About First Nations military service 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have served in the Australian Defence Forces during every major conflict Australia has been a part of since Federation (1901), including both world wars. Military service resources can be a rich source of information when conducting your family history. 

Selected books

Published books and histories often contain specific information about individual servicemen, or First Nations people from a specific town, community or mission who have engaged in military service. 

More books about indigenous servicemen and women 

• Aboriginal ex-servicemen of Central Australia compiled by George Bray  
• Ngarrindjeri Anzacs by Doreen Kartinyeri,  
• Aborigines in the defence of Australia edited by Desmond Ball  
• Honouring Indigenous War Graves Incorporated: recognising the services and sacrifices of our "Indigenous veterans"
• Forever warriors: this book honours all Western Australian Indigenous men & women who served in all conflicts by Jan (Kabarli) James  
• Fighters from the fringe: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders recall the Second World War by Robert A. Hall  
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander volunteers for the AIF: the Indigenous response to World War One by Philippa Scarlett,  
• Too dark for the Light Horse : an exhibition of photographs & documents depicting Aboriginal involvement in the Australian Army at the Albury Regional Museum, August 11th - September 27th compiled by David Huggonson  
• Indigenous service: investigating the wartime experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the First World War to the present: a resource for secondary schools by Jennet Cole-Adams and Judy Gauld.  

Newspapers

Digitised newspapers can be a great source of information and sometimes images of those that served, while government gazettes include military appointments. 

Learn more in our research guides on Australian newspapers and Government Gazettes.

Oral histories

The Indigenous ex-service men and women oral history project contains 5 interviews conducted by social researcher Noah Riseman in 2010. Riseman conducted a total of 33 interviews as part of his postdoctoral research. These interviews aimed to cover the whole-of-life of the participants.

• John Schnaars
• Richard ‘Dicky’ Bligh
• Richard William Kiwi Kiwi
• Sue Gordon
• Frank Mallard

Some of the interviews are not held in our collection, and were deposited with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). 

Riseman’s research also culminated in a monograph publication:

How to search and find items 

Search the catalogue

Search family and location names and the names of orphanages, missions and reserves in our catalogue. 

Learn more about how to use the catalogue

Search the catalogue now

Keyword search  

Use a quick keyword search in the catalogue using the places, family names or people your family is connected to. 

For example:

• Aboriginal servicemen Central Australia
• Indigenous veterans Western Australia

If you get too many results, you can:

• add title, author, subject or AIATSIS subject limits on your search, or
• click into the catalogue full results and use the Limit Your Results options (at the right of the search results page) to display only the items of interest, for example, manuscripts or oral histories.

If you need to widen your search, try searching subject headings. You can search by subject directly in the catalogue (selecting subject in the drop down), or by opening an item’s catalogue record and clicking on the subject headings to find other material related to that subject.

Author search

You can also search by author where a group or governing body has published the material.

For example:

• Australia. Army -- Aboriginal troops
• Aboriginal Australian soldiers
• Aboriginal Australians -- Wars -- Veterans
• Torres Strait Islanders -- Wars -- Veterans
• Australia -- Armed Forces -- Aboriginal Australians
• Australia -- Armed Forces -- Torres Strait Islanders
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Aboriginal Australian
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Participation, Torres Strait Islander
• Military service, Voluntary -- Australia -- History -- Aboriginal troops

Where else to look

National Archives of Australia  

Australian defence and war service records are held at the National Archives of Australia. These records can include details such as full name, address, next of kin, place of enlistment, photograph, physical description, medical information, dates and places of service. To access these records, contact the Archives.  

Australian War Memorial  

Find a summary of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander involvement in various war efforts and a list of known Indigenous service people at the Australian War Memorial.

Serving our Country project

Learn more about historical contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australia defence and auxiliary services from the Boer War to 2000. Throughout 2014 and 2015, the Serving our Country project conducted community yarn ups, recorded oral and video histories, researched archival papers and other sources to create a more inclusive understanding of Australia's defence history. The major outcomes of this research project was the publication of a ground breaking monograph:  

Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Western Australia  

A They Served with Honour online publication honours the contribution of the 13 Western Australian Aboriginal servicemen who served at Gallipoli.

View They Served with Honour as a downloadable PDF file. 

Get help with your research

Our librarians can offer some tips, help you locate resources and point you in the right direction but we are not able to undertake extensive family history research on your behalf.

You can use our Ask a Librarian service to access assistance, ask us specific questions and provide us with information you have already gathered, such as: a family tree, any family papers and photos, or family history notes.

Our Indigenous Engagement team may also be able to offer general guidance and support to First Nations researchers.  

Ask a Librarian