The Australian Wars

First Nations Anzacs sacrificed life and limb for Country. Why aren’t their stories shown onscreen?

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 25, 2024
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Since the 1860s, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in the Australian Defence Force.

Key Points: 
  • Since the 1860s, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in the Australian Defence Force.
  • In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders weren’t yet considered Australian citizens and were therefore automatically excluded from enlisting.
  • Despite this, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders answered the call to defend their country by hiding their racial identity to enlist.

Fighting for Country

  • The chance to earn a wage and gain an education were also attractive causes as these rights were heavily restricted for Indigenous Australians at the time.
  • For the most part, however, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who joined the war effort did so out of a deep love for their country.
  • Even today, many families and communities continue to seek due recognition for Indigenous peoples’ contributions to the war effort.


Read more:
Telling the forgotten stories of Indigenous servicemen in the first world war

(A lack of) Indigenous recognition in media

  • Indigenous people’s contributions during WWI continue to be left out of major mainstream media productions.
  • Before Dawn (2024), the most recent Australian film based on the war, fails to include a single Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in its cast.
  • Earlier films such as The Lighthorsemen (1987) and Gallipoli (1981) – perhaps the most iconic Australian WWI film – also fails to include or even mention an Indigenous presence.
  • Lewis and Larry Farmer both fought and survived at Gallipoli, but Larry was later killed on the Western Front.
  • A third brother, Augustus Pegg Farmer – the first Aboriginal soldier awarded the Military Medal for bravery – was killed in action several months later.

Untold stories

  • Two examples are the documentary The Australian Wars (2022) and the film Higher Ground (2020).
  • But it’s fair to say such projects sit outside the popular media most Australians are exposed to.
  • Where is the onscreen tale of the Indigenous Anzac soldier who obscured his racial identity to enlist?
  • Who survived through horrors, only to be excluded from all forms of post-war recognition and compensation?
  • I would like to sincerely acknowledge the diverse traditional custodians of this great land – their respective communities, Elders and Countries.


Cally Jetta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The Australian War Memorial must deal properly with the frontier wars

Retrieved on: 
Sunday, April 23, 2023
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The recent media rounds of the new chair of the Australian War Memorial Council, Kim Beazley, appear to presage a major shift in the institution’s attitude to the frontier wars.

Key Points: 
  • The recent media rounds of the new chair of the Australian War Memorial Council, Kim Beazley, appear to presage a major shift in the institution’s attitude to the frontier wars.
  • Beazley’s attitude, which complements that of Veterans’ Affairs Minister Matt Keogh, signals that the Australian War Memorial is not impervious to the changed political landscape.

A constantly evolving memorial

    • In truth, the Australian War Memorial Act 1980 contains a very broad definition of the institution’s role as
      a national memorial to Australians who have died as a result of any war and warlike operations.
    • a national memorial to Australians who have died as a result of any war and warlike operations.
    • When the war memorial opened in 1941, it was already apparent that a new world war would need to be recognised.

A wealth of historical research to draw from

    • While the Australian War Memorial dissembled, historical research consolidated the claim that there had indeed been a violent and sustained conflict on the frontier that should be understood as warfare.
    • Jeffrey Grey’s A Military History of Australia, first published in 1990, left readers in no doubt on this score.
    • Grey’s argument received powerful confirmation in the more detailed research of historians John Connor and Stephen Gapps for the period before 1838.

How to properly capture the gravity of the tragedy?

    • They rightly argue that such an approach is unsatisfactory given the importance of the frontier wars in Australia’s history.
    • According to the director, this will be renamed the Pre-1914 Galleries – a choice that ignores the killing of First Nations people in northern Australia well into the 1920s.
    • There is a need for serious research, reflection and discussion on how to create a gallery worthy of the gravity and tragedy of the frontier wars.
    • Frank Bongiorno is President of the Australian Historical Association and is a Past President of Honest History