The Service combined conventional military protocol with Indigenous ceremonial display including a traditional smoking ceremony and featured the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders, school students, current serving, and veterans of the Australian Defence Force.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in every war and conflict since the Boer War. Although they fought – and sometimes died – shoulder-to-shoulder with their fellow Australians, they returned home to a country that still refused to acknowledge them as citizens and denied them the recognition and entitlements they had earned.
