King Marcus, the 'Lord of Lorne' - A Rising Aboriginal Aristocracy? - Part 2
In Part 1 of our series on Marcus Stewart, we described him as the ‘Unknown Man in the Hat.”
Figure 1 - Marcus Stewart the ‘Unknown man with the hat’, on the left in the back row, during a press conference on the Voice, with the Prime Minister.
We used this phrase because he seemed to be turning up frequently on stage with many well-known politicians and members of the Aboriginal political elite during the Voice Referendum, whereas he himself was pretty much unknown to Australians generally.
Marcus Stewart is in fact described by Guardian Online, where he is a contributor, as,
‘a Nira illim bulluk [Aboriginal] man of the Taungurung Nation. He is described as ‘a negotiator and strategist with more than 15 years’ experience in Aboriginal affairs.’
Figure 2 - Marcus Stewart a Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation in ‘face-paint.’ (Source)
What our genealogical research here at Dark Emu Exposed indicates however, is that Marcus Stewart, like a great many of us Australians, has a ‘mixed ancestry.’
As his name suggests, he has a deeply entrenched Scottish ancestry, a very aristocratic Scottish ancestry in fact.
Using publicly available genealogical records, we have been able to construct an alleged family tree on his mother’s side, one branch of which reaches right back to the nobility of Scotland, the Stewart Clan - whose surname he continues to bear after some 800 years, or twenty-generations, since the year 1200AD.
As shown in Figures 3A - D, the first Stewart in his line was Walter Fitz-Alan Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland [ca1180- 1246] who was Marcus Stewart’s 22 X great-grandfather.
The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a Royal House of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fitz Alan [ca1150). The name Stewart and variations had become established as a family name by the time of his grandson Walter Fitz Alan Stewart.
The first monarch of the Stewart line was King Robert II, whose male-line descendants were kings and queens in Scotland from 1371, and of England, Ireland and Great Britain from 1603, until 1714. Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought up in France where she adopted the French spelling of the name Stuart (Source).
So, as shown in Figures 3A to D below, Aboriginal man Marcus Stewart comes from a long line of Scottish Aristocracy and Nobility.
Is this why he wants Australians to agree to adopt an hereditary Aboriginal Aristocracy within our Constitution, as will be achieved via the Voice Referendum?
Figure 3A - The upper branch of the alleged paternal family tree of Marcus Stewart’s mother Jacqueline Stewart [b. ca1951 Victoria] showing the family’s origin in Dol-Bretagne [Brittany] NW France in the 10th/11th Century AD.
Dol-de-Bretagne is recognised the origin of the royal House of Stewart who became the monarchs of Scotland and later England and Ireland.
Note: The alleged Family Trees in this post have been constructed in good faith based on the publicly available genealogical records and corroborated with Stewart family members.
Figure 3B - Sir Robert Stewart [1386-1489] acquired the title Lord of Lorne in the Peerage of Scotland. As shown in this part of the alleged family tree of Marcus Stewart, the 1st Lord of Lorne was believed to be Marcus Stewart’s 16 x great grandfather. Source information on the Lord of Lorne and Sir Robert Stewart.
Additionally the Clan Stewart of Appin is the West Highland branch of the Clan Stewart and have been a distinct clan since their establishment in the 15th century. The progenitor of this famous Clan Stewart of Appin was Dugold Stewart, who was Marcus Stewart’s 14X great-grandfather.
The Stewarts of Appin are cousins to the Royal Stewart Monarchy due to their member Walter Stewart marrying Marjorie Bruce, the daughter of King Robert the Bruce, which produced a son, Robert II, the first Stewart Monarch.
Incredibly King Robert II was also the 18X great-grandfather of Australia’s own Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Hon Linda Burney MP. Thus, it appears that these two Aboriginal Australians, Linda Burney and Marcus Stewart, are also from the same ‘Scottish mob’ due to the ancestry from their respective mother’s sides. (Sources here and here)
Figure 3C - The Stewart line of Marcus Stewart’s family continued unbroken via the male line for another 250 years in Scotland.
