The Hon Linda Burney and an Australian Aristocracy - Part 2
This second Post on The Hon Linda Burney MP, Minister for Indigenous Australians, is a little cheeky, but it captures some of the zeitgeist of Linda Burney’s proposal for enshrining an Aboriginal Voice in our Constitution.
As detailed in our Part 1 post, the Hon Linda Burney believes that Aboriginal people are ‘special’.
Listening to her speak on Aboriginal people’s ‘special’ relationship with ‘this land’, one can’t help but think that deep down she might be of an aristocratic bent, when she tells us that,
‘… the truth of this nation is that First Nations people have a special relationship with the land and have a very spiritual relationship with country that has gone back tens of thousands of generations [sic] and that means something…’
Some common definitions of an aristocracy are:
the highest class in certain societies, typically comprising people of noble birth holding hereditary titles and offices; a form of government in which power is held by the nobility; a state in which governing power is held by the nobility.
Recently, it was reported that the Hon Linda Burney MP, Minister for Indigenous Australians, has begun ‘a cross-continental mission to persuade those [Aboriginal people] in remote communities that a ‘yes’ vote [for The Voice] will close the gap…’ (The Australian, 28 Nov 2022).
The apparent extravagance of the use of a private jet charter, and her fashionable city dress sense prompted a political opponent to label the Voice, and Burney’s promotional campaign, as nothing more than,
“… empowering the elites to demand a transfer of power and nothing more than that. This Voice model is not recognition ... this is an entire bureaucratic [entity] we don’t have details on”. … “Minister Burney might be able to take a private jet out into a remote community, dripping with Gucci, and tell people in the dirt what’s good for them – but they are in the dark, and they have been in the dark.”
- The Hon Senator Jacinta Price in The Age, 28 Nov 2022. and watch here
We here at Dark Emu Exposed are not really surprised by Linda Burney’s seemingly aristocratic demeanor when visiting her Aboriginal ‘subjects’, sorry, ‘people’.
For, not only did we discover in Part 1, that Linda Burney had aristocratic ancestry by being a descendent of the Scottish Sinclair clan, notably Patrick Sinclair, her 4X great-grandfather and the Lieutenant-Governor and Commandant of the slave-trading fort of Michilimackinac in colonial North America, but we have now uncovered records that suggest she is descendent from royalty.
Our research indicates that Linda Burney is the 18X great-granddaughter of King Robert II of Scotland, who ruled as king from from 1371 to 1390.
It is thus our cheeky suggestion that if the Hon Linda Burney believes her 50% Aboriginality (via her father) gives her a special, multi-generational relationship with the land that entitles her, and the people of her race, to have ‘special powers’ to tell the rest of us how our society will be governed, then we can’t see why it is not just as equally valid to believe that her Royal descent from the 50% Scottish ancestry of her mother will allow her to think that she can rule over the rest of us Australians of European descent as an hereditary, aristocratic elitist.
Her recent private jet foray out to her ‘dominions’ very much reminded many Australians of a flying Royal Visit, not unlike what members of the British Royal family are prone to do, during their charity work.
In Part 1 of our investigation into the Scottish ancestry of the Hon Linda Burney we traced her maternal Australian Scottish ancestors back to the North American coloniser Patrick Sinclair, who was her 4X great-grandfather.
In this post, we continue the genealogical research further up her maternal family tree. The publicly available records allege to show how Patrick Sinclair, and thus the Hon Linda Burney, are directly descended from Henry II Sinclair, the Earl of Orkney (1375 - 1420) and his wife, Egidia Douglas, the grand daughter of King Robert II of Scotland (Figures 1 and 2). The Sinclair Clan is famous and its ancestry is very well documented and is freely available, so our research was easily corroborated.
Figure 1 - The Hon Linda Burney’s Scottish Maternal Family Tree - Part 1. This section of the family tree shows the line of descent of the Sinclair [St Clair] Clan from King Robert II of Scotland via his grand-daughter Egidia Douglas. Sources: See below for Notes)
Figure 2 - The Hon Linda Burney’s Scottish Maternal Family Tree - Part 2. This section of the family tree shows the Sinclair line of descent down to Lieutenant-General Patrick Sinclair, the Hon Linda Burney’s 4X great-grandfather and one of North America’s premier colonisers. Sources: See below for Notes
Source Notes here for Figures 1 and 2 above.
Thus, the publicly available genealogical records allege to show that the Hon Linda Burney can trace her ancestral line via her mother’s family back to Scottish aristocrats - the Sinclairs, who were the Earls of Orkney - and also to genuine royalty with Linda Burney believed to be a descendent of King Robert II of Scotland.
