In the lead up to ANZAC day, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria is calling on the State and Federal Government to provide recognition to the Aboriginal soldiers who were denied access to land packages provided to their non-Aboriginal counterparts upon returning from the world wars.
The Soldier Settlement Scheme was a coordinated effort between State and Federal Governments to build farming communities by making parcels of crown land readily available to returned soldiers following the first and second World Wars.
The Assembly’s Co-chair, proud Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman, said her grandfather, Stewart Murray, was one of the many Aboriginal soldiers who served in World War II and should have been able to access the Scheme.
Ms Murray said many other Assembly Members also had relatives who had served and while the past can’t be changed, it is never too last to acknowledge an injustice and try to address the disadvantage it caused.
“Having volunteered to serve a nation that barely recognised our peoples’ existence, Aboriginal soldiers, like my grandfather, risked their lives fighting for Australia. But when they got home they faced the same old racism and discrimination. They were denied equal opportunity in their own country and the disadvantage that caused has trickled down generations,”
Ngarra Murray
It’s believed that about 1,000 Aboriginal soldiers across both wars would have been eligible to access the Scheme, but only two were successful in their efforts. By 1930, the Victorian Government had acquired the equivalent of about one million hectares of land, distributed to thousands of returned servicemen under the Scheme.
In his unpublished manuscript, Ms Murray’s grandfather said this of his experience of the Soldier Settlement Scheme:
“I had made a number of applications for soldier settlement land in NSW and Victoria. I was after a sheep farm or mixed farming… I was married and had two children and was hoping to get something for them to live on and feel secure in owning a piece of my ancestors land.”
Stewart Murray
Ms Murray said she would write to the Federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Matt Keogh, and Victorian Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, Natalie Hutchins, inviting them to meet with her and other families to kickstart a discussion about how the experiences of returned Aboriginal soldiers could be better recognised.
“It might sound like a small thing, but I hope this might also spark broader conversations about how the injustices of the past have continued to flow down and compound over the generations. Think of all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forced off their lands, while those who stole it were able to benefit from it and consolidate and pass down this stolen wealth,”
Ngarra Murray
