‘Fuzzy Wuzzy’ soldiers: Race and Papua New Guinean soldiers in the Australian Army, 1940–60

Abstract

This article examines the most militarily important indigenous units formed by Australia, arguing that racially based assumptions played a central role in how Papua New Guinean soldiers were conceptualized and used by the Australian Army during the 1940s and 1950s. Equally, while the perception of Papua New Guinean soldiers was heavily racialized, there was no construction of a martial race myth by Australians, in contrast to many colonial armies. Instead, Australia reluctantly recruited Papua New Guineans as a form of cheap manpower familiar with local conditions and saw them as simple soldiers who were potentially a threat to colonial rule.