During WW2 the Australian Government and
the Australian Army had to deal with natives that came from a huge range
of different tribes, who spoke many (up to 800) different languages or
dialects, who in most cases could not read in ANY language and who had
no understanding of the "white man's world".
They did not have access to modern
weapons, buying and selling was not common, barter was.
Their needs were simple, their demands
were virtually non-existent and they came to hate the Japanese as much
as the Diggers did.
Some tribes (or individuals) took to
"going bush" and ignoring the war but the great majority that
were in a position to helped the Allies tremendously.
Dealing with these people with written
documents was terribly hard. |