Master of Ceremonies and ex-Naval submariner Mr David Williams opened the ceremony with a powerful speech noting the Commemoration Service as an important step towards reconciliation. He said, “I never thought I’d live to see this day and am proud to be here amongst my people.”

A further address was made by Veteran Mr Harry Buckley who commented that the service and sacrifice of the coloured diggers had not been classified until now as they had not been considered as civilians of Australia. He said, “The most tragic aspect is that it was after they returned to this country that they were shunned, their sacrifice ignored and families oppressed even further by State and Federal Governments.”

Mr Don Rowe has pledged to make the memorial service an annual event and recited The Ode. He pledged memory to the unaccounted for Aboriginal diggers. He said, “We continue to pay our respects to them.”

Source: South Sydney Herald July 2007 http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/

Ex-Naval submariner David Williams, who is now president of the NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans Association, said “When you’re in the trenches the bullets don’t care what colour your skin is,” during a speech in the service for remembrance at St Saviour’s Church, Young Street. He praised the high turnout of people who spilled out of the church and onto the streets in comparison to the mere 40 people who attended the service last year.

The Coloured Diggers’ march left the Block in Redfern at noon, timed so that any veterans who wanted to be part of the mainstream march in the City could participate in both. Proudly leading the march was Pastor Ray Minniecon, the Director of Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries in Sydney and organiser of the event which he says is long overdue. Pastor Bill Simon who marched shortly behind him said that seven of his uncles fought in the ninth division in World War II yet received little recognition. He said, “I’m just happy to be here amongst my people. As a pastor, I marry them and I bury them. It feels good to be here amongst them now.”

Supporters lined the rainy streets of Redfern shouting, “Good on ya fellas!” and handing out sprigs of rosemary for remembrance. The parade stopped outside the church where a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony and welcome dance was performed. Glen Doyle who participated in the ceremony which is performed on sacred grounds said that the parade is good for community spirit. “We can’t change history but people are getting a good inspiration from Redfern at the moment. Events like this one today are working towards values we had 50 years ago. We’re in a transition period and Redfern is approaching a good time.”

Source: South Sydney Herald May 2007 http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/

SYDNEY --  Thousands of people in Australia and New Zealand held services Wednesday to honor their war veterans on a national holiday, including a march to remember oft-forgotten black soldiers who served reports Madeleine Coorey of AFP in the Middle East Times of April 25, 2007.

Anzac Day marks the start of the grueling World War I battle of Gallipoli, in which thousands of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) soldiers died, and which now honors all those who served in wartime.

More than 10,000 people crowded the Australian War Memorial in Canberra for a dawn service and some 20,000 lined Sydney streets to cheer a veterans' parade.

The parade was led by two riderless horses to symbolize the passing of all Australian veterans from the Boer and first world wars.

Meanwhile, a small number of indigenous ex-servicemen led about 300 supporters through the streets of inner-city Redfern, Sydney's Aboriginal heartland, to the applause of scores of onlookers.

"It brings tears to my eyes," said retired Chief Petty Officer David Williams, a navy submariner who spent 29 years in the military.

"It is a thank you and that is all a digger [soldier] requires whether they are black, white, or brindle."

About 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were involved in World War I and as many as 5,000 in World War II, but they received little or no recognition and faced racism and inequality when they returned home.

Ray Minniecon, an Aboriginal Anglican pastor who organized the march and church service for indigenous veterans, said he wanted to promote ties between black and white communities on Anzac Day, one of Australia's most revered holidays.

"To us, this is about reconciliation, it is about recognition," he said.

"These were brothers in arms in those wars, and when they came back there was inequality. We are just trying to bring that reconciliation back, and the respect and the honor that these guys deserve."

One of the Aboriginal servicemen honored, Harry Allie, said he was "extremely proud" of the march.

"I think that it will inspire the young people coming through today," said Allie, who spent 23 years in the air force.

Despite serving their country, Aboriginal servicemen and women returning home from WWI and WWII did not have the same citizen rights as other Australians and were unable to vote, own property, or marry a non-Aboriginal.

The indigenous march was initially criticized by the main veterans group, the Returned and Services League (RSL).

But national president Bill Crews later said he supported the event, adding that Aboriginal soldiers had served admirably since the first world war.

"It is not in competition with the march in Sydney and for that reason we are certainly not against it, indeed we support it," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We are now encouraging people to pay more attention to the very significant role those servicemen and women have made over the years."

Thousands also attended dawn parades across New Zealand.

