Soldiers unknown

This paper is concerned with the relationship between war service and national identity, and the ongoing invisibility of Australia's indigenous people in the war legends of the twentieth century. Initially it recovers the main uses that the mythology of the warrior-citizen was put to by modern nationalism, and seeks out the contradictions in its application within Australia. At each point in the construction of national mythology, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were excluded. In the claiming of the landscape as a strange but new canvas for white Australia, in the "undesirability" of indigenous people participating in war, and in the opposition to post-war improvements in their conditions while others enjoyed "repatriation", the traditions, rights and contributions of the original inhabitants were denied. For these reasons, Australian military history is haunted by incompleteness