The Deep Fake Project - Exposing Academics & Public Figures Who are Appropriating "Aborigines" & Their Culture - Part 3 Update
Update of 6 April 2023: Today we are adding Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AO as an alleged ‘fake’ due to the fact that she appears to have no Aboriginal descent despite the fact that she claims to identify as a Wiradjuri woman. According to genealogical records, it appears that Professor Jackson Pulver is mistaken in her belief that her family has Aboriginal ancestry. It is as generally accepted that to be recognised as Aboriginal, one must conform to the 3-part rule for Aboriginality, where Part 1 requires Aboriginal descent.
Update of 21 November 2022: Today we are adding Lauren O’Dwyer, The ALP’s Richmond candidate in the upcoming Victorian election, as an alleged ‘fake’ due to the fact that she appears to have no Aboriginal descent despite her claiming to be a proud Yorta Yorta Aboriginal woman.
In June 2022 we announced the commencement of the Deep Fake Project, which aimed to expose those academics who were claiming Aboriginal ancestry but who, on investigation, appeared to have none, according to the publicly available records.
Using Google AI, Ancestry.com and a large number of Aboriginal informants, we have investigated allegations that the following Australian academics or public figures, who are claiming to be Aboriginal, do not appear to be of Aboriginal descent.
These allegations appear to be supported by our investigations to date, which show that none of these academics appear to have any publicly available documents or genealogical evidence to support their claims for their specific Aboriginality.
1 - Professor Bruce Pascoe, University of Melbourne Enterprise Professor (Indigenous Agriculture), has claimed he is a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian Aboriginal man. The official Aboriginal organisations for the Bunurong and Tasmanian Aboriginal people do not accept Pascoe’s claims.
Genealogical records that we have inspected appear to indicate that there is no Aboriginal ancestry in Pascoe’s alleged family tree. Allegations that he is not of Aboriginal descent appear then to be, as far as we have been able to determine, correct in that no documentary proof of Aboriginal ancestry has been found or even presented by Professor Pascoe himself. It appears that he is mistaken in his belief that he has Aboriginal ancestry.
2 - Professor Jakelin Troy, Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, Professor Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney, claims that, ‘ I am Aboriginal Australian and my community is Ngarigu of the Snowy Mountains in south eastern Australia’.
Extensive genealogical investigations into her maternal and paternal alleged family trees has failed to find even one Aboriginal ancestor.
In our opinion, based on the these investigations, allegations that Jakelin Troy is not Aboriginal by descent appear to be valid. We are unaware of any genealogical evidence that has been made public by Professor Troy herself to substantiate her claims for her Aboriginality. She appears to be mistaken in her belief that she has Aboriginal ancestry.
3 - Professor Kerrie Doyle is Associate Dean, Indigenous Health, School of Medicine, Western Sydney University. It is claimed that she is ‘a mission-born Winninninni woman…’. The genealogical records indicate that she was born in Tari in Papua New Guinea. She herself has confirmed that she was born in Tari.
There is no record at the AIATSIS, or in the records of any anthropologist that we could find, that a tribe called the Winninninni ever existed.
In our opinion, based on our research, there is no evidence to support Kerrie Doyle’s claim that she is a Winninninni Aboriginal woman, who was born on a mission somewhere in Australia and she appears to be mistaken in her belief that she has Aboriginal ancestry.
4 - Professor Dennis Foley, Professor Indigenous Entrepreneurship, Adjunct Professor, Canberra Business School, University of Canberra, Fullbright Scholar and Griffith University's Outstanding First Peoples Alumnus.
Professor Foley claims that he, ‘…identifies as Koori. His matrilineal connection is Gai-mariagal of northern Sydney, and his patrilineal connection is to the Wiradjuri people of the Turon River region’.
Extensive genealogical investigations into his ‘matrilineal’ and ‘patrilineal’ connections has failed to find even one Aboriginal ancestor. Professor Foley has not specifically detailed what he means by ‘connections’ but in the context of Australian indigeneity, ‘connections’ is generally accepted to mean ‘ancestral descent.’
In our opinion, based on the these investigations, the allegations that Dennis Foley is not Aboriginal by descent appear to be valid and he appears to be mistaken in his belief that he has Aboriginal ancestry.
5. Lauren O’Dwyer - Dan Andrews’ ALP Candidate for the seat of Richmond in the 2022 Victorian State Election.
Based on reports by the ABC that Lauren O’Dwyer’s own family, along with real Yorta Yorta people, have claimed that she is not Aboriginal by descent or Aboriginal family recognition, we have added her to the Dark Emu Exposed list of ‘Deep Fakes.’
The details of our ancestry research to support our allegation that she has no Aboriginal descent via her great-grandfather Graham Berry, as she allegedly claims, appears in several posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.
We have provided Lauren O’Dwyers Alleged Maternal Family tree in three parts (due to its long branches), which extend right back to the early colonisation of Australia. We could find no Aboriginal ancestors at all in Lauren O’Dwyer’s maternal family line, despite her alleged claim that her great-grandfather, Graham Berry, was a Yorta Yorta man.
All of Graham Berry’s ancestors, and Lauren O’Dwyer’s maternal ancestors, originally came from England, Scotland, Ireland, the British Colonies of America or Denmark.
Lauren O’Dwyer’s Alleged Maternal Family tree is here in three parts: Page 1, Page 2 and Page 3.
6. Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AO, who claims to be ‘the first known Aboriginal person to receive a PhD in medicine at the University of Sydney’.
She is said to be ‘a respected educator in Indigenous health services, a Member of the Order of Australia, and the University of Sydney Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services).’
She is also said to be one of the highest ranking, if not the highest, Aboriginal person in the Royal Australian Air Force, where she is a Group Captain and Indigenous Advisor to the Chief of Air Force.
Unfortunately, it appears from the publicaly available genealogical records that she has no Aboriginal ancestry in her alleged family trees - see here.
All her ancestors came from England, Scotland, Ireland and possibly Wales.
Based on our research, we believe that she was mistaken when she claimed, before a class of her university students, that,
“So two of my grandmothers are Aboriginal … yeah, so I'm proudly standing here … fiercely Aboriginal and don't anyone forget it…” (Watch here from 02:10)
Now we may be wrong in that we may have missed some unknown information - perhaps one of the ancestral women in the families of these Professors and public figures had a illicit affair with an Aboriginal man; or maybe there was an adoption into the family of an Aboriginal child that was recorded as a birth within the family. We can’t know of these hidden scenarios and so of course we welcome any non-public information such as this from these Professors, or their supporters, and we will promptly modify our records.
Our readers can be assured that we are not undertaking this research for any malicious or personal reasons against these particular Professors.
Rather, we want to make amends in some small way for the incredible hurt and trauma caused to Aboriginal people when they are confronted by academics, who they see as non-Aboriginal people, claiming Aboriginal ancestry and culture, which the traditional owners believe they do not have a right to.
It is heartbreaking on our part to speak to an Aboriginal woman, almost in tears, as she relates the frustration that her son or daughter has repeatedly experienced as their applications for an academic position are repeatedly denied. These tears soon turn to anger when the winning candidate is annouced and every Aboriginal person knows that just another colonial ‘box-ticker’ has gazumped them again.
Further Reading
Non-Indigenous people are using self-identification to claim “massive benefits” intended for Indigenous people, Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council CEO Nathan Moran says. “We’re aware of rampant fraud, identified fraud, proven fraud - certainly coming to light since 2016,” he said. “It’s a factual, proven thing. People are commencing, committing fraud to receive benefits that’s not for them.”
Nathan Moran is interviewed on this matter below.
