“There’s nothing comprehensive that looked at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service nationwide,” says Professor Mick Dodson who is leading a new research project “Serving Our Country” to fill gaps in Australia’s military history.

The four-year project will help rectify these oversights, gathering information and stories in communities around Australia. “Serving Our Country” stretches over a century, starting from the Boer War and finishing in 2000, the start of Afghanistan war. The researchers are focussing on three main questions exploring why people joined, what they did and what happened when they came back.