News

Koori community to lay wreath at ANZAC Day service

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:44:00

Mildura’s Koori community will for the first time lay a wreath to commemorate fallen soldiers at tomorrow’s ANZAC Day commemorations.

Mallee District Aboriginal Services’ deputy president Michael Gilby will lay the wreath of behalf of the Aboriginal community at the 11 o clock service at Henderson Park.
Mr Gilby said he was honored to be involved in the service and pleased the role of Aboriginal service personnel would be reflected in this year’s commemorations.
“The First and Second World Wars unified Australians and Aboriginal soldiers fought alongside servicemen from all backgrounds,” Mr Gilby said.
“There were significant numbers of Aboriginal servicemen – although it’s likely that many of them did not identify as Aboriginal at that time in order to avoid rejection from enlisting,” he said.
“We believe it’s important now to recognize the contribution Aboriginal people did have in those major conflicts, in the Vietnam and Korean War and are continuing to have, as current serving soldiers.”
Mr Gilby said the theme of NAIDOC Week celebrations in July this year is “Serving Country: Centenary and Beyond”.
“As part of the recognition of that theme, we are wanting to record the names of current serving and past serving members of the armed services from the Koori Communities in our region,” Mr Gilby said.
“We are hoping Indigenous families that had a member or members of their family in the armed services, past and present, will put their relative’s name forward for recognition on our NAIDOC awards night.
“But beyond that we are also hoping we can use those names to create a memorial here in Mildura for Indigenous soldiers, so their contribution is acknowledged publicly as well.”
Names for inclusion on the register can be forwarded to Mildura NAIDOC Committee Member Sandra Stewart here.