Blackness & Aboriginality

If there’s a common ‘interest’ in white Australia when it comes to indigenous matters it’s with ‘blackness’.  Integration with whitefellahs means Australia’s indigenous peoples now exhibit a range of skin colours – from the dark black of outback groups to those with pale white skin, and everything in between.  We can no longer just use skin colour to identify an indigenous person. Maybe that was possible 200 years ago. It’s a little more complicated than that today.

But consider this - If I had a black mother who raised me, a white father who I didn’t know, and I had fair skin,  how would I identify myself ? Isn’t it likely that I would adopt indigenous culture from my mother and thereby identify as an indigenous person? I would think anyone in this situation has the right to identify as indigenous.  Indigenous identification goes well beyond skin colour.

Does it really matter how we identify indigenous people? It seems to me that it matters a lot to most whitefellahs. Show a picture of a group of indigenous people that includes those with darker skin and those with lighter skin. You will almost certainly receive a comment challenging the aboriginality of those with lighter skin. There are those who will then proceed onto describing someone as ½  or ¼ or 1/8^th indigenous. In the past we had terms like half-caste, quadroon or octoroon in an attempt to describe the extent of someone’s aboriginality. Terms that labelled people as not belonging anywhere in particular.

This raises a few questions. Firstly, why do people feel the need to challenge someone’s identification as indigenous? Unfortunately this usually comes down to money, and the perception that identifying as indigenous accompanies financial rewards or benefits.  A claim to be indigenous is seen as an attempt to access Abstudy or a job ad stating ‘indigenous applicants are encouraged to apply’.

I don’t think anyone would support non-indigenous people accessing benefits intended to assist indigenous people.  We all want to see an indigenous prize or scholarship go to an indigenous person. It’s probably in the interest of all Australians that only genuine indigenous people can identify as such.  So how do we make sure identification as indigenous is genuine?

In 1983 the High Court of Australia^[89] defined an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as "a person of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he or she lives". So there are 3  tests used - descent, self-identification and community recognition. You need to pass all 3 to be defined as indigenous. 

• Evidence of indigenous heritage – can you provide evidence of indigenous parents or grand-parents ?

• Self-identification– this sounds pretty easy. “ I am indigenous !”

• Evidence of indigenous community recognition – is there a recognised indigenous community that recognises you as indigenous ?

This would seem to be the bottom line in this debate. Australia has a set of rules to determine if someone has the right to identify as indigenous. They are flexible enough to ensure that people with a strong indigenous connection can be recognised as indigenous, but rigid enough to ensure non-genuine applicants do not qualify.

As with most indigenous issues it’s all a matter of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. If you are Italian or Greek would you appreciate continual challenges to your right to be recognised as such? Would you appreciate being told you are not Italian-enough because you have integrated with ‘British’ Australia? I don’t think you’d like it. Not the first time and especially not the 50^th time.

My advice is to let the rules take care of those who are not genuine. And simply accept those who do identify as indigenous as being indigenous. Recognise their right to connect to their culture and their history. And ignore your inner-voice that tells you that this person can’t be indigenous because they aren’t dark enough.

Epilogue.....
Marcia Langton writes... http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-gripes-of-wrath-20111001-1l2z5.html

SBS Put this issue to a group of indigenous and non-indigenous people - of varying complexions...

SBS Insight had a special on this topic. It raises a lot of questions. Does it answer any ?

Proving Aboriginality
And another viewpoint - an indigenous man who objects to having to prove his aboriginality...

Applying the Aboriginality Test - April 2013

 Dallas Scott is an aboriginal man from Victoria. The application of the aboriginality test outlined above doesnt always produce the correct result.