Born and bred in the Torres Strait, Marsat Ketchell enlisted in the Navy as a junior recruit at age 15 and served for 26 years. Marsat was one of a group of Torres Strait Islander boys who joined up at the same time, and his brother was a submariner and his father had served with the army in the Malaya conflict. Marsat’s Navy training took him around Australia before he was posted to Sydney and his first ship HMAS Vendetta. It was not long before Marsat served on both HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vampire deployed to Vietnam in a logistic support role. After Vietnam Marsat travelled extensively with his Navy work and training, to Canberra, Darwin, England, Germany, the Pacific and many other places in a number of different roles, from clearing World War 2 ordinance in PNG to training counter–piracy staff in the Philippines. From about 1998 Marsat’s worked shifted to indigenous recruitment where he travelled around Australia talking to and advising all kids, but particularly indigenous kids, who had an interest in joining the services. Since leaving the Navy in 2006, Marsat has studied and works on Thursday Island in social and mental health and welfare support services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

This interview took place on 11 November 2011 on Thursday Island and was conducted by Dr Noah Riseman.

The interview recording above is made available to be listened to here by permission of the interviewee(s), Marsat Ketchell. 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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