Launched 3 April 2024!

Bringing His Spirit Home explores the unique WWI story of Ngarrindjeri Anzac, Private Arthur Thomas Walker, a Ramindjeri man of the Ngarrindjeri nation, who served in Gallipoli in 1915. In August 1916, during the Battle for Mouquet Farm, he was killed-in-action on a cold and rainy night, in a field in France. He is one of the thousands of soldiers with ‘no known grave’

While Arthur Walker died in a country far away from his own, fighting in a war that was “illegal” for him to fight in, his powerful legacy lives on through his family, who actively commemorate his story, service and sacrifice.

For many years First Nations military service didn’t form part of the revered Australian ANZAC story. Through the many different voices in this podcast we find out how that’s changing. Private Arthur Walker’s story creates an opportunity to explore exactly what the term “ANZAC” means - and “the ANZAC spirit”.

Arthur’s proud relatives also discuss why this Ngarrindjeri Anzac chose to serve, and the overlap between the ANZAC legend and the traditional values of Aboriginal culture.

There’s a spiritual element to this story too: Arthur’s family – and others - explain what it’s meant for them as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, to have a relative die far away from family, community and Country. We discover how they - and their friends and allies - are working to bring his spirit home through crosscultural practices of commemoration.

And we look at how the “Indigenisation” of Australia’s military history is helping to tell the more expansive, true story of our wartime past, and discuss commemoration and its power to heal, especially from a First Peoples’ perspective.

We also find out about an extraordinary tradition that Arthur Thomas Walker’s family started over one hundred years ago, which is still going strong today.

With superb music and atmospheric sound design, Bringing His Spirit Home: Private Arthur Thomas Walker, Ngarrindjeri Anzac, is narrated and produced by awardwinning podcast maker Megan Spencer for the Virtual War Memorial Australia. It was made possible with funding from the South Australian Department for Education.

CONTENT ADVICE:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners are advised that this podcast contains the voices of and references to people who have passed away. It also contains concepts related to war, and some depictions of war and its aftermath.

Production of this podcast has been made possible through a grant from the South Australian Department for Education.

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