Coloured Diggers March 2026

A proud and dignified Coloured Diggers March wound its way through Redfern on Gadigal Country on April 25. At several ANZAC Day Dawn Services earlier that day, First Nations elders were booed by racists as they lead Welcome to Country/Acknowledgement of Country ceremonies. This racism echoes the blatant racism faced by First Nations and Pacific Islander soldiers after they returned from World War I and World War II as well as the refusal to acknowledge the Frontier Wars. They were good enough to risk and sacrifice their lives for White Australia in its imperial wars but not accepted back as equals on their own land. Military veteran and pastor Ray Minniecon, a descendant of the Kabi nation and the Gureng nation of South-East Queensland and a descendant of the South Sea Islander people with strong connections to his people of Ambrym Island, initiated the Coloured Diggers March through Redfern on ANZAC Day 2007. Video by Peter Boyle for Green Left.