Aborigines seek war contribution recognition

Published: 4:49PM Friday April 24, 2009 Source: Reuters

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The role of indigenous Australians in war is not recognised strongly enough, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council says.
  
It is urging indigenous veterans to take part in Anzac Day commemorations on Saturday, saying Aboriginal people made a significant contribution to Australia's war and peacekeeping operations.
  
"Few Australians are aware that Aboriginal people have served in every war that Australia has fought in since the Boer War," Council chairperson Bev Manton said in a statement on Friday.
  
"This contribution is not widely recognised, nor is the fact that until the early 1940s Aboriginal volunteers were often rejected on the basis of race.
  
"Yet still they applied, denying their culture where necessary."
  
She said Aboriginal diggers were eligible to die for their country but were unable to vote, earn equal wages, move off reserves or missions or marry without permission.
  
Manton wants the federal government to speed up work on the Register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander war veterans, which was initiated in 2007.
  
"Through information from Aboriginal veterans or a relative of a veteran we can finally learn of the numbers and deeds of our people who served in the Great War, in units in the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East in World War II or in Korea, Vietnam and Malaysia," she said.
  
"This information would also help all Australians highlight and honour the contribution that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen and women, both living and deceased, have made to this great nation of ours."
  
She said latest figures indicated that possibly as many as 1,000 Aboriginal men and women served in World War I and up to 4,000 in World War II.

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