A campaign has begun in Bundanoon to get the local RSL sub-branch to fly the Aboriginal flag on ANZAC day.

Gundungurra elder and co-chair of the Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group, Aunty Trish Levett said that Bundanoon RSL club accepted an Australian Aboriginal flag from the group at a ceremony in May. She is concerned that it will remain on the shelf on the most important day in the RSL calendar.

“The flag stopped flying on ANZAC Day around the time that the current president was elected,” former President Lee Borradale said of the current president Robert Williams.

Attempts to reach Mr Williams for comment was unsuccessful.

RSL NSW recommends that the Aboriginal flag be flown on ANZAC day, and Mr Borradale said that as the flag was gazetted national flag should be flown alongside the Australian flag.

Bundanoon RSL has come under scrutiny by the Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group in recent weeks after attempts were made to get club leadership to commit to flying the flag next ANZAC Day.

Rachel Russell was alongside her former husband and then President of Bundanoon RSL, William Russell when the aboriginal flag flew over the ANZAC Day ceremony in 2011 and 2012.

“My former husband was a First Nation’s veteran,” Ms Russell said.

“He was living in an incredibly racist society in Australia and when he went into service there was no racism.

“There was no hierarchy, they were brothers serving our country and they weren’t recognized as citizens and this is about allowing people to have pride in acknowledging their service as an Australian citizen.”

The flag was flown again at the Bundanoon RSL ceremonies in the following three years under Lee Borradale’s presidency from 2013 to 2015.

The red, yellow and black flag was designed in 1970 to represent the Aboriginal people of Australia and their significant connection to country.

It was the flag that flew over the Tent Embassy in Canberra the following year and it was adopted as an official Flag of Australia in 1997.

“It means paying respect to our ancestors,” Ms Levitt said of the significance the flag held for her as someone who identifies as First Nations.

“When we see a flag flying somewhere we’re happy to walk into that place. You could say it makes us more comfortable that they are actually recognizing that Aboriginal people are still here,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter what flag they fought under, it matters what the flag represents,” Mr Borradale said.

“There’s been a continuous battle for our people to have that flag flown on ANZAC day and if we want to step forward and walk together, people need to start doing the right thing,” Ms Levett said.

By Madeleine Achenza