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key indigenous australian issues
| home | news l'Unsung heroes' honoured in Indigenous march25 April 2007 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers have been honoured at an Anzac Day march through Redfern in inner Sydney. Around 500 Indigenous people fought in World War I and as many as 5,000 in World War II. But many who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. March organiser, Pastor Ray Minniecon, is the director of Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries in Sydney. He says when Indigenous soldiers returned home, their bravery was not acknowledged. "A lot of the diggers say over there in the heat of the battle 'we were one', but I guess they found out that when they came back here there were a lot of inequalities," he said. Most returned home to the segregation of the White Australia policy, while others returned to find their children had been taken from their homes and placed in institutions. Today, hundreds of ex-servicemen, women and their families gathered at The Block on Eveleigh Street in the heart of Redfern under the banner of "recognising and respecting Australia's unsung heroes." The march finished at St Saviour's Anglican Church in Young street for a commemorative service. Speaking at the service, Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the true story of Australia's military past must be told. "Today we are here to raise our voices and to pierce one of the shameful silences of our country's history," she said. "If we as a nation are telling ourselves the story of our military past, then we should do it properly." "For only when all those elements are present do we have something that even approaches the real story." Source: ABC
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