ANOTHER BRUCE PASCOE CASE
It wouldn't matter what race people called themselves - unless politicians were mad enough to say it did: "A bitter feud... has split the traditional owners of north east Victoria, with a prominent elder accused of fabricating his Indigenous ancestry and rival First Nations squaring off in the Supreme Court over a $33.7 million land dispute."
Another Bruce Pascoe case. But it wouldn't matter what race such people called themselves - unless politicians were mad enough to say it did:
A bitter feud over blood, land and money has split the traditional owners of north east Victoria, with a prominent elder accused of fabricating his Indigenous ancestry and rival First Nations squaring off in the Supreme Court over a $33.7 million land dispute.
The twin disputes... have the potential to derail the Andrews government’s traditional-owner settlement process and treaty negotiations.
A 115-page complaint lodged with the state’s newly formed Aboriginal representative body, the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, challenges the family history of Fred Dowling, an elder of the Bangerang community who has led a push for recognition in the wake of the failed Yorta Yorta native title claim...
Mr Dowling, 82, claims to be a relative of Mary Jane Milawa, an Aboriginal woman who lived in Wangaratta at the time of white settlement, through his grandmother Annie Lewis.
The complaint, prepared by elders from the Waywurru, Ngurai Illum and Dhudhuroa groups who say some of their traditional lands and ancestors are being claimed by the Bangerang, accuses Mr Dowling of having "stolen" Mary Jane Milawa's identity and of weaving his false Aboriginal heritage into the Bangerang story.
It cites birth, marriage and other public records showing Annie Lewis was the white daughter of English settlers with no connection to Mary Jane Milawa. If correct, this means Mr Dowling has no Aboriginal blood...
The case of Mr Dowling, following on from the fierce debate about historian Bruce Pascoe, exposes a faultline within Indigenous communities over how best to test claims to Aboriginality.
It should actually also spark a debate about why we have laws that make race matter in the first place. What race Dowling calls himself shouldn't matter at all, unless there were politicians and laws that rewarded him calling himself Aboriginal.
Here is how the Victorian Government has promoted Dowling:
Freddie Dowling is one of the elders of the Pangerang people. He is a storyteller and published author. His No More the Valley Rings with Koorie Laughter is a collection of stories, the majority of which were told to him by his father and his grandmother Annie Lewis, the niece of Mary Jane Milawa. These stories were written down in 1975 for his own family ’so that their descendants could reflect on who they were and learn something of their culture and how it was before white settlement changed everything’.
I should add that Dowling still claims to be Aboriginal, but, like Pascoe, can't prove it and the genealogical evidence is against him. I don't know one way or the other, not having seen all the evidence.
It's interesting that this story appears in The Age, which largely ignored the Pascoe scandal while giving me a swipe in an editorial for raising it:
Culture wars or identity politics are fertile ground for debate between commentators of various leanings, often burnishing their reputations, but for those in the line of fire, it can be a brutal arena.
Wonder how the ABC will deal with this one, after defending Bruce Pascoe so fiercely and calling me a racist for doubting him.