduced amongst troops who served together and relied on each other for their security. Sadly, this did not always last and there are tales of First Peoples veterans being excluded from sharing a drink on Anzac Day and not being supported by their mates. It was also my introduction to the experiences of First Peoples in military service. Dad never found out if he was right, but his story stuck with me, and 40 years later there is a certain serendipity in finding myself working in this area of research.

In April 2022, the Shrine will launch an exhibition exploring the Australian Defence Force experiences of Victoria’s First Peoples servicemen and women and their families. This exhibition builds on the Shrine’s previous exhibition Indigenous Australians at War: from the Boer War to the Present. Inspired by the Victorian Aboriginal Remembrance Service, which the Shrine has hosted each year since its inception in 2007, the exhibition grew out of a collaboration with the Victorian Aboriginal Remembrance Committee and Koorie Heritage Trust. In 2010, the exhibition launched at the Shrine and subsequently toured regional Victoria (2012–14) and nationally (2015–18), notably Uluru, and Thursday Island for the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion 75th Anniversary commemorations.

This new exhibition reflects the significant research undertaken in the 12 years since the first, resulting in an increased understanding of First Peoples’ service. It was originally estimated around 600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people served in the First World War, now over 1,000 men are identified as enlisted, and the number is growing.

Robert Charles Searle

Reproduced courtesy of Pat Keenan, Lorraine Symington and Peter Bakker

Similarly, several First Peoples have now been identified as serving during the Boer War (1899–1902). The Shrine is grateful to Peter Bakker, the researcher who first alerted us to the fact the Boer War soldier represented as Indigenous in the original exhibition was in fact of West Indian origin, and then kindly shared the results of his further research. He identified Robert Searle, a descendant of Eliza Nowen, a Bunurong woman from the southern coast of Victoria, as a member of the 4th Imperial Bushmen’s corps. He is one of many individual scholars whose work complements that undertaken by the Australian War Memorial, Australian National University and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, among others, to provide much greater insight into the complexity of First Peoples’ service. The Shrine too has contributed to the fund of knowledge, by recording oral histories, consulting with community at each tour venue for new stories and collaborating with the Department of Veteran Affairs on Primary and Secondary School resources on this topic.

First Peoples’ readiness to join Australia’s military and fight in wars abroad, from the Boer War to the present day, is remarkable, given not only the long history of conflict between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians, Indigenous dispossession, and denial of equal rights, but the erratic administration of Defence policies that actively discouraged their enlistment. Despite these issues, for many, Defence service provided their first experience of equal treatment.

In each of the two World Wars, First Peoples were first permitted then denied enlistment. Many men were rejected on the grounds of race, specifically, that they were not substantially of European descent; only to be actively encouraged to enlist as casualties rose and more manpower was needed. Some circumvented the regulations by stating they were Pacific Islander, Maori or Indian. This had the dual benefit of enabling them to enlist, and ensuring their wages were not controlled or reduced by the repressive State Protectors of Aborigines. These Boards offered scant ‘protection’ and often sought to bar families from receiving rations or assistance while in receipt of a military allotment or pension.

Wedding portrait of Signalman Claude McDonald and Aircraftwoman Alive Lovett 1944

AWM (P05049.004)

Eliza Saunders, mother of First World War serviceman, Chris Saunders, and grandmother of Harry Saunders, who was killed in the Second World War and Reg Saunders, who served in that war and in Korea, was particularly troubled by the Board. On learning she had been saving her allotment from Chris’s wage to pay for some land and a house the Board cut off her rations and refused her permission to leave Lake Condah Mission Station.

Private Chris Saunders c 1916

AWM (P00889.012)

First Peoples joined up for the same reasons as their non-Indigenous counterparts: adventure; escape, often from Mission life and from oppression; good pay; educational opportunities and because they felt it their duty.

the natives at the Condah station felt that they were real Britishers, having been born under the Australian flag, and were willing to fight to a man if they were accepted by the military authorities

James Arden, Gunditjmara man from Lake Condah, quoted in The Age, 13 April 1916.

Many also joined because they felt it would advance their community’s cause for equal rights and citizenship. While Defence paid equal wages to First Peoples enlisted in regular forces, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enlisted in the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit (NTSRU) and the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion (TSLIB) were paid significantly less than their white counterparts, if at all. The Yolngu in the NTSRU received three sticks of tobacco a week, with no monetary pay until back pay and service medals were finally awarded in 1993. Members of the TSLIB were paid only a third of the regular rate and were not entitled to the same leave as non-Indigenous soldiers. After one of their number was killed, they struck for better conditions. The Army raised their pay to two thirds the regular rate. Back pay was finally awarded in the 1980s and medals in 2005.

Despite the positive experiences of many in the two World Wars, First Peoples veterans returned to the same discrimination and poor living conditions they had previously known. Many employers offered preferential positions to veterans, but First Peoples were actively discouraged from applying for this work. The soldier settlement scheme, which offered farming land to veterans, was not only denied the majority, but to add insult to indignity, lands previously reserved for First Peoples were transferred to non-Indigenous veterans. Gunditjmara man, Herbert Lovett applied for land near Lake Condah, his family’s traditional land, but was denied. Percy Pepper, a Gurnai/Kurnai man from East Gippsland was one of the very few First Peoples allocated a block. It was in a reclaimed swamp at Koo Wee Rup. Repeated flooding made the farm unworkable, and he was forced to give it up.

After the Second World War restrictions on First Peoples’ service in the military were removed. It is still difficult to know how many have chosen to serve since that time, as until the 1980s the military did not ask enlistees about their heritage. It is estimated over a thousand First Peoples are serving in the modern Australian Defence Force, which values traditional and technical skills equally.

This exhibition covers 120 years of service by First Peoples. The stories presented provide insight into the challenges, positive and negative, they and their families faced in service and on the home front. It will be on display in the South West Gallery of the Shrine until April 2023.

Katrina Nicolson is the Exhibitions and Collections Research Officer at the Shrine of Remembrance.