Figure 3D - Ultimately this line of the Stewart Clan appears in Australia when it is recorded that Thomas Smith Stewart, who had been born ca1845 in Stirlingshire, Scotland, married in Collingwood Victoria on 26 March 1874, to a Scottish-born, Elizabeth McKinlay [b1842 Greenock, Scotland].
These two were the, great-great-grand parents of Aboriginal man Marcus Stewart. (Source here)
So it can be seen that Marcus Stewart has long and strong links back to his Stewart clan ‘country’ in Northern and Western Scotland.
Figure 4 - The Stewarts of Balquhidder, who were the Clan of Marcus Stewart’s ancestors, occupied the southernmost of the the red shaded areas of Northern Scotland. The Stewart Appins, another family in Marcus Stewart’s family clan, were from the west coast. (Source)
A prime residence of the Marcus Stewart’s ancestors was Castle Stalker, built by Marcus’s 16X great grand-father, Sir Robert Stewart, the First Lord of Lorne, in the 1440s.
This picturesque castle, the ancestral home of Aboriginal man Marcus Stewart, is still standing.
Figure 5 - Castle Stalker, the ancestral home of Victorian Aboriginal man, Marcus Stewart. (Wikipedia)
An Aussie’s Conundrum
As we learn more about Marcus Stewart’s ancestry, many of us are asking some simple questions.
With such a major, and aristocratic, Scottish ancestry, why is Marcus Stewart selectively presenting himself to the rest of us as an Aboriginal man only?
Why are we being asked to ‘negotiate a treaty’ with Marcus Stewart, who claims he is an Aboriginal, Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung Nation?
To our mind, he looks, speaks and lives just like the rest of us - he still carries the name of his ancestral Scottish clan, so why should he have any special legal, constitutional or moral rights over the rest of us?
Now, we are not saying he has no Aboriginal ancestry, and we are not denying him his right to identify anyway that he wishes. That is his perfect right - but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to believe it too. When many of us look at him we see him as one of our ‘mob’ - an Aussie with a large part of Scottish ancestry - [I’m 28% Scottish by DNA myself - Marcus and I come from the same ‘mob.’ - Editor].
And so we think he might be ’pulling-our-leg’ a bit with this ‘con-job’ of Treaty and its ultimate goal of ‘co-sovereignty’ for a few select and lucky Australians who claim that they are Aboriginal.
We have a chuckle to ourselves when Marcus tells us, with a straight face, that he and,
‘First Nations people have a unique connection to this country and our care and knowledge of it run deep. The voice [referendum] is about having a taste of that inserted into the heart of Australia’s democratic system. By voting Yes you will lose absolutely nothing, but everyone stands to gain so much.
We all came to this place called home from different paths, whether we were born here or drawn here. This is where we find ourselves together now …
Look at me. Look at my skin. Every day, whether it’s heckling on social media or barbs from some privileged right-wing media commentator, I have people saying to me “you’re not Aboriginal, you’re white”. They can’t seem to get their head around the notion that some Aboriginal people have fair skin, but this is what the impact of colonisation looks like.
I am the embodiment of a history that complicates our relationship with the place we call home. For whatever reason, I find myself here, today, calling Australia home …’
- Commentary piece in The Australian 14 March 2023 here
The reason why Marcus feels he may be ‘heckled’ from members of his other ancestral mob, the ‘white’ Aussies, is that they recognise him as one of their own.
Just like in Aboriginal families, kin and family links run deep in Scottish families - you can take the boy out of Scotland but you can’t take the Scottish out of the boy.
Maybe Marcus Stewart gets his very successful, deep political drive from his Scottish aristocratic and political ancestors - the Knights, Stewards, Sirs and Lords of ancient Brittany and Scotland?
This got us thinking - maybe ‘King Marcus’ should consider first reclaiming his ancestral lands and property in his ‘Country’ of Scotland, where one of his ‘mobs’ were originally from - the oldest continuing living Scottish culture is the world.’ Maybe Monty Python are a source of inspiration?
In our next post we will investigate the Aboriginal side of Marcus Stewarts family, which we can assure readers is quite fascinating.
