The grandson of an indigenous Australian who fought in France during the First World War will be the guest of Villers Bretonneux's mayor at Remembrance Day proceedings.
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Joe Flick, from the small town of Collarenebri in western NSW, became emotional when he noticed a lack of recognition for indigenous soldiers at the town's iconic war memorial last year and vowed to return with more items.
"In the museum they only had three very small things about Aboriginal servicemen and I thought that didn't do justice, and said I'd like to come back and put a display together for you," he said.
A year later, Mr Flick will carry a series of books and a slouch hat donated to him by the Australian War Memorial as he honours his grandfather and "the memory of a lot of other Aboriginal soldiers who fought over there".
"When my grandfather was fighting over there they were equals in the trench," he said.
"But when he came back his kids were barred from the school because they were black and he had to drink in a different part of the pub because he was black."
More than 1000 indigenous Australians fought in the First World War despite having few rights, low wages and poor living conditions in Australia.
When war broke out in 1914, the majority of indigenous Australians could not vote and were not counted in the national census.
After deciding to return to France to bolster the collection, Mr Flick wrote to the mayor of Villers Bretonneux describing the emotion of his visit and approached the Australian War Memorial's director, Brendan Nelson, who welcomed his initiative.
"They gave me some books on indigenous soldiers – particularly those involved in the First World War – and a slouch hat that I could present to the mayor of Villers Bretonneux on Remembrance Day," he said.
"They were really happy that someone was doing something like this and they said they would support me in any way they could."
Mr Flick first visited Villers Bretonneux last year while on tour with a NSW indigenous under-16 rugby league team and held a makeshift Remembrance Day service with the team.
"I organised a service as we had a Vietnam veteran with us who did the ode. I read a short passage, and although we had no bugle player we did had a didgeridoo player," he said.
Mr Flick said he hoped his actions would encourage more Australians to reflect on the service of indigenous Australians on Remembrance Day.
