Indigenous Soldiers’ Experience of the First World War: Integration and Discrimination Progress Review Kylie Blundell.

Progress Review Kylie Blundell.

An army is traditionally its nation in miniature, conveying its country’s conscience. Yet most Indigenous soldiers enjoyed parity and pluralism during their deployment with the AIF in the First World War, as distinct from their experience at home. The military had founded and fostered a version of Australia - a microcosm - which established a social and cultural order divergent from its macrosystem, Australian society. This world was marked by pragmatism, and thus assumed a higher degree of racial neutrality during overseas service.