Spoiler Alert - Yes Marcus Stewart does have Aboriginal ancestors, but are his claims true that,
‘Every aspect of our lives has been controlled at different times since invasion: where we could live, who we could marry, where we could shop, what we could buy. We were forced off our ancestral lands, where we had gathered natural wealth for countless generations. Our children were stolen, our families torn apart.’ ?
( Source)
Or is Marcus Stewart ‘just making up’ these claims about his Aboriginal family, a la Bruce Pascoe?
We shall see, so stay tuned!
Further Reading
Incredibly, another great Aboriginal personality in Australia, The Hon Linda Burney, the Federal Labor Minister for Indigenous Australians is the 18 X great grand-daughter of the same King Robert II of Scotland. Thus, she and Marcus Stewart are distantly related via the Stewart family clan in Scotland - (see above and our previous post here).
This makes Linda Burney and Marcus Stewart both descended from the same families of Scottish Aristocracy and Nobility !
Maybe there was more to this photo below of an innocent-appearing glance by King Marcus across the bench to his ‘cuz’, Her Highness Queen Linda?
Was Marcus implying, “Nod-nod, wink-wink, all we need is Albo to sign on the dotted line and our Aristocracy will find ‘its rightful place’ in our Constitution!”
Figure 6 - ‘The Scottish Aristocrats’, King Marcus and Queen Linda, box in the Prime Minister.
Figure 5 - Marcus Stewart today (2022-23) in full Aboriginal makeup identifying as ‘a proud Nira illim bulluk man of the Taungurung nation’ speaking on behalf of ‘our people.’
In 2022 he was Co-Chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.’
(Photo Source Joel Carrett/EPA)
The Small Mindedness of Marcus Stewart’s Thinking on Colonialism
To many of us, it is sad that Marcus Stewart seems to reject, or at least fail to publicly acknowledge, his rich ancestral history as a descendent of the Scots. We are also saddened by his political stance that ‘the impact of colonisation’ was always bad.
We would suggest that he and his family are only in the fortunate position they are in today because of two great periods of colonialism - the colonisation of Britain by the Romans, and of Australia by the British.
Other more preceptive thinkers, whose ancestors have also ‘suffered’ colonisation have come to a different and more grateful and relaxed conclusion about the consequences of colonisation for their ancestors.
Canadian academic and Scots descendant, Dr Bruce Gilley, has written and spoken widely on this topic.
In a recent interview with US podcaster Jason Hill, Gilley and Hill discuss how ‘primitive’ societies (such as Australian Aboriginal) represented a culture ‘outside the historical process’ of the rest of the world’s societies and would never have been ‘epoch making agents because they lacked the civilizational mores, character, logical traits and political economic and judicial infrastructures required to make them Universal Players and game changers.’ Colonialism on the other hand, had a noble and civilizing effect on these primitive cultures.
The key legacy of a colonialism, such as that of the British Empire, lies in the achievement of persuading indigenous peoples to realize the meaning of Justice between man and man, and the inculcation of the spirit of respect for the rule of law and an independent judiciary where the lowest and the poorest stand equal with the highest and the richest.
This is a real, worthwhile legacy of the British Empire, which points out in stark detail that all cultures are not equal. A culture that protects illiberal rights is certainly not the political or moral equal of one that abrogates them as a matter of principle.
And that is why Marcus Stewart and the other Voice supporters are wrong in principle - The Voice proposal is illiberal in principle. It seeks to separate Australians by their race, ancestry, when their ancestors arrived, the political persuasion or their DNA.
All Australians will not be equal under the law if the Voice is enshrined in the Constitution.
The Voice is a retrograde step that will harm human and societal flourishing in Australia and predictably it illustrates the dangers posed by the proponents of de-colonisation as they work through our institutions.
Listen to Dr Bruce Gilley speaking on his barbarous and primitive Scottish ancestors who went on, after being colonised by Roman influences via Britain (and by the English as well), to be in the vanguard of the Enlightenment. It is sad that Marcus Stewart cannot philosophically also take this step.
