4 June 2026: The works covered by the Boeing funds need to be put in context with the National Gallery of Australia's work The Aboriginal Memorial, 1987–88. The Memorial will receive six larrakitj (painted hollow log coffins). The NGA has an installation of 200 hollow log coffins.
Both collections come from Yolngu country in Arnhem land. Then comes the difference. The WM article says the Memorial's coffins and other Boeing-funded work, 'demonstrate that defending Australia includes defending culture, honouring ancestral knowledge, and strengthening First Nations voices'. The NGA work, on the other hand, 'commemorates all the Indigenous people who, since 1788, have lost their lives defending their land'.
How different are the perspectives across that narrow lake in Canberra: on the Memorial side, worthy but limp sentiments; south of the lake, at the Gallery, a recognition that there were battles for possession of this wide brown land. Why does the Australian War Memorial have such difficulty giving status to the Australian Wars?
In 2024, Boeing ranked sixth in the world by revenue among arms companies, with $US30.55 billion from arms sales in that year. In 2025, ABC Four Corners found that in the previous three years, Boeing donated $US300,000 ($A474,000) to the Australian War Memorial to fund an Indigenous art project, 'Defending Country'.
At $100,000 a year, the latter figure is 0.000333 per cent of the annual revenue figure. It is small change.
The 'Defending Country' project gets a plug in the latest edition of the War Memorial's magazine, WM. We are told that 'the Defending Country Indigenous Acquisitions Program', is 'supported by Boeing Australia to enrich the ways in which the Australian War Memorial can tell the story of Australia’s military past'.
The article in WM goes into detail on how Indigenous artists are depicting events in Northern Australia during World War II. It is illustrated with pictures of woven model aeroplanes.
There is a quote from the current President of Boeing Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, retired Air Vice Marshal, Steven 'Zed' Roberton. Zed says:
This project is a testament to the importance of Indigenous communities seeing their service and experiences reflected in Australia’s military history. As long-term supporters of the Australian War Memorial, we’re honoured to support First Nations artists in producing and displaying their art as a contribution to our nation’s storytelling.
Zed's predecessor but one in the local Boeing job was Dr Brendan Nelson, now head of Boeing Global, a former Director of the War Memorial and briefly Chair of its Council. Neither Zed nor the article in WM says anything about First Nations defending Country while not wearing a uniform or taking orders from people in uniform.
Perhaps Zed or the Memorial could advise about whether Boeing's small change donation will in the future be put to a balanced depiction of First Nations Defending Country.
We welcome a response from the Memorial and will publish it without amendment, taking account of our Moderation Policy.
Picture credit: Squadron Leader Donald Thomson trains members of the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit, 1941 (Wikipedia/Royal Australian Airforce Airpower Development Centre)
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