Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council CEO Nathan Moran’s urgent warning over surge in Aussies identifying as Indigenous

An Indigenous leader says the “identity fraud” of people falsely claiming Aboriginal descent is “outrageous”.

Nathan Moran, CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, told Sky News interviewer Andrew Bolt on Monday night that “over 40 per cent of people who identify as Aboriginal were not born Aboriginal”.

According to Moran, the number of people identifying as Aboriginal has increased much faster than the birth rate of Indigenous children since the 1990s.

Mr Moran, whose council covers large parts of Sydney, said a rise in “identity fraud” was leading to a “corruption of (Aboriginal) culture and heritage”.

“Those who may have discovered an ancestor then begin to speak or claim to speak as an authority above the legally constituted democratic organisation like us,” Mr Moran said.

Some individuals claiming indigenous descent have set up “self-interested private enterprises.”

“The number of people who are self-identifying, taking on roles and jobs and in some cases providing policy advice, or acting as an authority on behalf of Aboriginal people, when it is not known that they are Aboriginal, is outrageous,” Moran told Bolt.

Indigenous identity has become a hot topic after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek blocked construction of a gold mine tailings dam in central-western New South Wales to protect Indigenous cultural heritage.

The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council supported the project, but the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation opposed it. That was one of the reasons why Ms Plibersek decided to block the proposal for the dam in the McPhillamys project.

Mr Moran has previously called for widespread implementation of the Commonwealth’s three-part identity test to prevent Australians from wrongly identifying as Indigenous.

This test consists of three steps: the applicant must demonstrate that he/she is of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, identifies as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such by the community in which he/she lives or has lived.

A person can prove that he/she is accepted by an Aboriginal community by providing a letter from the local Aboriginal Land Council or a registered Aboriginal community organisation.

Earlier, the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council had filed a complaint with the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption about the number of students at the University of Sydney who were identifying themselves as Indigenous on statutory declarations.

Mr Moran said there were multiple issues with people undermining Aboriginal authority and identity, as it compromised ‘our ability to speak on behalf of our culture and heritage’ and ‘undermined our identity’.

He called for an end to the use of statistical identification methods for ‘self-identification’.

“We hope the government can address this by closing the door on self-identification,” Moran said.

‘Not allowing people to circumvent the law, forcing people to abide by the law, enforcing the law to ensure that people who claim to be Aboriginal are certified and verified by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal land rights.’