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.”
“We
should put in all the elements of the story, the fearful ones who served as
well as the heroic. The blunders as well as the victories, the women who kept
the country going, as well as the men who fought. And let us also put the black
into it as well as the white.”
“For
only when all those elements are present do we have something that even
approaches the real story.”