Allison Cadzow – författare

Our Mob Served presents a moving and little-known history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander war time and defence service, told through the vivid oral histories and treasured family images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This unique book shares lively and compelling stories of war, defence service and the impact on individuals, families and communities, sometimes for the first time. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have not forgotten their involvement in the national histories of war and service.

After decades of silence, Serving Our Country is the first comprehensive history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s participation in the Australian defence forces. While Indigenous Australians have enlisted in the defence forces since the Boer War, for much of this time they defied racist restrictions and were denied full citizenship rights on their return to civilian life. In Serving Our Country Mick Dodson, John Maynard, Joan Beaumont, Noah Riseman and Alison Cadzow and others reveal the courage, resilience and trauma of Indigenous defence personnel and their families, and document the long struggle to gain recognition for their role in the defence of Australia.