If Stan Grant can't recognize who is, and who isn't, Wiradjuri, what hope do the rest of us have? - Part 8 Final
In this summary post, Part 8 Final, on the Lisa Jackson Pulver story, we summarise the findings of our previous seven, detailed posts in Parts 1 - 7.
In our extensive genealogical work, we prepared the full, alleged paternal and maternal Family Trees of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver - see below in Figure 1 (paternal) and Figures 2-part 1 & part 2 (maternal) respectively.
We could identify NO Aboriginal ancestors in these Family Trees of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver.
All of the Professor’s ancestors appeared to have originally come from England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales.
Figure 1 - Alleged Paternal Family Tree of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver, who claims, “My father's people were Wiradjuri people and so I identify as a Wiradjuri woman.” (See Part 3). In our work, we could find No Wiradjuri, or any other, Aboriginal ancestors in the Professor’s paternal family tree. Her father’s family all came originally from Scotland, England and possibly Wales. File for download here
Figure 2 - Alleged Part 1 of Maternal Family Tree of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver, who claims, “So two of my grandmothers are Aboriginal … yeah, so I'm proudly standing here … fiercely Aboriginal and don't anyone forget it…” (See Part 5). In our work, we found that neither of the Professor’s grandmothers were Aboriginal (Maternal grandmother in yellow) All of her maternal ancestors originally came from Scotland, England or Ireland. File for download here
Figure 3 - Alleged Part 2 of Maternal Family Tree of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver. In our work, we found that none of the Professor’s ancestors in this maternal branch were Aboriginal - they all originally came from England or Ireland. File for download here
In February 2023, we wrote to Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver asking for her comments on our genealogical findings and whether she would like to make any comments or corrections. We have yet (as of 24 March 2023) to receive a response from the Professor [Figure 4].
Figure 4 - Our 16 February 2023 letter to Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver advising her of our work and giving her the opportunity to respond or offer any corrections. As of 24 March 2023 we had not received any response from the Professor. (Full file here)
Our detailed research notes supporting the alleged paternal Family Tree of the Professor can be downloaded here.
Our detailed research notes supporting the alleged maternal family tree of the Professor can be downloaded here.
Why Didn’t Anyone Check the Professor’s Claims?
The really surprising thing to us here at Dark Emu Exposed is why no organisation seems to have ever fully checked to confirm if Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver actually had any Aboriginal descent before they engaged her on that basis.
One would have thought that if an organisation was employing the Professor’s services based on her Aboriginality, then that organisation would have independently checked that there was proof that the Professor was of Aboriginal descent, a primary requirement for any Australian who wants to claim Aboriginality under Australia’s 3-part rule.
It seems however, that all of the following, highly-resourced organisations just accepted Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver at her word - they accepted her claims that her family on both her mother’s and father’s sides had Aboriginal ancestry.
Our understanding, after speaking with people who are familiar with the process appointing people to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander designated positions, is that if these organisations did ask for any proof that the Professor was of Aboriginal descent, a self-declaration in the form of a signed statutory declaration would usually be offered by the applicant and that would suffice. This appears to be corroborated in an SMH article in 2022 investigating the situation at the Professor’s University of Sydney (Figures 5).
Figures 5 - Excerpts from SMH 9 October 2022. (Source - Full file here)
In the following examples, we provide evidence to show how some of Australia’s largest and most trusted organisations appear to have accepted Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver AO at her word - that she was of Aboriginal descent - and furthermore, how these organisations appear to have used her ‘Aboriginality’ in their own promotion and marketing.
The University of Sydney
The University of Sydney appears to have fully accepted the claims of Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver that she is Aboriginal, which is proudly proclaimed in the University’s biography of her:
She is the first known Aboriginal person to receive a PhD in medicine at the University of Sydney, 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). It’s an impressive legacy, that she wants to ensure benefits everyone, no matter their circumstances.
“This University came out of the dreams and practices of the people of this place way back in the 1850s; it didn't come out of any elite ideals – it was a pragmatic decision to have an academy of higher learning here in Sydney,” she says.
“And since that time, we've graduated so many people, but only a tiny number of people from Aboriginal backgrounds, people with different life and family experiences, and now it's our time.” (Source)
Figure 6 - University of Sydney’s ‘Aboriginal’ Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services), Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver, AO (Source).
