Indigenous Peoples and the Second World War

During the Second World War, Indigenous people in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada mobilised en masse to support the war effort, despite withstanding centuries of colonialism. Their roles ranged from ordinary soldiers fighting on distant shores, to soldiers capturing Japanese prisoners on their own territory, to women working in munitions plants on the home front. R. Scott Sheffield and Noah Riseman examine Indigenous experiences of the Second World War across these four settler societies. Informed by theories of settler colonialism, martial race theory and military sociology, they show how Indigenous people and their communities both shaped and were shaped by the Second World War. Particular attention is paid to the policies in place before, during and after the war, highlighting the ways that Indigenous people negotiated their own roles within the war effort at home and abroad.

'A good read for the serious scholar.' Albert A. Nofi, The NYMAS Review, '… impressive .' William John Pratt, Canadian Military History, '… this book is a "must read” for anyone interested in Indigenous peoples' experiences in twentieth-century wars, comparative approaches to Indigenous policy, and war and society more generally.' P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Native American and Indigenous Studies

R. Scott Sheffield is Associate Professor of History at the University of the Fraser Valley. He is the author of The Red Man's on the Warpath: The Image of the 'Indian' and the Second World War (2004). Noah Riseman is Associate Professor of History at the Australian Catholic University. His first book, Defending Whose Country?: Indigenous Soldiers in the Pacific War (2012), was shortlisted for the 2013 Chief Minister's Northern Territory History Award.