War veteran and venerated Yamatji elder Graham Taylor questions commitment of RSL’s State and national leadership to closing the gap

Yamaji Vietnam veteran Graham Taylor has cautiously welcomed the reversal of RSLWA’s controversial ban on welcome to country ceremonies at Anzac and Remembrance Day services. The policy — which also restricted the flying of the Aboriginal flag — was scrapped recently after it caused a nationwide public backlash. “They came to their senses, but it is still open for comment in the near future,” Mr Taylor said. “So they really never stopped it altogether, whereas I think they should. “Here in Australia, especially in Perth, the RSL still don’t want to do anything to close the gap.” When the ban was announced earlier this month, Mr Taylor — who was the 2015 NAIDOC male elder of the year — told The Guardian he was “totally disappointed in the RSL”. But he said his disappointment did not extend to the Geraldton RSL sub-branch, of which he is a long-standing member. Geraldton RSL president Barry Stinson said he believed the ban was intended to create unity among veterans, rather than division, but he understood why the State branch had backflipped. “I think the issue with the whole protocol was that it left itself open to misinterpretation,” he said. “I think the intent was fine ... but it really needed to be re-written in plain, everyday English so that there could be no misinterpretation.” In practice, the ban would not have affected RSL services in Geraldton, where welcome to country ceremonies and the flying of the Aboriginal flag have not previously been observed at Anzac, Remembrance, or Vietnam Veterans’ Day commemorations. Mr Stinson said the contributions of Aboriginal veterans were recognised in other ways. “For about eight years we’ve hosted the NAIDOC Week Aboriginal Veterans’ Dawn Service at the Memorial Wall adjacent to Birdwood House, at which welcome to country and the flying of the Aboriginal flags are observed,” he said.