The Christmas postcard featuring a photo of Julie Berents’ great uncle. Photo: Australian War Memorial.
It all started when Julie Berents stumbled across a photo of a Christmas postcard on the Australian War Memorial’s website.
“I still haven’t seen what’s written on the back of it,” she says.
But it was the face staring back at her that tripped her memory. It was a portrait of Private William “Jack” Wallace, an Aboriginal serviceman from Elsmore, NSW – and her great uncle.
It turns out he was among four of her Indigenous ancestors to serve during World War II, including Jack’s brother Robert Wallace (affectionately known as “Uncle Bun”) who served across the army, navy and air force – at a time when many tried to hide their true origins.
Julie and her husband Harald have spent the past five years painstakingly transcribing Uncle Bun’s handwritten memoir and in time for NAIDOC Week this year (6 to 13 July), donated it to the Memorial in Canberra for safekeeping.
According to the Memorial, the memoirs offer “a rare insight into the lived experience of one Indigenous Australian serviceman”.
“Uncle Bun was in high demand during the Second World War – not for combat, but for his culinary skills,” the Memorial said.
“Valued for his ability to prepare meals for over a hundred people in just a few hours, he travelled extensively as a cook, posted wherever needed.
“Post-war, he joined the efforts to repatriate malnourished British prisoners of war on their long journeys home from Asia via Canada. The survivors were in such poor condition that they required round-the-clock meals to help them recuperate.”
All up, four of the Wallace brothers – including Robert (Bun), William (Jack), Len and Tom – all served during the war, alongside their non-Indigenous brother-in-law Norman Lloyd.
Australian War Memorial Indigenous liaison officer Michael Bell helps Indigenous people find their family’s records with the Memorial’s extensive National Collection. Photo: Australian War Memorial.
“So, during the Second World War, my grandma, Helena Wallace … had five servicemen in her family – her husband and four brothers,” Julie says.
Remarkably, all four brothers returned from the war.
The postcard that started the whole journey of discovery for Julie was likely sent by Jack to his sister Helena, who lived at Paradise Station, near Tingha, NSW.
The card was originally discovered behind a cupboard at Paradise Station decades later and had been donated to the War Memorial long before Julie came across it on the online collection.
Like many Aboriginal Australians of earlier generations, their heritage was often something kept hidden.
Julie says some family members “grew up either unaware of or denying their Aboriginal heritage – that’s how you got by back then”.
Helena, for instance, claimed Spanish ancestry – a tactic used by many families to deflect questions and avoid discrimination.
Julie remembers a poignant moment after the birth of her first child when her grandmother, still fearful of government policies, warned her: “Don’t let them take her away”.
Julie believes her great uncles’ decisions to enlist stemmed from a mix of motivations, from adventure and steady wages to perhaps “a desire for purpose”.
“Uncle Bun started working when he was 13 years and eight months old,” she says.
“They were never well off. I think the war offered something different – maybe even adventure.”
Along the way, Julie’s family received the help of the Australian War Memorial’s dedicated Indigenous liaison officer Michael Bell.
“Michael … helped us to uncover parts of the story we’d never realised, for instance, that it was unusual to serve across all three services like Uncle Bun did.”
Today, Uncle Bun’s journal is preserved in the Memorial’s National Collection, but the work isn’t over for Julie yet either as she continues to trace her family’s broader history.
“It’s been surprising how much there is to uncover. It wasn’t talked about much growing up, but now we’re starting to piece it all together.”
