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There are less than 25,000 full blood Aboriginals in Australia.  The 2016 Census indicates that there are 750,000 people that identify as Aboriginal.  The Census allows a person to nominate if they identify as an Aboriginal.

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Aboriginal is a race of people and is a term the British used to describe collectively the native inhabitants of Australia and included previously other terms such as natives, indians, blacks and indigenous which are now considered racist.

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The native peoples of Australia never saw themselves as one race or one collective of peoples.  Indeed they appear to have been in continual murderous conflict with any bordering group and were completely unaware of any distant groups.

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The Yolgnu people from the north of Australia knew nothing about the existence of any of the hordes of Gunai from Victoria who did not know of the existence Wik people of Cape York.  They were isolated, they were separate and whilst there may be cultural similarities, they were distinct separate peoples.  The land of the Wik people is not the land of the Yolgnu people and vice versa.  It is not Aborigianl land.

 

By way of comparision, to now treat them as a collective would be to treat the whole of the European continent as one people.

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What is an Aboriginal?

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The legal definition is an Aboriginal person is someone who:

• is of Aboriginal descent;

• identifies as an Aboriginal person; and

• is accepted as an Aboriginal person by the community in which he or she lives.

 

This is very confusing. The definition requires descent however remote to an Aboriginal bloodline.  That literally could mean that a person’s great great grandmother of a modern-day Australian who was Aboriginal would be able to claim to be an Aboriginal despite being 1/16 Aboriginal or 6% Aboriginal.  It is difficult to understand how this person identifies as an Aboriginal.

 

It would be perfectly normal and understandable that this person would state that they are of Aboriginal descent or of distant Aboriginal descent but to describe themselves as Aboriginal does not make sense when they are by race possibly many other races.  The only way that we could make sense of such a statement if we consider that the idea of an Aboriginal moves outside a race-based approach and consider it a religion and cult/culture/cult.

 

Although designed to imply race, by defining it as culture/religion you allow any person with any descent at all to identify as Aboriginal and deny or repent the other races, culture and heritages that make up that person.  Much as you might have some claim to be Christian or Jewish – race does not matter – it is the quality of their belief.  This approach would then require for an Aboriginal to recognise, practice and participate in Aboriginal culture and belief systems.

 

In 2016, less than 2% of the Aboriginal population reported adherence to Australian Aboriginal Traditional religions or beliefs. This has remained steady over the last 20 years.  If we accept the census finding that there are 650,000 Aboriginals, that would indicate that only 13,000 Aboriginals adhere to Aboriginal Traditional religions or beliefs. 

 

On that basis we can see that a person can claim to be an Aboriginal even with very, very distant descent and no adherence to anything to do with Aboriginal culture or practices.

 

The final element of the definition is that the person must be accepted as an Aboriginal person by the community in which he or she lives.  This allows the community to determine if the individual is “accepted” as an Aboriginal person.  There is no legal definition of the hurdles that need to be achieved for acceptance.  This naturally lends itself to an "uninterpreted" Aboriginal union who determines whether someone is Aboriginal.

 

Clearly you do not have to have to adhere to Australian Aboriginal Traditional religion or belief.  So this definition now requires to be an Aboriginal that you have to be accepted not into a church but into a union of persons who identify as Aboriginal over any other race they may share.  Does that mean that once accepted you can later be rejected by that community?  Or is acceptance then considered eternal.

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Indeed the Labour Party has sought to move past the idea of Aboriginal descent to qualify as an Aboriginal believing that anyone who identifies as an Aboriginal and is accepted by the community should be considered an Aboriginal.

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But the definition problem gets worse - the Full Federal Court found that the category of Aboriginal "could expand or contract according to the context and purpose."  This simply allows individuals to right to argue that their individual case should be exempt from one or more three parts to the test. Laws and regulations are created to ensure that all should abide by them.  Any claim of Aboriginality would now be impossible to refuse and the Court would be called a racist to do so.

 

Normally, as with any other race or religion individuals should pursue there own communities and belief systems. The egalitarian nature of Australian society would simply say “who cares” - you can do whatever you want  Aboriginals like any other race in Australia, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Swiss etc can enjoy their own cultures and seek out and enjoy the comradery of their common historical race.

 

The problem is that there is very significant legislation in place to provide Special Measures [UN term] or positive discrimination measures to lift up Aboriginal peoples from their oppressed state.  And incredibly importantly the native title act requires an essential element “descent”.

 

The problem is that just because you are Aboriginal does not mean you are oppressed particularly in modern day Australia.  I am not saying that racism doesn’t exist and that the past was not exclusory – I am saying that the rights of Aboriginals in modern day Australia, would appear to be approaching the same rights as all other Australians.  And yet the Aboriginal, whatever or whoever that qualifies as such will continue to decry racism and discrimination.  If you have the rights you must exercise those rights. 

 

If you do not exercise your rights .... that is your choice and you will not be able to have all the benefits of this society offers.  That is the great part of Australia - it is up to the individual.  If you do not seek out your right to employment, education and culture, then you are the only person to blame.