A respected Aboriginal leader has proposed an ambitious plan to stop ‘stat dec blackfellas’ from falsely claiming to be indigenous.
CEO of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) Nathan Moran says ‘Kinship Councils’ will prevent Australians with no real ties to Aboriginal culture from speaking on behalf of Indigenous people.
Mr Moran criticized the state and federal governments at a heated meeting last week, arguing that the current three-part test for determining Aboriginal identity, known as the tripartite test, was not being properly enforced.
He said the kinship council would be made up of ‘verified’ indigenous elders and native title holders who would ensure laws were enforced.
The test requires the person to have biological descent from Indigenous peoples, identify as Aboriginal and be accepted in the community in which they live.
“We organized Aboriginality forums in 2016 and 2018 to tackle fraud. “Everyone at both forums said what is missing is an Aboriginality Kinship Council, a council of verified Aboriginal people,” Mr Moran told the Daily Telegraph.
He said members of the Aboriginality Kinship Council would be “elders and indigenous rights holders, people associated with a land council” and would stop people from setting up a business and “trading like an Aboriginal”.
Mr Moran said Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy and NSW Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Harris were open to the proposal.
Respected Aboriginal leader Nathan Moran (pictured) says ‘Kinship Councils’ will stop Australians with no real ties to Aboriginal culture from speaking on behalf of Indigenous people
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (pictured) has been criticized by land council leaders for not listening to their views on cultural heritage claims
Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said Aboriginal fraud was a growing problem and she was open to the idea.
“As Minister Plibersek’s Blayney mining debacle makes clear, this is a serious issue that must be resolved,” she said.
“Many traditional owners I know are deeply saddened by the rise of opportunists and the reinvention of culture for political and personal objectives.”
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has been criticized by land council leaders for not listening to their views on cultural heritage claims.
Ms Plibersek has been vilified for her decision to block the development of a $1 billion gold mine at Blayney in central west NSW on cultural grounds, based on the views of an Aboriginal company, not the Orange LALC.