This was written relying heavily on personal experience, and the seminal work of amazing Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman Professor Chelsea Watego. If you have not yet read Another Day in the Colony, you’ve done yourself a disservice, and are welcome for the recommendation.
I was reluctant to write a list like this out of concern future scammers use it as a guide to being harder to spot. I overcame this concern through the process of seeing decades of very blatant, very obvious fraud, perpetuated under the guise of Aboriginality.
When you know what to see, it is impossible to take these people seriously; and I’m optimistic as Australia’s dawning appreciation, respect, and acknowledgment of us grows, these issues may one day resolve themselves.
Until then. this issue is having very real, and very harmful effects on all Aboriginal People in Australia.
There are so many people who exist for all intents and purposes as non-Aboriginal People, only to later in life shift to identifying as Aboriginal, that vital data is being skewed and Aboriginal People suffer.
I am going to attempt to separate two distinct, but sometimes intertwined issues;
- recently discovered Aboriginal descent, and
- pseudo-Aboriginality.
Recently discovered Aboriginal descent
Discovering Aboriginal ancestry is a great thing, to be enjoyed and celebrated, personally. Discovering a link to the longest existing culture on Earth can, and should be an amazing experience, but it always needs to be one taken slowly.
Imagine a Caucasian male, blond hair, blue eyes, whichever age your imagination decides. Lets call him Bill. Now Bill discovers he had a great-great-great grandmother, who may have been Chinese.
If Bill suddenly declared that he was Chinese, dressing and speaking in a rough approximation of vaguely ‘oriental’ broken-English, while dressed like Fu-Manchu, those that know Bill might think he is funny or weird; how would a Chinese National experience Bills behavior?
How would Chinese children for instance, feel if Bill was suddenly presented by their teacher/guardian/school as a learned Chinese elder?
It is an all to common experience for people raised with ostensibly European values, on discovering possible distant ancestry, to inadvertently engage in the same colonizing behaviors of the non-Aboriginal settler ancestors they repeatedly fail to mention.
We are all raised in a culture, and as such take it for granted. The length of time we spend in that culture, that immersion, is not a conscious choice, rather part of the joy of human experience.
To jump from one culture to another culture is a process that can not be rushed, if it can happen at all. There is an incredible amount of unlearning, of decolonizing, letting go of prejudices, mistaken beliefs, not just about who you are, but about your family, your community, your history and your Nation.
Aboriginal history did not start in 1788, and it did not start with you.
You have a lot to learn, and your not just going to learn it in books.
Connect with Mob, connect with the Community, be of service, and be humble.
Listen, learn, explore, grow.
Use your privilege to amplify those you want to claim kinship with.
Identify their struggles, do not claim them as your own.
Know you will be accepted, usually whether you are genuine or not.
And we know when you are not genuine, we know; we’re just being polite.
Pseudo Aboriginality
I use the terms Pseudo-Aboriginal, and Pseudo-Aboriginality quite in bit this work, and it is worth laying out what these terms mean in relation to my work. As both appear to be without a current standard definition, I will endeavor to set a clear definition.
The prefix pseudo- (from Greek ψευδής, pseudes, “false”) is used to mark something that superficially appears to be (or behaves like) one thing, but is something else. Subject to context, pseudo may connote coincidence, imitation, intentional deception, or a combination thereof.
When I employ the term Pseudo-Aboriginal, I am referring to Culturally Inauthentic, deceptive portrayal of false/disingenuous interpretations of Aboriginal People, History, and Culture, from inauthentic sources of Culture.
Similar terms already in the lexicon are black cladding (businesses passing themselves off as Aboriginal Owned/Operated),and box-tickers (claiming Aboriginality for individual benefit)
I choose to use Pseudo-Aboriginal to describe the activities of certain individuals and groups only when the activity/behaviour in question encompasses both of the above, as well as demonstrated (often exclusive), application of pseudo-scholarship.
Sometimes those in this second group have discovered Aboriginal descent, sometimes they just claim some nebulous descent, and in extreme cases they claim decent of ‘famous’ ancestry or nobility.
What is most notable about these people is often a very clear profit motive. Discovering the possibility of Aboriginal Ancestry is treated like finding a winning lotto ticket instead of an invitation to reckon with this Country’s past, an invitation to learn from Elders, Community, Culture and/or Country.
These charlatans are parasites, capitalizing on widespread ignorance of Aboriginal People and Culture.
They take jobs that are meant for Aboriginal People.
They take scholarships, grants, and tax breaks designed to redress the injustices experienced by Earth’s longest existing Cultures; and use them to fund their retirement.
They speak on behalf of us, speak down to us, and speak instead of us; in spaces in which they were never excluded in the first place.
To us, they are very, very clearly not us.
