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Another Anzac Day, another missed opportunity

By Chris Graham, editor

19 April 2007 - What sort of a nation would forget the name of its first Prime Minister? The same sort of nation that year in, year out keeps remembering to forget the contribution of Indigenous servicemen and women to Australia's numerous war efforts.

Scan the pages of the nation's media and you'll find an Anzac Day coverage that is decidedly white.

Editors wax lyrical about brave Aussie diggers and readers write in with letters of admiration and thanks.

We remember the sacrifice of our white soldiers and we remember the sacrifice of our white nurses.

We turn out to memorials to both on Anzac Parade in Canberra.

We even now finally remember and pay tribute to the efforts of the Vietnam Veterans who were treated so appallingly by an ungrateful nation.

And we apologise to them.

But we always manage to forget to thank the black men and women who contributed to past war efforts on behalf of a nation that didn't even recognise them as citizens.

It's the part of our war past that we just don't want to face.

This nation can't even bring itself to build a memorial alongside all the others in Canberra that recognises the contribution of 'non-citizens'.

Indigenous people were good enough to die for their 'non-country'. They just don't seem to be good enough to be thanked properly for it.

What a terribly sad state of affairs.

This year - 2007 - holds special significance for black war veterans.

It represents 40 years since the 1967 referendum, when Indigenous Australians were finally counted as citizens, 'entitling' them to basic benefits all other Australians enjoyed.

I emphasise the word 'entitled' because the referendum represented an extension of rights in principle only.

In practice, the past injustices have not been righted. They endure today.

Indigenous servicemen and women gave the same as non-Indigenous citizens, but they received so much less in return.

Black servicemen and women were paid less. They were not entitled to veterans benefits when they returned from the theatres of war.

They couldn't qualify for land grants. They weren't even allowed to join RSL clubs.

In fact, they couldn't even stop in for a beer at the local club, save for Anzac Day when some clubs allowed Aboriginal people to remain on the streets and be served through windows.

I sincerely doubt the men and women who gave their lives to keep this nation free believed that the efforts of those black men and women who served alongside them could be so easily forgotten.

And with that in mind, the RSL can start healing its past sins by leading a charge for the proper recognition of our Indigenous servicemen and women.

The bullets of war don't care who they hit - they don't discriminate.

But a nation does and it's high time it ended.

Source: National Indigenous Times

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