After decades of silence, Serving Our Country is the first comprehensive history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's participation in the Australian defence forces.While Indigenous Australians have enlisted in the defence forces since the Boer War, for much of this time they defied racist restrictions and were denied full citizenship rights on their return to civilian life.In Serving Our Country Mick Dodson, John Maynard, Joan Beaumont, Noah Riseman, Alison Cadzow, and others, reveal the courage, resilience, and trauma of Indigenous defence personnel and their families, and document the long struggle to gain recognition for their role in the defence of Australia.

Serving our country / Joan Beaumont and Allison Cadzow -- Race, citizenship and military service / Siobhan McDonnell and Mick Dodson -- The South African "Boer War" / John Maynard -- The First World War / John Maynard -- The home front in the First World War / Samuel Furphy -- The rise of the modern Aboriginal political movement, 1924-39 / John Maynard -- Australian military forces in the Second World War / Joan Beaumont and Tristan Moss -- Labour and surveillance in northern Australia, 1939-45 / Geoffrey Gray -- The Second World War home front / Samuel Furphy -- Opening the military door, 1945-65 / Noah Riseman -- The North Vietnam War / Noah Riseman -- Servicewomen / Allison Cadzow -- Ex-service activism after 1945 / Noah Riseman -- North-West Mobile Force / Allison Cadzow -- The Australian Defence Force, 1990s to 2017 / Shannyn Palmer -- Commemoration / Joan Beaumont.