Ken Wyatt rejects call for national register of Aboriginality

Ken Wyatt says a national register of Aboriginality is not part of the voice to government.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt. Picture: AAP

A national register to rule on the legitimacy of a person’s claims to be an indigenous Australian will not be considered as part of the voice to government.

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt ruled out a registry on Sunday after the Australian Federal Police confirmed it was assessing an allegation that ­author Bruce Pascoe had benefited financially from wrongly claiming to be indigenous.

The allegation was made by Aboriginal entrepreneur Josephine Cashman, appointed to Mr Wyatt’s voice co-design senior advisory group in October.

Author Bruce Pascoe. Picture: Supplied

In her December 11 email to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, Ms Cashman asked for an investigation of Professor Pascoe for “dishonesty offences” and suggested a national strategy for establishing a register for Aborigines.

She said this could be designed by “a panel composed of traditional owners, on-the-ground elders, government experts and others to examine the most efficient manner to achieve identifying Aboriginal people”.

Ms Cashman alleged Professor Pascoe had benefited financially from his claims ­including from his appointment “as an Aboriginal professor at the University of Technology Sydney”.

In recent years Professor Pascoe worked as a UTS professor at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research. The Australian does not suggest the allegation against Professor Pascoe is true, only that the AFP is ­assessing it.

On Sunday, Mr Wyatt said government should play no role in deciding who was and was not indigenous. “While there are many views on self-identification, the minister does not support government playing a role,” a spokesman for Mr Wyatt said.

Tom Calma, co-chair of the senior advisory group, said it was not part of the group’s terms of reference to consider it.

Marcia Langton, his co-chair, defended Professor Pascoe, saying she held him in the greatest esteem “and cite his work in my own writings”.

“I cannot speak for other members of the Voice CoDesign Senior Advisory Group, but I am sure that most would agree with me that Ms Cashman’s denials of Professor Pascoe’s Aboriginal heritage and published views on his book Dark Emu, are not matters that will be considered as part of the Voice CoDesign process,” she wrote in an email to The Australian. “Our terms of reference are very clear and do not include these matters.”

Professor Langton said she rejected Ms Cashman’s proposal “for a political process of determining Aboriginal identity and a registry of Aboriginal people”.

“I know of no Aboriginal person other than Ms Cashman who would contemplate this,” she said.

Professor Pascoe shared the $30,000 NSW Premier’s Prize in 2016 for Dark Emu.

Published by indigenous publishing house Magabala Books, it argues for a radical rethink of how indigenous people lived in pre-colonial days.

It became a bestseller and has been adapted for children, and the ABC has announced that a two-part documentary version will be broadcast on television this year.

“The minister does not support the concept of a register and this is not under consideration by the senior advisory group,” the spokesman for Mr Wyatt said.

“It’s important to reiterate that Ms Cashman has acted independently and not in her capacity as a member of the senior advisory group (but) the minister doesn’t think her actions have been ­appropriate.”

The Australian first tried to speak to Professor Pascoe on Nov­ember 27 last year and made numerous other attempts after Ms Cashman made her complaint, including on Friday. On December 23, Professor Pascoe’s publisher, Morry Schwartz, wrote: “It seems clear from your failed attempts that he doesn’t want to be contacted, that his dignity is above joining this nasty little fray.”

Mr Dutton referred Ms Cashman’s allegation to the AFP on December 24, which has been ­described as in keeping with ­protocol.