Lest We Forget: Commemorating Indigenous Service

On Remembrance Day, all Australians observe one-minute silence to acknowledge, honour and remember those who have served the country in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. 

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month of 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after four bloody years of warfare. More than a century later, we still pause on the anniversary of the armistice that ended the First World War – a date which has since become Remembrance Day.

In commemoration of Remembrance Day, we have compiled a number of stories and resources published in recognition of the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women who have served Australia in wars and conflicts.

• Learn more about Gunditjmara man Reg Saunders, who became the first Indigenous commissioned officer in the Australian Army, during the Second World War.
• Meet Mebai Warusam from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait, who served during WWII in the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion (TSLIB) - Australia’s first and only all-Indigenous unit.
• Recognise the extraordinary bravery of WWII digger Clarence Atkinson, who was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
• Honour Roland Carter, a Ngarrindjeri man who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force during WWI and ended up in a German prisoner of war camp.
• Read about brave Bill Coolburra, who helped to clear tunnel systems constructed by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
• Read more about Dolly Gurinyi Batcho, a Larrakia woman who served in the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) in the Northern Territory.
• Remember the sacrifice of the Aboriginal diggers who became “sons of France”.