Mark Harriss speaks at Anzac Day 2025 about Tasmanian Aboriginal service personnel
Image credit: Harriss family / ABC News
Post by: Reconciliation Tasmania
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that
this article contains names of people who have died.
A Tasmanian Aboriginal man has travelled to France this year as part of the Australian official contingent, to speak at the 2025 Anzac Day Dawn Service in Villers-Bretonneux.
About Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux is a town that was on the notorious “Western Front” during World War I. In April 2018, two Australian brigades recaptured the town from the German army, with a loss of 1,200 Australian lives. Since then, in gratitude for the Australians’ courageous defence of the town, both the French and Australian flags have flown in Villers-Bretonneux.
Villers-Bretonneux holds an annual Anzac Day commemoration, attended by both French and Australian dignitaries, military personnel, and civilians.
2025 Anzac Day address – “Tasmanian (Trouwunnan) Aboriginal Servicemen”
At the 2025 Villers-Bretonneux Dawn Service, Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) man Mark Harriss spoke about the contribution of Indigenous soldiers in the First World War, where it is estimated that 1,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people served.
ABC News quoted Mark as saying:
“When you sit back and you reflect on the sacrifices that Tasmanian Aboriginal people have made to a country that typically didn’t think of them in the best light at the time, it can be quite challenging.”
Mark told the story of his ancestor Uncle Alfred ‘Jack’ Hearps, who died in the First World War. Hearps was the first Tasmanian Aboriginal person to enlist, and the first known Aboriginal commissioned officer in Australian military history.
Mark’s 5-minute speech also paid tribute to other Tasmanian Aboriginal servicemen and women, including Charles Hearps, Jack Johnson, Oscar Medcraft, and the other 75 Tasmanian Aboriginal servicemen who enlisted.
Did you know?
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia did not have the right to vote in Australian elections until 1962, and would not be counted in the census until after the 1967 referendum.
Many Australians are unaware that even the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander servicemen and women returning from World War I did not receive the same benefits as non-Indigenous service personnel, such as “soldier settlement” land grants.
In NSW, land was even taken from Aboriginal people who had been farming it since the late 1800s, so that it could be given to non-Indigenous returning service personnel as “soldier settlement” land grants. This is sometimes called “the second dispossession“.
In Tasmania, returning Aboriginal service personnel were subject to the Cape Barren Island Reserve Act 1912. A formal policy of removing Tasmanian Aboriginal children from their families began in 1928 and continued until at least the 1980s.
ABC Radio feature: Afternoons – ABC listen (interview with Mark begins at 1:21:10)
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