BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : BLACK AUSTRALIAN ENLISTED IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR, THEY FOUGHT BRAVELY AND DIED UN BATTLE l

BLACK  SOCIAL HISTORY                                                                                                                 In pictures: Indigenous diggers of WWI

Australia's fighting force in WWI included many Indigenous men, some of whom died in battle. These photographs show some of those soldiers who fought for Australia.

By

Jason Thomas

Of the 416,809 Australian soldiers who enlisted to serve in WW1, more than 1,000 are believed to be Indigenous. The exact number of Indigenous Australians who served is not known as many enlistees lied about their personal details.

The photographs featured in this gallery have been gleaned from the Australian War Memorial's Indigenous Service page and show soldiers who were enlisted in WW1.

There are hundreds of names on the War Memorial's list of Indigenous soldiers, but most are without photos. We have excluded group photos, images with copyright restrictions and pictures where the identity of an individual was not clear.

At least one of the men in this gallery, Private Richard Martin, served on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the battle 100 years ago that has has helped shape Australia's identity.