Andrew Bolt: Academics claim to be Aboriginal when genealogical records suggest they’re not

Another two academics are claiming Aboriginal heritage and working in Aboriginal jobs without any evidence. Shouldn’t universities demand more proof?

Our universities seem overrun now with academics claiming to be Aboriginal, when even genealogical records suggest they’re not.

Let me name two more.

Add them to the supposedly Aboriginal academics I’ve mentioned before, including Melbourne University’s Professor Bruce Pascoe (the Dark Emu fake), Western Sydney University’s Associate Dean Professor Kerrie Doyle (of the unknown “Winninninni” tribe), the late professor Eric Wilmott (from the Australian National University) and the late author Mudrooroo Narogin (Murdoch University’s former head of Aboriginal Studies).

Professor Bruce Pascoe. Picture: Luke Bowden

Professor Kerrie Doyle.

First a caveat: publicly available genealogies of the people I mention show no Aboriginal ancestors, but could be wrong. Maybe there’s, say, an illegitimate birth that professional genealogists from darkemuexposed.org somehow missed.

The trouble is, none of the living academics I name will show me or those genealogists where we went wrong.

Now to the two new names of academics who’ve said they’re Aboriginal but seem likely mistaken, given their genealogical records.

One is Distinguished Professor Bronwyn Carlson, Macquarie University’s head of department of Indigenous Studies.

Carlson has won government grants and prizes as an Aboriginal academic, even writing books about Aboriginal identity, and saying she is Aboriginal through her mother’s grandmother.

But genealogical records suggest this great-grandmother’s parents were of British or Irish descent.

Again, maybe there’s a mistake, but when darkemuexposed.org showed Carlson their findings, they first got a threatening lawyer’s letter. When they asked again for evidence, they got no response.

I emailed Carlson a couple of times with my own questions, but also got no response, although her biography on the university website has since been changed to delete her claim to be “an Aboriginal woman”.

The second academic is Margo Neale, an adjunct professor of the Australian National University, and senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia.

Professor Margo Neale – National Museum of Australia.

Again, there’s no Aboriginal ancestor in her genealogical records that we can find.

So I wrote to her, asking: who is your Aboriginal apical ancestor, the first one from whom you base your claim to be Aboriginal?

She replied: “Aboriginal histories, as you know, can indeed be tricky particularly if one relies on western records during the long period of disruption and displacement… Aboriginal births, deaths and marriages were largely unrecorded outside missions and pastoral properties in earlier days at least, or inaccurately recorded.”

I asked again: so which Aboriginal ancestor had their birth inaccurately recorded? She never replied.

I know of more such academics, many in Aboriginal jobs. Shouldn’t universities demand more proof?