In times past, Australian Aboriginal men fought for their land with spears and later joined others to fight for their country with guns, mainly overseas in WWI and WWII.
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On Saturday, February 25 1994, 50 years since the end of WWI, members of the Moree Lions Club with Robert Bartell as President along with Terrance Duncan from the Moree Aboriginal community, met at the Moree Cemetery to begin work laying concrete monuments and headstones on the graves of four Aboriginal ex-servicemen who were buried throughout this cemetery with no identification on the graves.
This was a momentous occasion, for at last the cemetery project instigated by Aboriginal community members who had formed an Aboriginal Historical Group to have the restoration with identification of all Aboriginal soldiers’ graves was now undrway. One week later, the Moree Lions Club celebrated the 40th Anniversary of their club.
The newly formed Aboriginal History Group collected over 600 community signatures for a petition with the approval of War Veterans Affairs for work programs to begin on the segregated Aboriginal burial section that started in 1940 and finished in 1968 where four ex-servicemen were laid to rest in eternal sleep.
From 1994 to 1996, the Moree Plains Shire Council became brokers through Louise Riley for the newly formed and now incorporated Aboriginal group with a job skills project funded by the Department of Education and Training that included Moree TAFE.
Representatives from the Aboriginal and Torres Straits islanders Association for veterans services were now involved with the cemetery project with Mr David Williams, Vice Chairpoerson attending all services held here in regards to the cemetery from 1994 onwards.
With the thankful help of the Moree Gwydir Family History Society, including those from the Aboriginal Historical Group, research began through undertakers and local cemetery records, court listed burials, including local cemetery records and war service files from the Aboriginal Historical Centre; and local Aboriginal Elders were especially approached as they remembered where their people were buried.
- Aunty Noeline Briggs Smith OAM has stood at the vanguard of social change for most of her life, making a positive difference in the local community.