First Nations men and women from South Australia have served in every conflict Australia has been involved in since Federation. While many were conscripted during the Second World War, the motives of the volunteers may have ranged widely from a feeling of patriotic duty to a desire to gain steady work with good pay and a chance to improve their lot in life. Their acceptance of conscription and their voluntary offers of service were made despite the systemic discrimination and intentional marginalisation many were subjected to. Government and the wider society first separated many of them from the South Australian community by placing them on missions or forcing them to live on the fringes of towns, then forced them to assimilate into the wider community they had been excluded from for so long. Many of the people mentioned in this book were separated from their people, language and culture by religious organisations and government policy. This revised and expanded second edition includes more photographs and extensive referencing of sources for the First Nations ancestry of those whose names appear in it. It builds upon the foundation of the first edition, which sold nearly 500 copies. The proceeds from the sale of this book go towards the work of Aboriginal Veterans SA, and particularly the marking of previously unmarked graves of First Nations veterans in South Australia. Throughout the years of research that have gone into the writing of this book, it has become clear that most of the First Nations men and women from South Australia who volunteered to serve in the Australian armed forces did so out of a sense of duty and a desire to do their part, despite the fact that for much of the period covered by this book they were discriminated against and marginalised, denied the right to vote and the right to live where they chose, or even the right to have a drink with their former comrades on Anzac Day. The thread that runs through this book is one of Love of Country.
