The Sacred and the Simulacrum investigates a growing crisis in contemporary Australia: the simulation of Aboriginal identity by non-Indigenous individuals and groups who perform cultural authority without genealogical legitimacy or community recognition. This simulation is not merely appropriation; it constitutes a form of epistemic violence that substitutes settler feeling and performance for Aboriginal law, kinship, and cultural sovereignty.
At the heart of this crisis is a conflict between Blak Knowing, a relational and sovereign epistemology rooted in Country, kinship, and ceremonial governance, and settler magical thinking, which is individualistic, intuitive, and often disconnected from historical or relational accountability. Settlers, driven by spiritual yearning, guilt, or a desire for belonging, increasingly claim Aboriginal identity through dreams, emotions, or aesthetics. These affective claims bypass verification and mimic legitimacy, especially when supported by institutions uncomfortable with challenging identity assertions.
This dynamic plays out most visibly in the activities of impostor groups such as the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai collective, the Coast Environmental Alliance (CEA), and affiliated movements including My Place and Community Voice Australia. These actors leverage Aboriginal symbolism, spiritual language, and pseudohistorical claims to gain cultural and political influence. Their participation in development consultations, school programming, and media narratives often occurs in opposition to recognized Aboriginal bodies, including Darkinjung and Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Councils, who explicitly reject their legitimacy.
A key concept in Cooke’s analysis is conspirituality: the fusion of New Age spirituality and conspiracy thinking. This belief system enables settler actors to claim sacred knowledge while rejecting institutional or Aboriginal authority. It fuels charismatic performances, pseudolegal rhetoric, and identity fraud, and is particularly potent in digital environments where simulation spreads rapidly through social media.
Cooke highlights how credibility machines—emotional and aesthetic infrastructures—allow impostors to gain influence. Through performative rituals, storytelling, and visual cues, these actors create the illusion of authenticity. Institutions, prioritizing inclusivity over verification, often reward these performances, granting access to funding, visibility, and consultative power. This further entrenches the displacement of legitimate cultural authority.
The convergence of simulation with pseudolaw and far-right ideology intensifies the threat. Sovereign citizen doctrines are now combined with spiritual language and Aboriginal imagery to assert bogus legal or cultural claims. These movements claim “original lore” or “tribal jurisdiction” as a basis for rejecting government regulation and undermining Aboriginal land rights. In cases such as Kariong, impostors have successfully delayed or derailed Aboriginal-led developments by manipulating heritage discourse and misrepresenting custodianship.
Cooke argues that these acts of simulation are not misunderstandings; they are strategic forms of epistemic warfare that use symbols of Indigeneity to destabilize Aboriginal governance, often with institutional complicity. Councils, schools, and media platforms routinely platform unverified individuals, contributing to the erosion of cultural authority and the normalization of imposture.
To counter this, the text proposes structural reforms grounded in Indigenous sovereignty. Institutions must implement robust identity verification protocols, reject claims that lack community recognition, and embed Aboriginal governance bodies in decision-making processes. Public education must teach the difference between emotional resonance and cultural legitimacy, and digital platforms must be held accountable for spreading cultural disinformation.
The book concludes with a manifesto for cultural sovereignty, affirming that Blak Knowing is not a feeling or performance, but a system of knowledge governed by kinship, protocol, and Law. To protect it, institutions must uphold verification, fund legitimate custodians, and practice epistemic refusal when confronted with imposture. Aboriginal knowledge, Cooke insists, is not available for settler self-discovery—it is a living inheritance that demands recognition on its own terms.
Bungaree.org 
Leave a comment