Whadjuk Noongar Elder Aunty Di Ryder, herself a female military veteran, was met with booing as she delivered the Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service at Kings Park in Perth on Saturday morning, prompting Western Australia Police to issue 14 move-on notices.
The disruption at the State War Memorial in Kings Park was one of three at major capital city dawn services on the same morning, with similar heckling reported at Sydney’s Martin Place Cenotaph and Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
In a public show of solidarity following the disruption, Western Australia Governor Chris Dawson invited Aunty Di to lay a wreath alongside him.
RSL WA Chief Executive Stephen Barton addressed the crowd directly after the disturbance and drew applause when he condemned the heckling. Mr Barton said the booing was “one of the most disgraceful things I have ever heard”.
Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles told ABC News Breakfast the booing at all three services was deeply at odds with the meaning of the day. Mr Marles said Acknowledgements to Country were “just an act of respect, and what characterises today is that it is a day of respect”.
Mr Marles added that Australians should be acknowledging the contributions Indigenous Australians have made to the Australian Defence Force and the nation’s military history.
Acting Chief of Army Major General Richard Vagg also condemned the heckling, saying “just about every service person, serving and past, would be upset with that type of behaviour”. He described the booing as “disgraceful behaviour” that “lacks respect and misses what the day is all about”.
Aunty Di’s experience was not isolated. In Perth in 2025, Whadjuk Noongar Elder Walter McGuire was also heckled during a Welcome to Country at the Kings Park dawn service. Then-Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the heckling and called for those responsible to “face the full force of the law”.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans Association held its annual commemorative ceremony in Canberra on Saturday morning, drawing guests from the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. Aboriginal veteran Garth O’Connell, the association’s director of communications, addressed the unequal treatment received by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans in the past.
Mr O’Connell said that “in the not too distant past, terribly unequal treatment was given to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans on their return to Australia”.
He said the ceremony was a vow that the past treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans would not be repeated.
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