(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Their contribution to Australia's war time service was ignored for many years.
But now a public artwork has been unveiled, dedicated to the contribution played by Indigenous soldiers.
Laura Murphy-Oates reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
It's been more than two years in the making.
And many more years of planning by local Indigenous groups.
The bold tribute to Indigenous diggers has been finally unveiled in Sydney's Hyde Park, designed by contemporary Indigenous artist Tony Albert.
The artwork is called "yininmadyemi ", meaning "thou didst let fall".
It is made of three spent shells and four seven metre tall bullets of steel and marble, each weighing 1.5 tonne.
The visually striking work received some high praise from Lord Mayor Clover Moore and New South Wales Governor David Hurley.
"It is a powerful and a confronting work that does not shrink from the reality of war, I want to thank the Albert family, particularly Tony Albert".
"Their homecoming was often marred by racism or at best their service ignored.This public artwork restores Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heroes to their rightful place"
The artist behind it all is no stranger to confronting war imagery.
He was the first Indigenous war artist for the Australian War Memorial and has a family history of military service spanning over 90 years.
"So, I think they had always had role models throughout their life. You know strong role models with a great work ethic, great sense of family and providing for their family and you know the military was definitely one of those occupations which had kind of a possibility for Aboriginal people to be involved in."
He says the story of his own grandfather narrowly escaping execution in World War Two was a direct inspiration.
"Unfortunately they were recaptured by Italian soldiers and sentenced to death. So three of the men my grandfather were with were shot in front of him. So the four upstanding represent the four men including my grandfather who survived that ordeal and the three fallen. It is confronting- I chose the bullet because it is a strong symbol of war- it is a symbol of life and of death."
While Tony's grandfather has since died, his family and friends were there in abundance.
Trish Albert wrote a history of her father's war service- and spoke of the discrimination he faced as a returned Indigenous serviceman.
"Eddie surely returned home in 1945 with dreams and expectations that the barriers of discrimination he had known before the war would be less apparent. Land in form of soldier settlements offered hope and opportunity for others. But Eddie soon found that his colour and heritage exempted him from such entitlements."
Also present was 93 year old Gordon Wallace who served with Eddie Albert and was one of the first people to greet him after the war.
"I went down to the showgrounds to see if I could see any of my battalion mates and the first bloke I met was Eddie Albert, so Eddie grabbed my baby and took off to show him to the rest of the blokes. As far as we were concerned, the Indigenous blokes weren't any different to anyone else."
Former Indigenous serviceman Harry Allie was part of the original push for a public monument, kicked off in 2007 by the Coloured Diggers group.
For him, the message of the artwork was clear.
"That sort of makes you realise the full impact of war and particularly where spent shells and live rounds depicts that and particularly that, as we've said, many men who have served have always said- bullets do not discriminate between black or white"
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