corners of history
Looking for ANZAC images, I found this moment of history. I was surprised – the idea that Aboriginal women were allowed to join up had simply never occurred to me.
It shows “Informal portrait of Aboriginal serviceman, VX35999 Private Samuel Alexandra Peacock (Sam) Lovatt, 6th Reinforcements, 2/5th Battalion, and his neice, 95994 Aircraftwoman (ACW) Alice Lovett, an Aboriginal servicewoman, standing on a Melbourne street. ACW Lovett is a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) and is wearing 1942 pattern WAAAF overalls.”
As our celebration of the ANZAC mythos becomes ever more intense and blokey, 95994 Aircraftwoman (ACW) Alice Lovett deserves her place in our collective memory.
Here she is again –
According to the War Memorial caption, this is an “Informal group portrait of Aboriginal servicewoman, 95994 Aircraftwoman Alice Lovett, a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) (centre) and two civilian Aboriginal friends, Mary King (left), and Eileen Watson (right). Taken in Fitzroy, in 1941.
And again -
This time she is with Mary King, who is also in the group picture.
And here is a face which went on into history -
“Studio portrait of Aboriginal servicewoman, QF267190 Lance Corporal (L Cpl) Kathleen Jean Mary (Kath) Walker, of Stradbroke Island, Qld, a communication worker with the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS). L Cpl Walker enlisted on 5 December 1942 and was discharged on 19 January 1944. She later changed her name to Oodgeroo Noonuccal and was a well known Australian poet, actress, writer, teacher, artist and campaigner for Aboriginal rights. Oodgeroo was best known for her poetry and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.”
She joined the army after her two brothers were taken prisoner in Singapore. Her training in typing and shorthand, partly in a post-war rehab scheme, left her working again as a domestic servant, but ultimately helped her as an activist.
She wrote a few lines which stand both as accusation for the present mess, and as true words about the way we should see April 25th -
“To our father’s fathers
The pain, the sorrow;
To our children’s children
The glad tomorrow.”
April 25th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Happy Anzac Day, cobber. Two-up anyone?
April 27th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Barista:
Thanks a lot for that real history.
Such a nice change from the official and accepted propaganda – which is a lot closer in style to Communist or Nazi propaganda than to the honest recording and interpreting of the events and the people that shaped today’s Australia.
Let’s see if I’ve got this right. The mother of Aboriginal activist Denis Walker was a soldier who served during the Second World War. Two of his uncles were Prisoners-Of-War of the Imperial Japanese. How many other of his relations served in the Armed Forces? With that sort of a family background of patriotic service for Australia …. why wasn’t the young lad Denis Walker given every encouragement and assistance to do well for himself? It was hypocritical for loud-mouthed ex-servicemen to whinge about “the bloody blacks” when it was their own laziness and their own dereliction of duty that was partly responsible for many Aborigines being driven into activism.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 am
[...] Rotwang (? is that David Tiley?) has found some photos of Aboriginal WAAF service women. [...]