If one great-great grandparent

was Aboriginal it is apparently enough to claim that you too are Aboriginal and therefore have the knowledge to run an "Aboriginal" organisation. What is more you will be paid handsomely to do it.

I was sent a link yesterday, a link from one of the more mainstream media outlets. It was about a man who runs an Aboriginal organisation in another state. The person who sent it to me asked, "Is he really Aboriginal or is he just another Bruce Pascoe?"

Bruce Pascoe is, as I have said elsewhere, the man who claims to be Aboriginal. Pascoe also holds down a job teaching "indigenous agriculture" at one of our top-rated universities. Well respected and very able genealogists have shown he has no Aboriginal ancestors.

I did a bit of searching on line because I suspected that other people had asked the same question about this man. Apparently this second person does have an Aboriginal ancestor - one great-great grandfather. It is apparently enough to claim you are Aboriginal.

If you look at a "family tree" then it becomes apparent that we all have sixteen great-great grandparents. We may not know much about them. Many people may know nothing at all. Nevertheless we have them. They are part of our heritage.

Or are they? It seems that in the case of the right to call yourself "Aboriginal" you can ignore fifteen of the sixteen great-great-grandparents and just acknowledge one.  Does this mean that the children of the man in question can also say they are Aboriginal? He is married to a "white" woman. His children would have thirty-two great-great-great grandparents and just one of them would be the Aboriginal he acknowledges in order to be Aboriginal. Is that enough? 

People have been castigated for even daring to ask this question but it is becoming more and more apparent that it not only needs to be asked but answered. Where do you draw the line?

My BIL's parents came from Cyprus. S... does not call himself Cypriot. "Why would I?" he asks, "I was born here." 

S...grew up in a Cypriot-Greek speaking family. Now that his parents are no longer alive he rarely uses it except with surviving members of his parents' generation. The younger members all speak English together. They know some Greek. Middle Cat made the effort to learn some Greek. I made the effort to learn enough to be polite to S...'s grandparents as they spoke no English. (They came here when they were in their 70's - sponsored and financially cared for by S...'s father.) Their children know almost no Greek.

The two men I first mentioned above speak nothing but English. The great-great grandparent in question was brought up in the English speaking world. He may not even be a "full-blood" Aboriginal. It has simply been assumed he is. It is convenient to do this. It seems it would open up too many questions.   

Perhaps people might be more ready to support the proposed change to the Constitution if this sort of question had first been asked and then answered.