The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have joined the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and thousands of veterans and their families for a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Thousands gathered under heavy rain near the memorial’s parade ground on Wednesday to commemorate the 97th anniversary of the end of the first world war, in which about 62,000 Australians were killed and a further 156,000 injured or taken prisoner.
The federation guard, comprising servicemen and women from the three branches of the defence force, stood at attention in the forecourt as Turnbull arrived with his wife, Lucy, to bursts of Waltzing Matilda from the army band.
Their royal highnesses followed, to strains of God Save the Queen, and finally the governor general, General Sir Peter Cosgrove, and his wife, accompanied by the Australian national anthem.
A didgeridoo also sounded, part of a campaign to highlight the contribution of Indigenous Australian troops in the country’s war history. About 1,500 Indigenous people are known to have fought in the first world war, but the number is thought to be higher, many denied the chance to record their origin when enlisting.
The writer and historian Jackie Huggins, a Bidjara and Birri-Gubba Juru woman, became the first Indigenous Australian to deliver the commemorative address, recounting the service of her grandfather and father in the past century’s two major world wars.
Her grandfather John Huggins fought in the 26th Battalion and was wounded in October 1917, and then again the next year, before he was repatriated to Australia.
Her father, also named John, was a surf lifesaver and the first Aboriginal man to work for Australia Post. His unit was captured in south-east Asia and he spent three and a half years on the Thai-Burma railway.
A stalwart of his local community, John was welcomed back to Townsville, but Huggins said most Indigenous soldiers were denied honours and rights afforded to other soldiers, including soldier settlement land grants and entry to Returned Services Leagues clubs.
She paid tribute to their loyalty to the nation, despite “the dispossession beginning in 1788 [that] had destroyed their ancient civilisation”.
Later on Wednesday the Australian War Memorial was due to rename a gallery after Captain Reg Saunders, who served in the second world war and Korea and became the first Indigenous person commissioned as an officer in the army.
Their royal highnesses were to place poppies beside the names of two Indigenous second world war veterans, Private Maitland Madge, who also served in the first world war, and Corporal Charles Harry Orme. They both died in Singapore.
The Canberra ceremony was one of dozens being held across the country, including one in Parliament House for defence personnel who had taken their own lives in the wake of their service.
Thousands gathered at Martin Place in Sydney, where the premier, Mike Baird, laid a wreath, while his Victorian counterpart, Daniel Andrews, led the ceremony at the Melbourne Stone of Remembrance.
Prince Charles was to visit the National Museum of Australia after the proceedings and the duchess was preparing to watch a demonstration of truffle hunting pigs and dogs at a nearby farm.
