Aboriginal Australians fought in the second Boer War (1899 – 1902) through two World Wars and in the Vietnam War, right up to today. Until recently, we have been largely ignored, our cultural identity unrecognised in formal war records. First World War Though Aboriginal people could not vote, as we were not Australian citizens and were not counted in the census, over 400 of us fought in the First World War. Men volunteered to fight and women joined as nurses and aides. At home, we lived on the margins of European society and were treated as inferior. Yet, when we joined up to fight, we were treated as equals. Aboriginal men were paid the same as other soldiers and generally, we were accepted without prejudice. When war broke out in 1914, many Aboriginal people who tried to enlist were rejected on the grounds of race. Many Noongars joined as Maoris or Indians because of a ban on recruiting Aboriginals. At other times, Noongar people would claim they did not know who their parents were to avoid questions about their identity. Sometimes the fact that a man was Noongar was ignored altogether (as the examples below show) and he simply enlisted … Continue reading War Service