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‘Nowhere near’: Storm erupts over Indigenous man wrongly used for no campaign

An Aussie man has come out swinging after the No campaign wrongly claimed he was the grandson of a prominent land rights campaigner.

Jacinta Price and Warren Mundine combine 'No' Voice campaign amid 'Yes' pressure

A major blunder by the No campaign has been exposed after an Indigenous man was falsely identified as high-profile land rights activist “Vincent Lingiari’s grandson”, leaving him “humiliated”.

A photo of Millwarparra man Stewart Lingiari has been widely shared on social media by No campaigners Nyunggai Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price with the quote: “I don’t want you to look at me differently. That’s why I am voting no.”

Mr Mundine’s series of posts across various platforms included the caption: “Vincent Lingiari’s grandson is voting No!”, while Ms Price shared the same photo and quote on her Twitter account with the caption, “Vincent Lingiari’s grandson thinks otherwise….#VoteNOAustralia”.

Mr Mundine’s Recognise a Better Way recently merged with Fair Australia, backed by Ms Price, to provide a unified No campaign in the lead up to the voice to parliament referendum later this year. The new joint No campaign will be called Australians for Unity.

The same picture and caption also feature on the Fair Australia website, but does not identify Mr Lingiari as Vincent Lingiari’s grandson.

An investigation by RMIT University this week revealed that Stewart Lingiari was not Vincent Lingiari’s grandson, nor was he related in any way to the leader of the eight-year Wave Hill walk-off, which resulted in the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the basis to apply for native title claims and land rights in the NT.

“He is a Millwarparra man from the Northern Territory whose photo has been used to support the No campaign, despite the fact that he says he is unsure of what the voice to parliament referendum is about,” RMIT revealed.

Stewart Lingiari was wrongly identified as “Vincent Lingiari’s grandson”. Picture: Facebook/Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO
Stewart Lingiari was wrongly identified as “Vincent Lingiari’s grandson”. Picture: Facebook/Nyunggai Warren Mundine AO

“I’m nowhere near Vincent Lingiari, I’m not his grandson,” Mr Lingiari told FactLab, and said the photo was snapped during a meeting in Canberra with politicians which was designed to unite Indigenous representatives, during which the group was asked for their thoughts on the voice.

He claimed they were then asked to recite sentences given to them.

“I was told to say that word there: ‘I don’t want you to look at me differently. That’s why I am voting no’,” Mr Lingiari said, adding at that time he knew little about the upcoming referendum.

“If I would have [known] what this voice was, I wouldn’t have said this. This is what the cameraman told me to say,” Mr Lingiari continued.

“I don’t want this photo to exist. I went there to sort a problem out. I didn’t go there to put myself on camera.”

Mr Lingiari also told The Guardian the experience had left him “humiliated” and that sharing his image online was “wrong”.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine have joined forces to push for a no vote. Picture: Twitter
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine have joined forces to push for a no vote. Picture: Twitter

Meanwhile, Mr Mundine rejected any suggestion that he had knowingly misidentified Mr Lingiari.

“I spent two days with Mr Lingiari. He was introduced to me as the grandson of Vincent Lingiari,” he told NITV.

He added that the confusion was caused by a misunderstanding of Aboriginal culture.

“RMIT needs to understand … kinship structures. You don’t have to be a blood relationship within these traditional kinship structures,” he said.

Mr Mundine also rejected Mr Lingiari’s assertions that discussion of the voice was unexpected at the meeting.

“We stood in front of 20 to 30 media people, and this is how it was introduced. So if anyone is making claims they didn’t know what it was about, they should have said something then,” he said.

“He expressed to me that he was against [the voice].”

News.com.au contacted Mr Mundine and Ms Price for additional comment.

A referndum over whether to enshrine a permanent Indigenous voice to parliament in the Constitution will be held later this year.

It would see a federal advisory body formed with the purpose of recognising and representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and consulting with the government.

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/nowhere-near-storm-erupts-over-indigenous-man-wrongly-used-for-no-campaign/news-story/0031ad604070a00d53ff7352be85c619