The idea that they could ever be mistaken for us is a deep insult that hurts on a level that may not be easily understood by non-Aboriginal People.
Imagine the experience of identity fraud, combined with black-face type cultural appropriation, and all the many harms of colonization combined; this is the impact people pretending to be Aboriginal have, and frankly enough is enough.
So here is my incomplete checklist for a pseudo-Aboriginal Person.
- Aboriginal Flag Tattoo.
- Without a doubt there a more White people with Aboriginal Flag tattoos than Aboriginal People. While I’m sure there are one of two exceptions, this is as White an activity as getting a Japanese letter; and with just as much Cultural relevance. It’s a self imposed brand, a label you have self applied, a commitment to the bit, nothing more.
- Overly conscious of their own pigmentation.
- This is mentioned in Another Day in the Colony, and is truly a sight to behold. White people who talk on and on about their pigmentation, how they bemoan it, how it led to them being excluded and not felling accepted. It is an odd behavior that I have personally seen repeated by different people in different settings. How they wish they were darker, but they soldiered on bearing the burden of their white skin, as if this superficiality is what indicates to anyone with a parsing familiarity with actual Aboriginal People or Culture.
- Fear of Black People.
- Despite claiming kinship, many of these people demonstrate a palpable fear of Aboriginal People. Perhaps sensing (correctly) their inauthenticity is apparent, they tend to prefer portraying their version of Aboriginality for White audiences. The very worst of these people profit immensely from this preference for traditionally White spaces.
- A reoccurring theme is claiming being told of possible Ancestry as a child, only to have it confirmed only recently. No explanation is given for why there was no curiosity, no probing, no investigation, until many decades later the information just appeared! Now, despite not previously being sufficiently interested in Aboriginal People, Culture, or Community, these people demand a seat at White tables representing Aboriginal People, instead of actually having to be among any.
- Overreliance on Academic Sources.
- Aboriginal Culture is passed down from Senior people down. We all should read widely, but Culture does not come from books, only approximations of Culture. These people will claim certain things were handed down, but not be able to name by whom. Their stories inevitably change with the latest trends in academia, while never admitting the error. This is a hallmark of pseudo-Aboriginality.
- Ignorance of Culture.
- Inexperienced workers appear inexperienced, as what we call ‘experience’ is the passage of time spent involved with a thing. Similarly when someone has little to no Cultural experience, it shows. They make mistakes, they occasionally do inadvertent harm, but it is all part of the learning process. Without guidance from real Senior People, you will not progress past this initial stage, and you will remain inexperienced for life. Not a problem at all unless you claim to represent a Culture you have no lived experience or understanding of.
- White Australian Culture is markedly different from that of Aboriginal People, and the differences are stark. Without reckoning on your own ‘Whiteness’ your preoccupation with pigmentation is a real barrier to growth.
- Feelings.
- Reliance on feeling connection to nature, to the environment, to voices only they can hear; all of which can only be explained by their perceived Aboriginality.
- Their understanding of Aboriginality is informed by their imaginations, by their want and their needs, and as a consquence is entirely self serving.
- These people believe their feelings are equal to reality, and deserve to be imposed on others simply because they are their feelings.
- Your feelings do not excuse racism, cultural appropriation, or plain old fraud; regardless of how deeply they are held.
- Money
- We all need to work, but if your employment is predicated on your Aboriginality, you better be damn sure you’re legit.
- The sort of person that would take advantage of the ongoing injustices experienced by genuine Aboriginal people in order to sell some bogus art, inauthentic tours, or Culturally and Spiritually inappropriate garbage is hopefully not someone welcomed in non-Aboriginal Culture either.
3 Part Test
The GuriNgai are particularly interesting as a group in that while they are all non-Aboriginal People – they are also not related to each other in many cases, and appear unsure of who among them does actually have any trace of Aboriginal descent at all.
The three part test accepted by the Courts and Government of Australia contains the following three elements.
- Descent from an Aboriginal Person/Persons.
- Self-identification as an Aboriginal Person.
- Acceptance by the Community as an Aboriginal Person.
Only by satisfying all three of these elements, can a person legally be considered an Aboriginal Person.
The person MUST identify as Aboriginal, the person MUST be Aboriginal by way of descent, and the Aboriginal community MUST recognise the person as Aboriginal.
It is not enough to simple call oneself Aboriginal.
It is not enough to claim a distant relative may have been Aboriginal.
It was definitely not the intention of those behind this 3-part-test for any individual or group to spend two decades attempting to manufacture acceptance within the non-Aboriginal Community through fraud, deceit, and capitalizing on the profound ignorance of their victims’.
But then who could have foreseen the likes of Warren Whitfield and Tracey Howie.
Truth-telling from a neurodiverse perspective. 
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