In Auckland, as a bugler sounded the Reveille, the crowd of 20,000 was told that playing it at the dawn service proclaimed the belief that the landing of the Anzac troops at Gallipoli was the "dawn of nationhood of New Zealand and Australia."

In Wellington, former secretary of defense Graham Fortune spoke of the sacrifices made by New Zealanders and Australians and said the two countries needed to remember their shared heritage.

"New Zealand and Australia gather to honor our men and women who fought, suffered, and died," he said.

"We and Australia have always worked together in war and peace. We must continue to do so."

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070425-042915-4290r

The church, hung with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, was the end point of the inaugural Coloured Diggers march, which had set out from the Redfern neighbourhood known as The Block.

Former and current armed forces personnel, joined by more that 200 family and friends, marched behind a banner bearing the words Honour, Recognition and Respect.

Pastor Ray Minniecon and organiser Brenda McDonnell led the service, under the theme Our Unsung Heroes.

NSW Governor Marie Bashir, federal Labor Member for Sydney Tanya Plibersek and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore led the congregation in placing rosemary sprigs and plastic poppies as an act of reconciliation.

Family members of returned veterans told the gathering of discrimination their loved ones had suffered in pubs and RSL clubs.

Retired naval submariner David Williams acknowledged he had been refused entry to pubs, but said he was proud Aboriginal people were now respected for their contributions to Australia's armed forces.

"I say to walk down most streets of Redfern in this day and age, and to have a parade and have you guys to say thank you for my colleagues from past, present and beyond on, it is unbelievable," Mr Williams said.

"And I've never been so proud, I had tears in my eyes, I tell you, I'm a big sook when it comes to those sort of things," he said.

Mr Williams said the armed forces had been ahead of their time in employing Aboriginal people without discrimination before it was made law.

"The military was the first equal opportunity employer in Australia, long before it was gazetted," the 29-year veteran said.

NSW RSL president Don Howe dismissed reports that the organisation opposed the separate Aboriginal Anzac Day march.

"I hope that Anzac Day is above politics, creed and race," Mr Howe said.

"We had no problem with it. We endorsed it. In fact we'll be working with the Aboriginal community for a special service at the Anzac Memorial (in Sydney) on May 31, which is Aboriginal Reconciliation Day, he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Indigenous-Aussies-honour-unsung-heroes/2007/04/25/1177459780155.html

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."

http://abc.net.au/message/news/stories/ms_news_1906416.htm

"They left him to look after himself and he ended up hitting the booze and just slowly deteriorating."

This was not an isolated experience. About 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders fought in World War I and as many as 5000 took part in World War II, according to Australian War Memorial records.

But while they fought alongside other Australians in the trenches, on the battlefields of Europe and in the jungles of Asia, those who made it back often received little or no recognition of their efforts and continued to face racism at home.

Next Wednesday, despite criticism from the RSL, their unique experiences and contribution will be recognised when hundreds of indigenous veterans and their descendants march through Redfern in Sydney's first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anzac Day parade.

Organisers are expecting more than 300 people to attend the inaugural Coloured Diggers march, which will pass along Redfern Street to St Saviour's church, where an indigenous Anzac Day service will be held.

Mr Williams, who served on HMAS Vampire during the Vietnam War, will join the Redfern march after taking part in the traditional parade in central Sydney. He believes a separate march for indigenous veterans is long overdue.

"When you're serving, things are pretty equal," he said.

"You do your job well, your mates respect you and you get promoted. It's when you get back that it gets hard on the black digger.

"We need more people to recognise the contribution they made and the situation they faced when they got back."

The RSL said yesterday it would prefer that indigenous veterans take part in the established Anzac Day parade.

"They appear to be conducting an alternative march, which is unfortunate," said the RSL national president, Bill Crews.

"They could be part of any of the services and marches being conducted around NSW and do not need to conduct any service of their own. It's unfortunate they don't feel they will get the attention they need at those services."

Mr Crews also expressed concern over a call by the march organisers to have a separate honour roll for indigenous war veterans placed in the Australian War Memorial.

"Our honour roll contains all of those who served," he said. "It doesn't distinguish in terms of background."

The organiser of the indigenous veterans' march, Pastor Ray Minniecon, said there was no intention to snub the RSL.

"A lot of our people don't march on Anzac Day and we're simply trying to give them the opportunity to be recognised and acknowledged in the same way that anyone who served … should be recognised.

"While our men were out there fighting in the wars their kids were being taken away to the missions. When they got back they were still treated like second-class citizens. They weren't even allowed in the RSL, and the only way they were marching was at the back of the line."

