Reg Saunders: An Indigenous War Hero

This is the little-known story of Reg Saunders, the first Indigenous Australian to become an officer in the Army, retold in an action-packed graphic novel. Reg Saunders MBE (1920–1990) not only survived the World War Two battlefields in the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, Crete and New Guinea, but excelled as a military leader. He was recommended for officer training and, in 1944, returned to New Guinea as a platoon commander – the first Aboriginal Australian to serve as a commissioned officer.

What happened during the war to transform a determined young man from country Victoria into a war hero – one who would go on to serve with distinction in the Korean War and become a pioneering figure for Indigenous rights?