Remembering the forgotten

The annual AFL Anzac round?

The anticipation of last night’s Anzac eve clash with the Dees wearing their special Anzac tribute guernsey?

Maybe the two games being played today – Hawks versus Swans and Dons versus Pies?

Perhaps it’s the annual dawn service or the Anzac Day March?

Or is it the Reveille or Last Post?

Or perhaps it is another meaning, another story.

A story referred to in the following words: “I am the father of a soldier who gave his life for his King on the battlefield ... the aboriginal now has no status, no rights, no land and ... nothing to fight for but the privilege of defending the land which was taken from him by the white race without compensation or even kindness. We submit that to put us in the trenches, until we have something to fight for is, not right.”

These were the words penned in 1939, by Aboriginal activist William Cooper and addressed to John McEwan, the federal Minister of the Interior as the world lurched towards another world war.

The words of a father whose son had perished on the Western Front.

In recent years there have been more stories surfacing — of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen — of how they answered the call to ‘defend King and Country’.

Of the hope that their service to country would usher in an era of changed attitudes in the wider community.

There have been stories of the families and communities who deeply mourned their losses — losses not recognised on the many memorials dotted around the country.

Servicemen whose applications for Soldier Settler blocks were rejected, who were refused entry to the returned servicemen’s clubs and whose hopes that the equal pay they received whilst serving would continue upon their return.

Australia’s losses in World War I had profound social, political and cultural impacts.

Consider that from a population of about five million, more than 416,000 men enlisted, about 62,000 died and 155,000 were wounded.

This left a vast and profound hole.

But there was another story of conflict, another ‘Great War’.

It was not fought on the battlefields of France and Belgium or on the cliffs of Anzac Cove.

It was fought right here in Australia.

Speaking about the Frontier Wars, historians Raymond Evans and Robert Ørsted-Jensen in their paper, ”I cannot say the numbers that were killed”: Assessing Mortality on the Queensland Frontier, described this conflict as “our Great War — a war for both the defense and conquest of Australia”.

Mr Evans’ and Mr Ørsted-Jensen’s research focused on Queensland in the mid-19th century.

Queensland — the scene of devastating and ongoing violence.

The encroaching movement of colonists was fiercely resisted by First Nations warriors as they fought to defend their land, culture and way of life.

Mr Evans and Mr Ørsted-Jensen estimated that at least 65,180 Aboriginal Australians were killed from the 1820s until the early 1900s.

And this was in Queensland alone.

The implications of the number of Aboriginal deaths Australia-wide is horrifying.

And there is no official recognition of this conflict — this conflict that impacted all parts of the continent.

The Australian War Memorial states that its purpose is to “commemorate the sacrifice of those Australians who have died in war or on operational service and those who have served our country in times of conflict. Its mission is leading remembrance and understanding of Australia’s wartime experience’’.

Part of meeting its mandate to help Australians “remember, interpret and understand” the country’s war experiences.

However, there is a reluctance to acknowledge the fierce battles between First Nations Peoples and settler Australians – wars that raged for the sovereignty of land.

The wars that lie at the dark heart of Australia’s history.

Those unpalatable wars that have been pushed into the back corners of the Australian story to form part of the ‘Great Silence’.

This has resulted in an inability to recognise the sacrifices made by First Nations’ warriors and those colonists who also died.

This year’s National Reconciliation Week theme is Be Brave. Make Change.

There is an opportunity for our country to be brave — to formally recognise the Frontier Wars and the impacts this conflict had in the past, and which still reverberate today – and to make change to ensure this story becomes part of the story of our nation.

To recognise this at the country’s leading memorial to conflict — the Australian War Memorial.

There is also an opportunity to Be Brave. Make Change at the local level.

To fly the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags at our local war memorials.

To acknowledge the sacrifices Australia’s First Nations people made in defence of country - country that is integral to their identity, culture and soul.

To find out more about the Frontier Wars, read Forgotten War by Henry Reynolds and Blood on the Wattle by Bruce Elder.

To view the University of Newcastle’s mapping of the Frontier Wars conflicts visit https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/map.php

To join the Shepparton Region Reconciliation Group, visit www.facebook.com/RespectSRRG