Photograph by Belinda Mason OAM 2024, inkjet on brushed aluminium 60cm x 40cm
Gumbaynggirr Warrior (NSW North Coast)
Aircraftman
Royal Australian Air Force
Australian Active Service Medal 1945-75 with clasp Vietnam
Vietnam Medal
Australian Defence Medal
Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Returned from Active Service Badge
“It is most important that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can celebrate on their own terms the lives of their brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents and great grandparents, in whichever theatre of war they served.”
I grew up in the 1950’s at Bellwood Mission, Nambucca Heads and I was just six years old when my father died of a brain haemorrhage. I was the youngest of eight and with the two eldest girls having already left home, Mum supported us six kids by bean picking, washing, ironing and house-cleaning to supplement her widow’s pension. In 1959 we moved to Sydney and by working hard – and with the support of my mother and older brother, Jeff – I went to Woodlawn College in Lismore on a scholarship.
After getting my NSW Leaving Certificate, I enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in Sydney 1967 using my dad’s name Joe Bryant. I was based at 1 Recruit Training Unit (1RTU) RAAF Base Edinburgh and trained at RAAF Base Wagga Wagga Technical School where I learned engineering and became qualified as an air-frame fitter in 1969. I was then based at RAAF Base Fairbairn servicing 5 Squadron Iroquois helicopters and completed a Tour of Duty (1970-71) based at RAAF Base Vung Tau in South Vietnam, servicing 9 Sqn Iroquois helicopters. Returning to Australia, I was based at RAAF Base Richmond (1971-73) servicing 36 Sqn C130A Hercules aircraft.
In 1973 I was honourably discharged at RAAF Base Richmond after completing a 6-year term of enlistment. Government policies of the 1980’s and 1990’s focused on self-determination, so as a returned serviceman, I had all the confidence in the world and I was fully aware of what self-determination meant. I wanted to work with my mob, and this was the right time and the right place to do this. I then worked with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community at Bennelong’s Haven and then as the founding General Manager and founding Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia (1990-94). I have been instrumental in a number of other initiatives, very notably as part of the collective that gave birth to the Boomali Aboriginal Artists Cooperative. I graduated with a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology Sydney in 2000.
I started Just Too Deadly Merchandise in 2013, an Aboriginal-owned business enterprise based in Nambucca Heads on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia supplying work wear, casual wear, and promotional merchandise to the public until I retired and closed the business in 2017.
In 2014, I attended the Coloured Diggers March in Redfern and became the very first veteran that Belinda photographed.