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- 28 June 2004
Aboriginal Armed Forces Service
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Page: 10330
The Hon. CATHERINE CUSACK [10.27 p.m.]: Tomorrow at 11.00 a.m. in the Garden Court of the Macksville and District Ex-Servicemen's Club a very special and significant ceremony will take place. A local Aboriginal man, Uncle Terry Donovan, will be presented with his National Service Medal in recognition of his service in the Australian Infantry during the Vietnam War. The invitation that was issued by the Nambucca Valley Community Services Council begins with the words:
Everyone is Welcome. A Day of Remembrance and Medal Presentation... Come and help us celebrate this special occasion for Uncle Terry Donovan and other Goorie Soldiers who fought to defend this country. It will be a day to remember for young and old.
The event will feature a special welcome to country by Mr Reg Davis and a smoking ceremony by John Marshall. Mr Barry MacDonald, who is the vice-president of the sub-branch, will officiate. The Mayor of the Nambucca shire, Mr George Hicks, will present Uncle Terry with his medal. There will be a mention of war veterans, The Last Post will be played and there will be one minute's silence. Mr MacDonald will close the ceremony by reading The Ode while Mr Chris Welsh plays the didgeridoo in the background. Due to the sitting program of the House, I will be unable to attend this very special and unfortunately rare event in Macksville tomorrow. I have yet to meet Uncle Terry, but I assure the House that I look forward to the privilege of making his acquaintance. Uncle Terry is one of many Aboriginal soldiers whose war service, sadly, has gone unrecognised for too long. He only recently requested his medal.
Indigenous Australians have served in our armed forces in every war since Federation. It is estimated that during World War I and World War II some 4,000 Aboriginal men enlisted to fight for Australia. I remind honourable members that Aboriginal people in this country did not even have the right to vote until after the constitutional referendum that was held in May 1967. During Reconciliation Week in June 2000, Canberra's tallest building, the MLC Tower in Keltie Street, Woden, was officially renamed Lovett Tower at a ceremony presided over by the former Governor-General, Sir William Deane. Lovett Tower houses the Department of Veterans Affairs and the organisation formerly known as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. The building was renamed in honour of the Lovett family from western Victoria—an indigenous family—who bear the distinction of having 19 immediate family members who served Australia in both World Wars as well as in Japan, Korea, Vietnam and East Timor. The former Governor-General commented:
… until comparatively recent times, the approach of our nation's armed forces to Indigenous Australians was far from generous. Indeed, too often, it was grossly unfair and discriminatory.
Sir William Deane referred to periods of exclusion from enlisting and to low pay, or even at times no pay, or payment in tobacco. The initiative followed a 1999 nationwide search launched by the then Minister for Veterans Affairs, Bruce Scott, to locate Aboriginal veterans. The search was needed because Australian service men and women have never been required to divulge their ethnicity or cultural heritage on the official records. The Minister was concerned that Aboriginal veterans and their families may be missing out on entitlements.
An ex-service organisation, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans and Services Association of Australia, was also started in 1999 to encourage more veterans to come forward. Other initiatives I have learned of are also very recent. On Anzac Day 2002 the Cape Barren Island community, near Flinders Island in Tasmania, rededicated its memorial commemorating Aboriginal veterans. The original memorial was dedicated to 21 members of the island community who volunteered to serve during World War I, six of whom were killed in action. The rededication included a new honour roll of 23 World War II veterans. The island has a Vietnam veteran and two current serving members of the Armed Services.
I thank my dear friends Bette Boland and Pat Furbank of Macksville for alerting me to tomorrow's ceremony. Bette and Pat are both veterans of the Vietnam War, having served in the nursing service of the Australian Air Force. Both served two tours of duty and obtained the rank of squadron leader. Pat, who volunteered for Medivac service with the Americans based at Clark Field, flew missions into Vietnam field hospitals to recover wounded soldiers and return them to various home countries, including the United States of America, Japan, Alaska, Australia and New Zealand. Pat is president of the Macksville sub-branch of the RSL and is unable to attend tomorrow's ceremony as she is nursing her mother in Dapto. Bette, who is the sub-branch secretary, will fly the flag for both of them tomorrow, and I know how much she is looking forward to the event. We all owe a great debt of thanks to Carrol Maher of the Nambucca Valley Community Services Council, who initiated and organised this event.
I know it will be a proud day for the Aboriginal community in Macksville, but it will be an especially proud day for Uncle Terry, who, together with his fellow Aboriginal servicemen, served Australia, in many cases making the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our nationhood and freedoms. On behalf of the Parliament, we are truly humbled by their sacrifices and grateful to them. It will be a proud day tomorrow for Uncle Terry, his community and, indeed, all Australians. In conclusion, I seek the leave of the House to table a poem, and its description, which will be read by Carrol Maher at tomorrow's ceremony.
Leave granted.
Document tabled.
[Time expired.]
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