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From humble beginning as a small local service at the Healesville RSL in 2006, the Victorian Aboriginal Remembrance Service has grown to become a key Aboriginal community event while acknowledging the long-ignored yet hugely significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women to Australia’s war efforts – and something of which my Mum was immensely proud. For an ‘ordinary’ mum from Healesville, Mum accomplished an extraordinary number of wonderful achievements. I still receive comments from now-adults to whom she taught culture at primary school in the 1980s, and women who tell me they learned traditional basket coiling from her over the years, many of whom now teach others. And this would also make Mum immensely proud.
But for Mum, I think this service would be her greatest joy. And not because it has grown into an event attended by hundreds each year including federal, state and local politicians, major Defence personnel, Shrine staff, and community members and school children alike and receives a great deal of public attention – although seeing the backdrop of young Aboriginal people sitting together with Elders at such a public event filled her heart with joy.
Her major sense of joy would come from the fact that Mum did this for her dad – Private Vincent Peters, 2/2nd Pioneer battalion, lost to the infamous Burma Railway in 1942 – and the thousands of other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women who sacrificed all to fight for a country that didn’t recognise them as citizens. Despite losing him when she was only 12, I know Mum always felt connected to her dad, and this service allows her (and us) to share that connection with so many other families and communities.
It is a huge honour to continue this legacy for Mum and all our uncles, aunties, brothers and sisters who came before us, as current Chair of the Aboriginal Remembrance Committee. I hope we’re doing her proud.
Lest We Forget
Author:
Dr Andrew Peters is the Chair of the Victorian Aboriginal Remembrance Committee and a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Studies at Swinburne University of Technology.
Enjoyed this article? You might be interested in:
- Victorian Aboriginal Remembrance Service
- For Kin and Country.
This special exhibition explores the extraordinary history of First Peoples’ service in the Australian Defence Force and can be viewed online. - Honouring Country, Honouring Service
This article was written for the 2025 edition of Remembrance magazine by Sam Halim, co-founder of the Victorian Aboriginal Remembrance Service.
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