Why do Some People Want to Appropriate "Aborigines" & Their Culture ?
In the short time that we have launched the Deep Fake Project, we have received literally dozens of tip-offs from Aboriginal readers who have provided varying levels of evidence on numerous academics, who claim to be Indigenous, but are actually ‘fakes’. These academics may identify and claim to be Aboriginal, they may have some self-generated certification and some recognition by their supporters who also claim to be Aboriginal, but they have not provided any definitive documentary proof of Aboriginality. They haven’t produced this proof of Aboriginal descent because they can’t.
Now, we can’t just take the tip-offs we receive at face value and publish them. They might be wrong or even fabricated with malicious intent.
Instead, at Dark Emu Exposed we need to thoroughly investigate and assess the evidence and then come to our own independent conclusion as to whether a particular ‘Indigenous’ academic is making false claims. Once we are satisfied that our research and the records show that a particular academic appears to be in error in claiming Aboriginal descent, we will post our results.
Hopefully, the academic in question can then ‘clear-the-air’ by providing other documentary proof that we were unable to discover, or alternatively they will stop appropriating the “Aborigines” and their culture as their own.
Why Are There So Many White Middle-class Women Actings as Fakes?
The assessments of all the ‘tip-offs’ we have received will take some weeks, but there is one thing we have noticed in our preliminary work - a very high proportion of the tip-offs about ‘fake Aboriginal academics’ seem to about white, middle class women.
Many of our informants say they went to school, college or university with their female aquaintence who at that time made no claim to any aboriginality. The girl in question at that time was just living a normal, non-Indigenous Australian middle class life. However, as their careers developed there came a stage, anywhere between the ages of say, late 20s to early 40s, when their friend suddenly announced that they had ‘discovered’ Aboriginal ancestry within their family.
Gradually these women developed a new ‘Indigenous’ persona - steadily accumulating the required certifications, applying for and winning employment in ‘identified’ Indigenous positions, attending Indigenous conferences and being regularly seen amongst ‘real’ Indigenous people and creating fictitious family connections. Within say a decade or so, when they had reached middle age, these women then felt confident enough, and widely recognised by a sufficient number of other ‘Indigenous’ Australians, to openly identify as say, a ‘proud Wiradjuri woman, living on such and such Country.
Why is this happening we wondered?
Why are a large proportion of our informants sending us ‘tip-offs’ about ‘fakes’ who, on appearance and back-ground, just look like white, middle class, and middle-aged Australian women? [Before we are accused of sexism, we have a number of male ‘fakes’ under investigation as well, but the number of tip-offs we have received about female ‘fake’ academics is statistically significantly many more than for men.]
We don’t know all the answers at Dark Emu Exposed, but we are happy to provide a forum to openly discuss ideas and the reasons why a person would decide to lie about their ancestry.
One of our contributors has suggested that what might be happening is that in say, the 1960's, middle class white women could achieve some popular ‘status’ by adopting or fostering an Aboriginal child.
If one reads some of the local press from the 1960s it seems that a ‘trend’ or ‘fad’ developed where white, city-based women appropriated an Aboriginal child. A desire to help an under-privileged or neglected child was obviously part of the reasoning these women sought to adopt or foster. However, when one reads the following newspaper reports one also wonders whether a ‘fashion statement’ or ‘virtue-signal’ was also being made.
We just wonder if a similar phenonmen in happening now in 2022. It is no longer an option for eager white women to establish their ‘fashion’ credentials by adopting an Aboriginal child, but they can be part of the growing trend of Indigenous ascendancy by instead adopting themselves into being an “Aborigine”.
All they need to do is to self-identify as being Aboriginal, get some supporting recognition by other Indigenous people (real or fake, it does not matter) and then find a real or ‘imaginary’ Aboriginal ancestor and hey presto!, they then qualify as an Indigenous person. This opens their lives up to the excitement of fighting for social justice for ‘my people’. It grants them invitations to attend Indigenous conferences and study tours and the options of choosing from a wide range of six-figure salaried positions in academia.
This is just a theory, but we feel the need to have at least some explanation as to why someone would stoop so low to knowingly ‘steal’ an identity from another cultural group?
1. Unofficial Adoptions of Aboriginal Children :
‘Mr Worthy said that many white families took in Aboriginal children for status-seeking motives … ‘
Canberra Times 1968 Figure 1
Figure 1 - Canberra Times, 26 June 1968, Source
2. White people who became foster parents for Aboriginal children:
‘… Mr Meagher, said tonight he knew of a case where a whitewoman had gone to an Aboriginal dwelling and offered a bundle of secondhand clothing in exchancge for an Aboriginal baby.’
- Canberra Times, 1968, Figure 2
Figure 2 - Canberra Times, 28 June 1968. Source
3. ‘As Eurasian and Aboriginal babies became more fashionable for adoption ...’
- The Australian Women’s Weekly, 1978
Figure 3 - Excerpt from The Australian Women's Weekly, The lost children of Sydney, 19 July 1978, p23. Source
Figure 4 - Good Neighbour newspaper (ACT) Mon 1 Jun 1964, p3. Source
Figure 5 - Good Neighbour newspaper (ACT) Mon 1 Jun 1964, p3. Source
The point of this post is not to comment one way or the other on the wisdom or not of Aboriginal children being adopted by white families. Instead, we just want to illustrate that it is fairly easy to find examples in the records from the 1960s and 70s of incidences where white women, often in their own minds with the very best of intentions, adopting or appropriating Aboriginal children. As mentioned in the articles, it was seen as ‘fashionable’ or ‘status-seeking’ to adopt or foster an Aboriginal child.
This form of ‘virtue-signalling’ is no longer available today.
So if you can’t gain status by appropriating an “Aborigine” by adoption any more, maybe the next best thing for a person who wants to be at the centre of this rising trend of Indigenous empowerment is to reverse the appropriating - in fact get yourself ‘adopted’ as an “Aborigine”. The status and recognition as an “Aborigine” will then come to you directly.
We are not university-educated psycho-analysts but instead have been schooled in University of life and this is what we believe is motivating some of these white, middle class, middle-aged women to falsely claim Aboriginality. Some of them have convinced themselves they are doing nothing wrong - they have deluded themselves by saying they can recall some family history that there was some distant Aboriginal connection in their family’s past. Others know exactly the fraud they are perpetrating, but say all their good work is for the benefit of Aboriginal people so where is the harm?
“Aborigines” or Aboriginal people?
Quite understandably some readers have pointed out that the word “Aborigine” as used in this blog post is today considered insensititive, even offensive, and does not allow for a diversity within Aboriginal people. We fully understand this and somewhat agree and, as our regular readers will know, we overwhelmingly tend to use the term ‘Aboriginal people’ in all our other blog posts.
However, we have deliberately used the term “Aborigine” in this post for political and rhetorical reasons. We think that the ‘fakes’ are really just treating Aboriginal people as a uniform ‘commodity’ - an “Aborigine” - for their own ends. The fakes don’t really care about Aboriginal people or their culture. The fakes just want to treat Aboriginality as a commodity that they can manipulate or appropriate to further their own interests. The “Aborigine” is just a means to an end for these people.
Editor, Dark Emu Exposed
