Wp/nys/Noongar Baminy Gnullar Boodjar (people who fought for our country)

Bala yuart manjung koorliny (Ode of Remembrance)

Bala yuart manjung koorliny,
Yeye ngulluckiny alla nidja nyinniny manjung woort koorliny
Manjungaliny yuart coorlyamart balung,
Manjung yuart warragarburt boordawan.
Nidja ngangk woort koorliny ngardal ngoorndeen
Boorda benang ngulluck katitj balung

ANZAC Day

Red poppies or Flanders poppies - native to Europe, that grow so well in land disturbed by war, especially the World War One battlefields of Flanders. They have come to symbolize the fallen on ANZAC Day

A World War One battlefield in Flanders. Aftermath of the Battle of the Somme in 1916

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps was formed during World War One in Egypt in December 1914. The men serving in the corps came to be known by its initials as ANZACs. The corps fought in the campaign in Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire, but after withdrawing from Gallipoli the corp was disbanded in 1916. The name ANZAC was revived later when Australian wer New Zealand troops served together.

The name ANZAC has come to be associated with Anzac Day il 25 April each year, a national day of remembrance in Australia wer New Zealand that broadly commemorates yennar Australians wer New Zealanders "who served and died in war and on operational service". The Anzac spirit, "with its qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity."

The 25 April was chosen as it is the anniversary of the day in 1915 when the Australian wer New Zealand forces first landed at Gallipoli, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders.

Bala yuart manjung koorliny (Ode of Remembrance) is said as part of the ceremony. However saying the Ode in Noongar became a controversial and divisive issue in WA - see Controversy over Bala yuart manjung koorliny.

Red poppies or Flanders poppies have come to be the symbol of remembrance for the fallen. Canadian poet, Colonel John McCrae, first described the Flanders poppy as a flower of remembrance - writing this poem during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing fly
Scarcely heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Colonel McCrae died on active service in May 1918.

See Also

• Remembrance Day on 11 November every year, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in World War One at 11 am on 11/11/1918. On Remembrance Day all Australians are urged to observe one minute's silence at 11 am in memory of those who died in war. However, in Australia ANZAC Day has come to overshadow Remembrance Day in the nation's consciousness as the day to commemorate those who fought and died in war.

Noongar Baminy Gnullar Boodjar - Kura (people who fought for our country in the past

People who fought for our boodjar in the past wer today - in the Frontier Wars, as ANZACs, current conflicts.

1827-1934 - Frontier Wars (from 1788 in Eastern states)

See nidja article for a reflection il ANZAC day wer what it means in the context of the Frontier Wars: ANZAC Day and the Frontier Wars: 'The amnesty on ignorance is over'.

• Yagan (Frontier Wars)
• Midgegooroo (Frontier Wars)
• Fanny Bulbuk (Frontier Wars)
• Goggalee (Frontier Wars)

International Conflicts

1899-1902 - Second Boer War, Transvaal, South Africa

See nidja article for a discussion about the contribution wer involvement of Aboriginal people from yennar over Australia to the Second Boer War - ‘Let us go’ … it’s a ‘Blackfellows’ War’: Aborigines and the Boer War.

1914-1918 - World War One (The Great War)

175 Aboriginal West Australians fought in World War One, 13 of them at Gallipoli.

See the resource book "TOO DARK FOR THE LIGHT HORSE : Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people in the defence forces" by the Australian War Memorial.

• Lewis Collard
• AP Farmer MM
• Harold Collard
• Arthur Edward McCallum
• George Henry McCallum son of Arthur McCallum
• Charles Hutchins
• James Dickerson
• Harry Dickerson
• James 'Jimmy' Melbourne
• Larry Farmer
• John Fitzgerald

bios to complete:

• Lewis Farmer
• William John Jackson
• Fred Lockyer
• Randell Mason
• William Mason
• Gordon Charles Naley
• Frederick Leslie Sayers
• Claude Shaw

1939-1945 - World War Two

720 Aboriginal West Australians fought in World War Two, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam.

• Richard Farmer
• Louis John Collard
• Neville Woods
• Hubert Charles Hedland
• Hubert Fred Eades

1948-1960 - Malayan Emergency

Now Malaysia.

1962-1975 - Vietnam War

• Paul Hansen