Photo: "It's when you get back that it gets hard on the black digger" ... David Williams, who was on HMAS Vampire in the Vietnam War. Photo: Nick Moir

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/16/1176696757591.html?from=top5

From the magnificent Australian War Memorial in Canberra to the local statue of the Digger, resting on reversed arms, memorials to Australian service in wartime are common. But only two mark, specifically, the efforts of indigenous Australians. One is in Canberra, the other at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast. The latter is a simple inscription on a rock: “This rock is placed here to honour Yugambeh men and women who served in defence of this country. Yugambeh is the linguistic name of the Aboriginal people whose tribal region extends inland from the Logan and Nerang Rivers... We honour those who served in the armed forces and those who made the supreme sacrifice. The symbolism of this rock serves to highlight the role played by indigenous Australians in defence of this country.”

Indigenous Australians were not, officially at least, welcome in the armed forces in either World War. Yet many joined and served with distinction beside their white comrades. Some Aboriginal men said they experienced little or no discrimination in the services, even though they might have had to tell the enlisting officer they were Maori or Indian.

At least 25 Queenslanders of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander extraction were killed in the First AIF. Some estimates put the number who served at more than 1000. In WWII, many Indigenous Australians joined up after the entry of Japan into the war. More than 800 Torres Strait Islanders and mainlanders were members of the Torres Strait Force, formed to defend the Strait as a major shipping route. These men were paid only one-third the wages of white soldiers. Thanks largely to research by Canberra academic Dr Robert Hall, the survivors were compensated in the early 1980s.

Many thousands of Australian Aboriginals have enlisted and served in Australia’s defence forces since 1901, and several have won decorations, but the first to be promoted to a commissioned rank was Reg Saunders of Victoria. Reginald Walter Saunders was born a member of the Gunditjmara people, just outside Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve in the western district of Victoria on 7 August 1920. His father, Chris Saunders, and uncle, William Reginald Rawlings, had served with the first AIF. Reg was named after his uncle, who served in the 29th Battalion and was awarded a Military Medal for “displaying rare bravery in the performance of his duty. His irresistible dash and courage set a wonderful example to the remainder of the team”.

Reg grew to admire the military feats of both his father and uncle. He served 12 months behind the lines on Crete. He also served on the Kokoda Track and lost a brother there. He was promoted to Lieutenant and served as a Company Commander at Kapyong. There are many more Reg Saunders who deserve recognition.

This year on Anzac Day there will be a march to commemorate the Aboriginal Diggers why made the sacrifice in various Australian theatres of war. The march will leave The Block at 12noon to go to St. Saviours Anglican Church in Young Street, Redfern. Then, at 3PM, at the Damien Minton Gallery in Great Buckingham Street, Redfern, there will bean exhibition called “The coloured Digger”. Anthony Simmons is one of the artists exhibiting and is one of the few Aboriginal sculptors around.

Pastor Ray Minniecon, from Cross Roads Church in Redfern, told the Herald that he is hoping that some of Anthony’s work will be included in the Anzac War Memorial in Hyde Park in an Aboriginal section. The campaign for Indigenous people to be included in the War Memorial is going to be a long campaign but maybe Aboriginal people are used to long campaigns!

Photo: Mark Spinks, Brena McDonnell, Ray Minniecon, Linda Bon, Chris Carben Photo: Ali Blogg

Source: South Sydney Herald April 2007 – www.southsydneyherald.com.au

Discussion included opposition to the needle exchange caravan so close to kids’ play areas on the Block, desire to establish Babana as a legally incorporated body, and need for improved men’s services to ensure quality of life, mental health, stability for families.

Pastor Ray Minniecon (Crossroads Aboriginal Ministry) spoke about a commemoration to honour service-men and women on Anzac Day. The Aboriginal Diggers Recognition project (building on a similar event in 2006) will comprise an Anzac Day march from the Block to St Saviour’s Anglican Church. The meeting heard that a bronze monument to Indigenous members of the Armed Forces who helped defend the country in two world wars, is in the making. It also heard that an Honour Roll (long overdue) of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Diggers is being compiled.

The meeting voted unanimously to support Pastor Minniecon’s project, and to encourage its more than 70 members to get involved.

Coinciding with the project, Reg Lynch is curating a group exhibition called ‘The Coloured Digger’ at the Damien Minton Gallery in Great Buckingham Street, from April 17–May 5.

One of the most lengthy discussions centred on a strategic planning document entitled ‘Babana: Directions 2007.’  All those present offered responses to the paper. There was a real feeling of excitement, even urgency. It was impressive.

One youth work volunteer said, “I’m here because I’m inspired by these guys!” Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer with Redfern Police, Kalmain Williams, said, “It’s about getting blokes together for a yarn – the young guys and the Elders.”

