AVM Chris Spence chatting with Dr Margot Weir after the service at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial.

In recognition of the important contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have made to the Australian Defence Force (ADF), a number of high-ranking Defence personnel attended a special memorial service at the Australian War Memorial during National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Commemoration (NAIDOC) week.

The memorial service, which was conducted by Air Commodore Royce Thompson, was held at the Indigenous Memorial site situated in bushland behind the War Memorial on Tuesday, 10 July.

Key guests included the Secretary of Defence, Dr Allan Hawke, and Major General Simon Willis representing the Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral Chris Barrie. Deputy Chief of Air Force, Air Vice-Marshal Chris Spence, and the National Secretary of the RSL, Mr Derek Robson also attended.

Guest speaker at the ceremony was Dr Margot Weir, Consultant, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Veterans and Services Association (ATSIVA). The role of ATSIVA is to advise on welfare and pension services to Indigenous veterans, Service personnel, widows, widowers and their dependants.

Dr Weir, herself an ex-Naval officer, spoke of the long and proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander contribution to Australia's freedom. ' The Australian Defence Force has provided for many Indigenous people, a sense of place and belonging with discipline and equity,' she said.

Dr Weir, also referred to the Forces as a leader in the process of reconciliation and spoke of its [ADF] group spirit and its ability to foster community and sense of purpose. 'It lives on in Aboriginal veterans, as it does in all affiliated associations and individuals,' she said, adding: 'May these values flow out into society and evermore grow'.

Later, AVM Spence commented that Dr Weir's words had struck a cord with him. He described his own contact with a special and important part of Australia, when he flew Caribous in NT and went on to express his personal belief that the ADF led the community in recognition of Native Title.

NAIDOC Week gives the Defence Force an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the significant contribution Indigenous people have made to the ADF and defence of Australia. Indigenous military personnel have long been a part of Australia's proud military tradition and have been serving and protecting the country since World War I.

More than 4000 Indigenous Australians were involved in World Wars I and II. Today, Indigenous personnel are serving on Peacekeeping Operations and in many employment areas in the three Services.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial was built following a resolution by the United Nations in 1994 that defined the goal for the decade as one of strengthening international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by Indigenous peoples. (1994 was the International Year of the World's Indigenous People.)

By Amber McKinnon
Photograph by Emma Scott