news | action | information | events | contact | search | news | action | information | events | contact | search |
key indigenous australian issues
| home | news lIslander soldiers no longer our forgotten heroesBy Amanda Hodge 25 April 2003 - They were not citizens of Australia, nor did they have the right to vote. But in 1942, when enemy forces were on Australia's doorstep and the government looked to the Torres Strait for help, the islanders answered in their hundreds, leaving families and jobs to protect the country's vulnerable northern gateway. The 812 men of the Torres Strait Light Infantry played a vital role as the flank for the allied push into New Guinea during World War II, piloting ships through the treacherous waters, and hunting and fishing to subsidise the meagre army rations of Australian and US servicemen. Now, 57 years after the men of the TSLI downed arms and returned to the struggling island communities they left four years earlier, with no tickertape and little acknowledgement, they are finally to get recognition. Ten surviving members of Australia's first indigenous battalion will today receive the 1939-45 star medal, recognising active service in a combat zone. The Torres Strait suffered more enemy bombing raids than Darwin as Japanese fighter pilots launched eight separate attacks on Horn Island between March 1942 and June 1943. While the soldiers who served in Darwin were eventually awarded the star medal in 1992, it has taken a further decade for Canberra to acknowledge its northernmost servicemen. "We were the forgotten servicemen, but now this has happened we're no longer forgotten," 82-year-old sergeant Waraka Adidi said yesterday as the last surviving veterans gathered on Thursday Island for today's Anzac Day service. The former schoolteacher, who became the region's highest ranking Torres Strait Islander, enlisted in September 1942 after a Japanese submarine crept past his island and enemy pilots attacked neighbouring Yam Island, targeting women and children. "There was a war and the enemy were here . . . everybody on the islands was aware we had to stand up and fight," Mr Adidi said. After five submissions in seven years by federal Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch and local historian Vanessa SeeKee, the decision to award star medals to Torres Strait veterans or their families marks the correction of one of several injustices. The men of the TSLI received just 50 per cent of a white soldier's pay until the battalion mutinied in 1944 and the army raised their wage to 60 per cent. "The recognition owed to these men is long overdue," said Mr Entsch, who will help present the medals today. It will almost certainly be the last time surviving islander veterans are reunited. "Lots of our fellow men are today no longer with us," said Mr Adidi. "There are only a few of us left, but the men are very excited." Source: The Australian related links :
|
2004
gone for a song |
|