Figure 4 - Will the Hon Linda Burney become a Member of Australia’s New Aristocracy, an elite with a position enshrined in our Constitution due to their ‘special’ ancestral hereditary rights?
America’s Australia’s New Aristocracy
The Economist Magazine featured an article in 2015 which observed that in the US, it appeared that, ‘privilege has become increasingly heritable.’
The Economist thought that it was,
‘odd that a country founded on the principle of hostility to inherited status should be so tolerant of [political family] dynasties. Because America never had kings or lords, it sometimes seems less inclined to worry about signs that its elite is calcifying.
Thomas Jefferson drew a distinction between a natural aristocracy of the virtuous and talented, which was a blessing to a nation, and an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth, which would slowly strangle it.’
Although the Economist article was principally concerned with ‘intellectual capital’, we just wonder whether, in Australia’s case, that The Voice and the Uluru Statement being proposed by the Hon Linda Burney will just end up entrenching tax-payer funded ‘Indigenous capital’ into our Constitution and federal parliament.
This could produce an, ‘artificial aristocracy founded on [tax-payer sourced] wealth and Aboriginal birth’.
Could a select group of Aboriginal families end up as an hereditary aristocracy of rent-seeking power-brokers, ‘past, present and emerging’?
Will Aboriginal family dynasties develop over the coming generations that will need to be consulted on every bit of federal legislation proposed in Australia, given that all laws can impact on Aboriginal people in one way or another?
Some Australians are starting to come to the realisation that this could well be the result if the Voice referendum is passed.
Perhaps the ‘hereditary aristocratic knowledge’ of the Hon Linda Burney’s ancestors are about to get a new lease of life Down-under?
Further Reading.
The Bunyip Aristocracy of 1853
Australians were offered an indigenous aristocracy in 1853 - the so-called ‘Bunyip aristocracy’ - which they ‘laughed out of town’. The proposal was thoroughly rejected by the Australian public at the time.
A good summary of what happened in 1853 was published by the Sydney Morning Herald in 1953, on the 100th anniversary of the rejection of the Bunyip Aristocracy - read here
Let’s hope Australians realise that the Voice is just a re-run of the Bunyip Aristocracy - an aristocracy of Aboriginal Australians selected on the basis of their race with hereditary privileges of tax-payer funded wealth and political power that only they can pass onto to their descendants.
ps: The man who almost single-handedly defeated the Bunyip Aristocracy proposal was Daniel Henry Deniehy, the son of convicts, who rose to become an Australian journalist, orator and politician; and early advocate of democracy in colonial New South Wales.
Figure 5 - Daniel Deniehy, coiner of phrase, the Bunyip Aristocracy.
Now, most incredibly, during our research into that alleged fake Aboriginal man, Professor Dennis Foley, that purveyor of what academics have called ‘Psuedo-profound bullshit’, we discovered that Daniel Deniehy was actually the cousin of Dennis Foley’s great-great-grandfather!
Several times we have come across Australian academics who desperately try to find Aboriginal ancestry in their family, and even ‘fake’ it if they have to, but then they completely ignore their relatively famous, real, non-Aboriginal ancestors.
In Foley’s case, Daniel Deniehy was the cousin of Patrick Sullivan, Dennis Foley’s paternal great-great-grandfather, as recorded in his 1908 obituary.
1908 Obituary Glen Innes Examiner, 20 October 1908, p. 3
A Centenarian
A remarkable career came to an end at Matheson on Friday morning when Mr Patrick Sullivan died at the residence of his son. Deceased had reached the wonderful age of 100 years and six months. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, and came to Australia as an immigrant in 1844, landing in Sydney. Settling on the Hunter for a time, the late Mr Sullivan married (64 years ago) Miss Bridget Brady (a member of a very old Maitland district family), and subsequently migrated to Inverell, where he and his family were well and favourably known. He had lived in these parts for about 40 years. He worked on Waterloo Station and fell off a horse he was riding some months before his death. Up to within a few months of his demise deceased enjoyed surprisingly good health, and retained his faculties in a manner that was little short of astonishing. Many the stirring tale he used to recount of the strenuous life of the early days - the days when the pioneers hewed the way right through the forests to the path of Civilisation. The late Mr O'Sullivan was a cousin of Daniel Denihey [sic Deniehy], the brilliant politician of early New South Wales parliamentary history. He leaves a family of six sons (of whom Daniel is the eldest at 58 years) and two daughters (Mrs H. Smith being the youngest), while there are 25 grandchildren, and eight greatgrandchildren. The funeral took place at Inverell on Saturday.
* Note: Patrick was related to Daniel Henry Deniehy’s father Henry (Harry)
Who would have thought.
Media comment: Sky Bolt report, 29 November 2022, Watch here or listen from 10:00
