custodian Content and Metadata
War Heroes & Heroines
Leah Bond was a young Aboriginal woman living in Chisholm Street, Darlinghurst when she enrolled in the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA) on 1 June 1942. At just nineteen years old, she was working as a lampshade maker and already had experience in rural work,skills that made her well-suited for wartime agricultural service. Like many women who joined the AWLA, Leah answered the call to support Australia’s food production during the Second World War, when labour shortages placed enormous pressure on farms across the country.
Despite her willingness to serve, Leah’s experience reflected the entrenched discrimination faced by Aboriginal women at the time. On her AWLA enrolment card, an official recorded: “This girl is an Aboriginal do not send out.” This short but stark instruction was common in wartime administrative files, where Aboriginal applicants were frequently enrolled on paper but barred from deployment. Many landholders refused to accept Aboriginal workers, and government agencies often reinforced these racist barriers by restricting placements, travel, and access to training or pay.
For Leah, this meant she was effectively prevented from undertaking the rural assignments that were the core purpose of the AWLA. While non-Indigenous recruits were dispatched to essential agricultural work, Aboriginal women like Leah were frequently sidelined, denied equal opportunity, and excluded from the recognition afforded to their peers.
Leah Bond’s record is as an important example of the structural discrimination Aboriginal women faced during WWII. Her willingness to contribute, despite the restrictions imposed upon her, continues to shed light on the overlooked experiences of Aboriginal women in Australia’s home-front war effort.
Sources
- https://information
- https://from
- https://national
- https://archives
- https://naa:
- https://c610
- https://351
- https://series
- https://number:
- https://control
- https://symbol:
- https://barcode:
- https://30544362
- https://number
- https://of
- https://pages:
- https://2
- https://title:
- https://bond
- https://women's
- https://land
- https://army
- https://history
- https://card
| Author | Dr Libby Lee-Hammond |
|---|
