Ricky Morris recounts his service in the reserves and the regular Army. Ricky joined the reserves in Gippsland in 1990 hoping to ‘scratch the itch’ of Army life. He joined the reserves rather than the regular Army as he had a young family and was also completing a plumbing and gas fitting apprenticeship. In 1995 Ricky joined the regular Army as an Engineer and during this time was involved in accompanying recruiting teams to indigenous communities. In 1999 Ricky was deployed to Timor-Leste for four and a half months, after which he was an Army recruiter. Ricky transferred back to the reserves in 2004, but volunteered for an eight month tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2008–09. Upon return he transferred to the inactive reserves, and is now employed by the Victorian Aboriginal Housing Commission and is active in Aboriginal veterans’ groups. Throughout the interview, Ricky discusses why he joined, recounts a number of specific incidents from Timor-Leste and Afghanistan, and discusses the mental strain of the latter conflict. He also discusses his family’s long history of service.

This interview took place on 3 March 2015 in Melbourne and was conducted by Professor Mick Dodson and Dr Samuel Furphy as part of the Australian Research Council-funded research project Serving our Country: a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia.

The interview recording above is made available to be viewed here by permission of the interviewee(s), Ricky Morris. The recording may not be copied, reproduced or communicated in whole or in part without the prior permission of the interviewee(s). Requests for permission for use of this material should be made to the Serving our Country research project: our contact details.

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