Western Sydney University
In 2016, the Equity and Diversity Department of Western Sydney University produced ‘the Women Who Inspire Calendar in celebration of the immense female talent at Western Sydney University. The women featured in this calendar were selected for their achievements in leadership and male dominated professions such as the Sciences, Engineering and Security.’
One of the women featured in the calendar was,
Lisa Jackson Pulver, Pro Vice-Chancellor Engagement & Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Leadership, Proud Koori Woman, Researcher and Advocate, Group Captain, RAAF Specialist Reserve.
This raises quite a conundrum for us here at Dark Emu Exposed, especially for those of us with a background in science.
Science teaches us to review the evidence before drawing conclusions and making assertions. When a university asserts that Lisa Jackson Pulver is a ‘Koorie woman’ one would expect that at least someone in the university would have applied at least a little scientific method and checked the evidence proffered by Lisa Jackson Pulver to support her claim. They would have checked her CV and evidence to support her Aboriginality, wouldn’t they?
Hence our conundrum - our genealogical evidence, produced on a shoe-string budget, suggests that Lisa Jackson Pulver has no Aboriginal ancestry, but the Western Sydney University with its $900million annual revenue (page 224 here) claims she is a ‘Koorie woman’ - we can’t both be right can we?
Figures 7 - Source
The ABC
The producers at the ABC’s Q&A program didn’t seem to have checked before they allowed their host presenter, Stan Grant, a Wiradjuri Aboriginal man himself, to acknowledge that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver was, ‘an Indigenous person as well’, during an ABC Q&A Episode, where he interviewed the Professor.
Why does Stan Grant believe that Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver is Indigenous if there is no evidence in the publicly available genealogical records to show that she has any Aboriginal descent whatsoever?
Doesn’t the ABC vett the backgrounds and claims of its guests prior to allowing them onto a stage with their high-profile host, Stan Grant?
ABC Radio host, Richard Fidler, and his ABC producers didn’t seem to have checked their ‘facts’ very well either when Fidler introduced his radio guest, Lisa Jackson Pulver with the commentary,
“Fact One - Lisa is an Aboriginal woman…”
“The only Aboriginal Jewish woman squadron leader on the Honours List that I am aware of.”
- Conversations with Richard Fidler, 12 October 2012
The RAAF
Did our Royal Australian Air Force check the ancestry claims of Lisa Jackson Pulver before they appointed her as a Group Captain and Indigenous Advisor to the Chief of Air Force? (Figures 8).
We here at Dark Emu Exposed are very perplexed - The RAAF is one of our country’s premier technical organisations with world class Quality Assurance systems. One imagines that they have a 1-inch thick manual on the correct procedure to change a nut and bolt on an F35 jet fighter.
Surely they must equally have a vigorous QA system to vett the claimed credentials of their staff, mustn’t they? It is not possible that they would just take self-declarations from job applicants, is it?
Hence our conundrum - our genealogical work shows that Lisa Jackson Pulver does not appear to have any Aboriginal ancestry, but the RAAF says she is Indigenous.
We can’t both be right, can we?
Figures 8 - Our RAAF tells us that they have appointed Group Captain Lisa Jackson - Pulver as the Indigenous Advisor to the Chief of Air Force (Source)
Conclusion
Now maybe we are wrong. Although this genealogical work has been undertaken in good faith and is based on the publicly available records, it cannot account for events which may result in Aboriginal ancestry entering into the family line such as via a private or unrecorded adoption of an Aboriginal child into the family, or a relationship out of wedlock between a family member and an Aboriginal person that produced a child of Aboriginal descent who was then incorporated into the family without record, or with a record that did not disclose the Aboriginality of that child.
But Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver has not responded to us, or anyone else that we are aware of, and provided additional evidence to show that we are wrong.
In fact, we have been approached independently by several other readers who are related to the same family tree as Lisa Jackson Pulver, and who have provided information to us that supports our claim that there is no evidence of any Aboriginal ancestry in Lisa Jackson Pulver’s direct ancestral line.
All her ancestors came from England, Scotland, Ireland and possibly Wales.
Further Reading
A reader (CS) suggested this article as being relevant to Australian academia as well: The Pretendians of Canada . The situation in Canada, where these ‘pretendians are especially rife in academia, where there is enormous pressure on universities to hire more indigenous people’, sounds depressingly similar to what we are seeing in Australian academia.
Opinion piece here by commentator Anthony Dillon, “Indigenous identity distracts from the real issues”, Posted Tue 27 Mar 2012
