ABORIGINAL GROUPS DECLARE: BRUCE PASCOE ISN'T ABORIGINAL
Best-selling author Bruce Pascoe cannot keep calling himself Aboriginal. He says he's a member of three Aboriginal tribes, but three Aboriginal representatives say he isn't. The genealogical records say his ancestors are all of English descent, and he won't say why they're wrong. Read what the Aboriginal groups have to say: it's devastating.
Bruce Pascoe, author of the best-selling Dark Emu, cannot keep calling himself Aboriginal - something that's been so useful to his career.
That's surely impossible now that he's been contradicted not just by genealogical records but three prominent Aboriginal representatives.
Pascoe says he's a member of three Aboriginal tribes: the Yuin of NSW, the Boonwurrung of Victoria and some unspecified tribe of Tasmania.
Not so, say genealogical records that suggest all his ancestors descend from British forebears.
And not so, say three Aboriginal representatives.
Pascoe's Tasmanian link is contradicted by Michael Mansell, head of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania:
His claim to being Aboriginal is fake. He has no Aboriginal heritage and his claim is absurd... For the cost of a simple phone call we could have told ABC and others he is not Aboriginal.
I told many people - including journalists - he was fake. His claim to be Tasmanian is that his parents married here and an Aboriginal was at the wedding, therefore... Only recently has he shifted from childish power of suggestion (Aboriginal at wedding means...) to openly claiming it.
Pascoe's Boonwurrung link is denied by lawyer Jason Briggs, Chairman of the Boonwurrung Land & Sea Council:
To the best of our knowledge and research, we do not accept Mr Bruce Pascoe as possessing any Boonwurrung ancestry whatsoever.
We have a sophisticated (and utilised in a recent Federal Court of Australia matter) ancestral database of all peoples/families who can rightfully claim to be of Boonwurrung (aka Bunurong) descent.
The BLSC has never accepted or recognised Mr Pascoe's claims to be of the Boonwurrung community. We are also unaware of any contribution Mr Pascoe has ever made towards our community.
There is no compelling evidence whatsoever to support his claims of holding such an identity and we refute his claims of any ancestral link to Boonwurrung (aka Bunurong) people.
The BLSC is an organisation of integrity that holds in high regard the protection and preservation of our cultural heritage sites of significance, knowledge and all artifacts. We support evidenced-based historiography and do not support the fabrication of historical primary source documents.
Identifying (and profiting) from fraudulent claims to our ancestral and cultural heritage has been an ongoing problem for many years.
The thing is, people who falsely claim our identity have simply gotten away with it.
There have been many instances of people using and profiting from our ancestral name and our cultural heritage – in effect, exploiting our heritage for personal profit.
Pascoe's claim to being Yuin is denied by Josephine Cashman,an inaugural member of the Prime Minister's indigenous advisory council:
Bruce Pascoe is not Aboriginal. My son is Yuin and his father doesn't know who is. 0ur communities find this offensive. Shame! #darkemuhttps://t.co/MJ0pOyfa5p
— Josephine Cashman (@Josieamycashman) November 23, 2019
Cashman on The Bolt Report last night went further, accusing Pascoe of rewriting historiy and showing disrespect to Aborigines by disputing the fact that they were hunter-gatherers. She called on the ABC to scrap its planned series starring Pascoe.
My editorial last night:
The definition of Aboriginality in Australia is that you have some Aboriginal ancestry and are accepted as Aboriginal by those communities. Pascoe seems to fail on both counts.
Maybe there is a mistake here. I have again written to Pascoe to ask for his reply. I still have not got one.
Does truth matter to his supporters?