The story of Ngadjonji man Douglas Grant

Indigenous Australians have a long, proud history of bearing arms in the defence of Australia. From the Boer War to today, stories of Indigenous service — of courage, heroism and sacrifice — abound.

One of these stories is that of Ngadjonji man Douglas Grant.

Douglas was born in Far North Queensland in 1885, a time when the local Ngadjonji people were in regular conflict with frontier gold prospectors.

Several devastating massacres took place, one of which left a 2-year-old Douglas orphaned and alone. By chance, Robert Grant — the Australian Museum’s chief taxidermist — found Douglas while conducting fieldwork and went on to raise him as his son.

Douglas attended school in Sydney and learnt to read and write — and even mastered the bagpipes. In January 1916, he enlisted to serve in the First World War, despite institutional racism, government policy, and the prevailing attitude of the time with laws that limited Indigenous participation.

These rules delayed Douglas’s deployment by several months. Eventually, however, he joined the 13^th Battalion and fought at Bullecourt in April 1917, where he was wounded by a grenade fragment.

Shortly after battle, Douglas was taken captive and sent to Wünsdorf prisoner of war camp. This was an unusual place: a camp purposely set up for Muslim prisoners that was actually home to the first mosque built on German soil. In this camp Muslim prisoners were free to practise their faith, and enjoyed other comforts and liberties.

This uncommon arrangement was made in the hope that the prisoners — more than 4,500 Muslim POWs from India, Egypt and the African continent — might be inspired to join a holy war against their French and British colonisers.

While ultimately unsuccessful, the experiment saw a revolving door of German researchers, artists and photographers visit the camp, keen to observe soldiers — including Douglas — from different cultures.

For his part, Douglas dedicated much of his time in captivity to helping his fellow inmates. He began working in the mailroom and was soon elected president of the British Help Committee, which received regular food and clothing deliveries from the Red Cross.

Douglas worked tirelessly to make sure the goods were distributed fairly to all prisoners — those from every faith and background. He even tapped a translator to help him ensure all requests for assistance were received and understood.

Following the war and his liberation, Douglas returned home to Sydney and lobbied for the rights of Indigenous Australians. He wrote various opinion pieces for the newspapers, and even hosted a radio show in which he urged governments to protect the lives of Indigenous people.*

* Story taken from Pegram, Aaron; Wartime: Official magazine of the Australian War Memorial, Issue 76, Spring 2016, pages 32-37.