Australian

• Since the 1860s, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in the Australian Defence Force.
• In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders weren’t yet considered Australian citizens and were therefore automatically excluded from enlisting.
• Despite this, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders answered the call to defend their country by hiding their racial identity to enlist.

Fighting for Country

• The chance to earn a wage and gain an education were also attractive causes as these rights were heavily restricted for Indigenous Australians at the time.
• For the most part, however, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who joined the war effort did so out of a deep love for their country.
• Even today, many families and communities continue to seek due recognition for Indigenous peoples’ contributions to the war effort.

Read more:
Telling the forgotten stories of Indigenous servicemen in the first world war

(A lack of) Indigenous recognition in media

• Indigenous people’s contributions during WWI continue to be left out of major mainstream media productions.
• Before Dawn (2024), the most recent Australian film based on the war, fails to include a single Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person in its cast.
• Earlier films such as The Lighthorsemen (1987) and Gallipoli (1981) – perhaps the most iconic Australian WWI film – also fails to include or even mention an Indigenous presence.

• Lewis and Larry Farmer both fought and survived at Gallipoli, but Larry was later killed on the Western Front.
• A third brother, Augustus Pegg Farmer – the first Aboriginal soldier awarded the Military Medal for bravery – was killed in action several months later.

Untold stories

• Two examples are the documentary The Australian Wars (2022) and the film Higher Ground (2020).
• But it’s fair to say such projects sit outside the popular media most Australians are exposed to.

• Where is the onscreen tale of the Indigenous Anzac soldier who obscured his racial identity to enlist?
• Who survived through horrors, only to be excluded from all forms of post-war recognition and compensation?
• I would like to sincerely acknowledge the diverse traditional custodians of this great land – their respective communities, Elders and Countries.

Cally Jetta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Since Australia first began producing feature films, it has returned time and again to the subject of the first world war.
• Before Dawn, out in cinemas today, is the latest in this long line of productions.

A sombre portrait of war

The Germans constructed the Hindenburg Line, also known as the Siegfriedstellung or “Siegfried Position” in German, as a defensive fortification on the Western Front in France during the winter of 1916–1917. Stretching between the towns of Arras and Laffaux in the country’s north, it served as a formidable barrier against Allied offensives.

• Similar to All Quiet on the Western Front, Before Dawn downplays the celebration of victory and nationalist sacrifice by instead providing a sombre portrait of the horrors of combat.
• By the time Armistice Day arrives on November 11 1918, marking the end of the war, it is hardly a victory for the soldiers.

A young man’s film through and through

• That said, it would seem a little unfair to compare Before Dawn with the quality and emotional gravitas of Gallipoli.
• Prince-Wright’s prior credits include 2018 film The Decadent and Depraved, an independent western genre film set in outback colonial Western Australia.
• Prince-Wright shares screenwriting duties with Jarrad Russell, who is receiving his first screenwriting feature credit on the film.
• Before Dawn is certainly a young man’s film, both in what is being represented as well as in the cast and crew behind the production.

Ambitious work

• It relies too heavily on composer Sean Tinnion’s overstated musical score to provide emotional weight.
• The contribution of Aboriginal soldiers during WWI is yet to be satisfactorily fictionalised on the screen.

• Despite these faults and oversights, Before Dawn offers an account of the important sacrifice Australia made in assisting the Commonwealth during the war.
• Coupled with other sources, it could function well as a teaching text for students learning about the Hindenburg Line.

Stephen Gaunson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• There are three candidates running, alongside their vice presidential candidates.
• According to opinion polls, the favourite is Prabowo Subianto, leader of the Greater Indonesia Party (Gerindra), a populist and nationalist party he founded in 2008.
• Prabowo is the frontrunner, but it’s unclear whether he will win an absolute majority of votes in the first round.

By the numbers

Voters are also casting votes in parliamentary elections, which include:
580 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR), with more than 9,900 candidates
152 seats in the Regional Representative Council (DPD), designed to represent the regions, with around 670 candidates
and local parliaments in each of the 38 provinces and 416 districts.
In total, there are over 2,700 separate electoral contests being held for around 20,500 seats. All are the responsibility of Indonesia’s independent election commission (the Komisi Pemilihan Umum, or simply KPU) to administer impartially and efficiently.

Logistical nightmare

• The distance from Aceh in the west to Papua in the east is some 5,100 kilometres (3,200 miles), wider than the continental US.
• Read more:
  Cute grandpa or authoritarian in waiting: who is Prabowo Subianto, the favourite to win Indonesia's presidential election?
• To get an idea of the size of the task facing the KPU, let’s look at the presidential election first.
• And they must also make choices for three other chambers – in addition to the presidential vote.

An unglamorous, but remarkable democratic achievement

• So, how well has Indonesia done in this massive task of making democratic elections work?
• In a world where democracy seems increasingly under pressure, Indonesia has managed five peaceful and democratic transfers of power.
• In comparison to neighbouring states in Southeast Asia, where one-party dominance is widespread or democratic progress has been crushed under military coups, Indonesia stands out as a bastion of democratic politics.
• Given the strains placed on the United States’ long-established democracy in recent years, Indonesia’s achievement in making elections work should not go unnoticed.

Stephen Sherlock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• LONDON, Dec. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Appian (Nasdaq: APPN) announced today that it is named a Leader in the new report, The Forrester Wave™: Digital Process Automation Software, Q4 2023 .
• In the 26-criterion evaluation of 15 digital process automation (DPA) providers, Appian scored the highest of any vendor in the Current Offering category.
• (The Forrester Wave™: Digital Process Automation Software, Q4 2023)
  The report goes on to say of Appian's Leader ranking, "With strategic acquisitions in RPA and process mining, Appian has the complete process automation platform with no notable weaknesses."
• "Our automation suite in combination with our integrated data fabric, native private AI , and leading low-code architecture make the Appian AI Process Platform the best choice for complex digital process automation."