Fighting for a Country That Didn’t Fight for Them. Anzac Day 2025

Despite being denied the rights of citizenship and facing systemic discrimination at home, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people enlisted to fight for Australia in wars dating back to World War I. Hundreds served as ANZACs on the battlefields of Gallipoli, the Western Front, and the Middle East, often risking their lives for a nation that refused to recognise them as equals. By World War II, their numbers had grown significantly. First Nations soldiers served in infantry units, signal corps, medical teams, and as trackers, both abroad and on home soil—particularly in northern Australia, where Torres Strait Islander men played a key role in defending the coastline from Japanese forces.

Yet when the guns fell silent, the injustices only deepened. Unlike their non-Indigenous comrades, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans returned to a country that still denied them basic rights, including access to returned service benefits, land grants, and pensions. They were excluded from RSL clubs, ignored in official commemorations, and often had their service erased from history.

For decades, their contributions were absent from Anzac Day ceremonies, their names missing from memorials. It’s only in recent years that Australia has begun to reckon with this silence. Today, more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans are being honoured, and their stories are finally finding a place in the national memory.

But true remembrance means more than recognition—it means justice, truth-telling, and ensuring their legacy is never forgotten again.