‘Tiwi Lore man’ Peter Remfrey denies ‘insulting’ questions of whether identity pursued for business interests
A non-Indigenous businessman who identifies as ‘a Tiwi Lore man’ has defended apparent efforts for Aboriginal certification, strongly denying perceived opportunism amid his company’s $1.7m collapse.
A non-Indigenous businessman who identifies as “a Tiwi Lore Man” has spoken out against what he calls “insulting and dangerous” attempts to conflate his cultural identity with questions about whether he could benefit from Aboriginal money.
Pandanus Workforce director Peter Remfrey said he had only ever sought clarity around the process of acquiring a Certificate of Aboriginality, never actually applied, and that his identity could not be defined by “administrative processes or political gatekeeping”.
Mr Remfrey strongly denied ever seeking money earmarked for Indigenous Australians, and emphasised his interest in the process of Aboriginal recognition was cultural, not commercial.
At the same time, he believed existing Indigenous procurement policies were worsening the gap between those with access, influence and connections, and those without.
“I’m not picking this fight because I don’t fit into a certain mould. I’m picking this fight because my (Aboriginal Tiwi) family were constantly struggling,” he said.
“The gap in the Indigenous procurement space is (between) those that are in that inner circle, they’re up here … and then you’ve got my family down here, who are struggling for (food) each and every day.
“That disparity is huge, and it goes far beyond me.”
Mr Remfrey said commentary that merged questions of identity with financial interests — using phrases such as ‘Aboriginal dollars’ or ‘white privilege’ — distracted from the real work of closing economic gaps.
“Those narratives are divisive,” he said.
“They make genuine collaboration harder and discourage honest dialogue about what cultural recognition should look like.
“To suggest I’ve ever tried to benefit financially from my cultural identity is false and offensive.”
Mr Remfrey had in the past referred to himself several times online as a “non-Indigenous Tiwi man”.
Since then, he has approached at least three organisations capable of verifying or certifying Aboriginality – the Tiwi Land Council, Northern Territory Indigenous Business Network, and Supply Nation – with letters produced on his own company’s letterhead claiming he met “eligibility requirements of Aboriginality”.
Those letters, as first reported by the Indigenous Business Review, stated “P. Tumarripi Babui-Remfrey is of Aboriginal descent”, “self-identifies as an Aboriginal and Tiwi person”, and is accepted as Aboriginal by the Jikilaruwu clan of Wurrumiyanga.
It was signed by eight Aboriginal members of the Babui family.
Mr Remfrey explained the letter as acknowledgement from family - not an official document.
Mr Remfrey was informally “adopted” by the Babuis and given the Tiwi name Tumarripi while growing up in Wurrumiyanga in the early 1980s.
But has not been able to establish the Aboriginal descent necessary to meet the three-part test required for certification: descent, self-identification, and community acceptance.
Asked by the NT News if he was Indigenous or non-Indigenous, Mr Remfrey said “I don’t see myself as either”.
“There are people who live their entire lives within Aboriginal communities but don’t fit neatly into bureaucratic definitions,” he said.
“Policy should safeguard integrity without erasing lived experience.”
Pandanus Group, a Queensland-based labour hire company operating in the Territory as Pandanus Workforce, went into voluntary liquidation in October owing $1.7 million - primarily to the tax office.
At time of publication it was still advertising for workers in Darwin and the Larrakeyah defence base.
Pandanus is wholly owned by Mumpara Group Holdings, where Mr Remfrey is also director.
Mumpara is described as a nationwide family of non-profit and profit-for-purpose companies with a shared goal: “to empower Indigenous families to holistically break the cycle of generational welfare”.
NT Indigenous Business Network chief executive Naomi Anstess said it did not matter how strongly Mr Remfrey was connected to Tiwi culture, she believed his “white privilege” meant he should never be allowed to access Aboriginal identified dollars, in the event he did seek to do so in the future.
“He has a choice not to be Tiwi, whereas Tiwi do not. Aboriginal people do not. We cannot change our descent, we cannot change public perception around the negativities that surround our people,” she said.
Speaking about identity more broadly, Ms Anstess said allowing ‘adopted’ non-Indigenous people to access Indigenous procurement could open the floodgates to “massive manipulation”.
“The dangers are that actual Aboriginal people wouldn’t be able to access any of the dollars intended for them,” she said.
“It’s one of the reasons why we have such stringent processes around identification - we say that where there is benefit, there is burden of proof.”
Ms Anstess said it was not uncommon to see non-Indigenous people adopted “within five minutes” of their first visit out bush, and that should not be a reason Aboriginal people missed out.
“Genuine descendants of Aboriginal people, who have been descendants of trauma and dispossession. You can’t swap that out.”
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Originally published as ‘Tiwi Lore man’ Peter Remfrey denies ‘insulting’ questions of whether identity pursued for business interests