Mark Spinks, who works as Indigenous Community Officer at Centrelink, was full of encouragement and enthusiasm for Babana – for what the group was achieving, and for what it can still achieve. He praised men for their special gifts and contributions, and for their commitment. “This group is growing,” he said, “because you’re serious about being here and caring about the community.”

“What we really need now,” he added, “is our own place – our own meeting place.” This is something all the men agree on. They’d love their own “shed” for outdoor meetings, for business – a place to meet and talk. They hope it happens soon.

If the meeting I attended is any indication, it won’t be long.        For more information about Babana contact Mark Spinks on 0411 282 917.

Source: South Sydney Herald March 2007

Source: South Sydney Herald February 2007

Director Fiona Winning says there are no plans to change the experimental company's confronting style.

"I see it as the beginning of a new era," she says, sitting in the bustling open-plan office. "Performance Space as an entity will continue to create new works and work in the intersections between art forms as people experiment and play, and develop audiences that are curiouser and curiouser about the possibilities on offer.

"We have loved this building dearly, but it is time to expand, grow and change."

CarriageWorks will open in January next year, in time for the Sydney Festival. With a budget of $42 million from the NSW Government, CarriageWorks will provide Performance Space and other companies with two theatres (one of which seats 300) and rehearsal, workshop and office spaces.

Since it opened in 1980, Performance Space has maintained a consistent vision: to encourage and promote experimental and cross-discipline art forms. The Space branched out from purely local productions and fringe theatre with forums, workshops and residencies, including the five-year Time Place Space project, which allowed artists to experiment and play.

"That seeded a lot of national projects," says Winning. "We've moved into Australia Council initiative Mobile States (for dancers) and British-Australian co-operative Breathing Space (hybrid and live art), which are about getting work out to larger audiences beyond Sydney and participating in national networks to develop practices and audiences."

This year the Space has hosted interactive installations and videos in Videos from the Zones, as part of the Sydney Biennale. It also hosted Liquid Architecture, the seventh sound-arts festival, and a range of live performances including Indonesian artist Melati Suryodarmo's high-cholesterol Exergie - Butter Dance, in which the dancer, dressed for a disco, slips and slides on slabs of butter.

The first show at Performance Space in 1980 was a political one: Mike Mullins's New Blood. Mullins was the Space's instigator and first director, and was well known for his street art performances, dressed in bloody bandages as the Lone Anzac. The final show at the Cleveland St premises is a return season of the blackly comic theatre piece The Wages of Spin, about the sexing-up of evidence for war on Iraq. The production company behind the show, Version 1.0, emerged through a series of training programs and collaborations at Performance Space.

The Wages of Spin, she says, challenges audience expectations, albeit with irony and humour: "I would say that that's one of the really important things about this space, that kind of porous relationship between audience and performer or between spectator and artist. The relationship has really been challenged and experimented with consistently. I think that is one of the really key points of difference this space has offered to audiences."

The Cleveland St building began life as a grand terrace, then was made over into a railway union social hall; it was also a brothel and an illegal gambling den. Over 25 years the place has been massaged into something approximating a specially designed, multi-purpose theatrical space. But with tight budgets and market rents, Performance Space funds were directed towards performances rather than infrastructure.

"The fact is that there's not a real loading dock and the dressing rooms are just tiny dank rooms off the space that were never really meant for masses of artists putting on big costumes. Everyone's always adapted to the physical space and there's been a great deal of invention to make great work."

With cutting-edge work the potential for failure is magnified. Some shows succeeded, others drove audiences screaming from the room. What all the performers had in common was passion: they believed fiercely in what they were doing. Audiences were just as enthusiastic. One group stood for two hours during an early Mullins show, Long, Long Time Ago.

In 1988, French-Canadian theatre troupe Carbone 14 filled the space with tonnes of earth, railway tracks and sleepers for their show Le Rail. The next year, during The Pornography of Performance by the Sydney Front, audiences blindly groped naked performers, who went on to spit, eat dog food and do unspeakable things with cake.

In 2001, Mexican-American artist Guillermo Gomez Pena created The Museum of Fetish-ized Images with 10 Australian artists who formed themselves in what looked like historical tableaus. "The audience walked into what felt like a party space with dioramas, but the images were quite extreme, highly sexualised and ethno-mutated," says Winning. "Throughout the night, the boundary between performers and audience broke down as the audience members participated much more fully than they might have intended to when they walked in."

The Wages of Spin and Videos From the Zones are at the Performance Space, Sydney, until August 19.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20085234-16947,00.html