Tassie Abos, strikingly different from mainland ones, were saved from the genocidal violence of mainland Abos by the rising sea levels that made Tassie an island.
Look it up, Bwian.  Tut tut 

Frank wrote on Mar 4^th, 2018 at 9:38pm:


He sympathises with you, Greggery. The old boy, you see, is reaching out in friendship.

Superior culture, innit.

Frank wrote on Mar 4^th, 2018 at 9:35pm:


Tasmanian Indigenous people are Genetically the same as the mainland Indigenous people. Soren.   

President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Feb 28^th, 2018 at 12:20pm:


All too often the matter of Australian Aboriginal identity is decided superficially – by looking at a person’s face and general appearance. Colour is often the measure of Aboriginality, since the original peoples were black or brown, depending on their location in the country.

But, given recognition and identity are areas of acute importance to Aboriginal people, this bears closer scrutiny.

Questions about the right of people of mixed-race to identify as Aboriginal are often raised by the settler colonial society. The most notorious example was in 2011 when Andrew Bolt wrote a column in the Herald Sun questioning the claims to Aboriginality of several high profile light-skinned Aboriginal people – who then successfully brought legal action against him.

That was a classic case of questioning the identity of Aboriginal people of mixed-race because they did not “look like” the stereotype of an Aboriginal person.

The real question is "Who decides identity"

The task of deciding who is Aboriginal is increasingly that of state-based organisations, such as universities and government departments. All too often the important subject of identity is decided by subjective assumptions and outdated stereotypes.

The all-important research-base for Aboriginal descent and connection is seldom considered. Understanding the history of the Aboriginal family provides us with a better way to approach the complex issue of Aboriginal identity.

The people now known as Aboriginal were known as Australians until the 1830s. The term “Australian” was co-opted by settler colonials to describe themselves, while “Aboriginal” was used to homogenise what was even then a very diverse population, covering an immense geography. Already by that time there were generations of mixed-race people in this community.

Evidence collected from more than 200 Aboriginal biographies and autobiographies, such as Aileen Morgan’s The Calling of the Spirits, Harold Hunt’s Memoirs from the Corner Country and Marty Dodd’s They liked me, the horses, straightaway, indicate that, unlike white people, the way in which Aboriginal people define themselves has little to do with race.

Aboriginal people do not rely on a race-based identity. In fact, while those people writing their life stories and their family histories are often interested to acknowledge non-Aboriginal ancestors, they do not identify with them.

Western scientific thought has reached a point at which the notion of human difference based on race being meaningful in any way is rejected. As Darren Curnoe, evolution specialist has asserted, the idea of “race” was never scientific to begin with.

The majority of people who identify as Aboriginal in Australia today are of mixed-race. So, on what basis do they do so?

The answer to this is culture, more particularly the intangible aspects of culture that are transmitted through families and kinship systems.

A person is Aboriginal when they have living Aboriginal relations; this is the primary aspect of cultural connectedness. Aboriginal bureaucrats recruited into the new Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs in the early 1970s sat down together to develop the “government” definition of an Aboriginal person.

Those Aboriginal leaders were thinking of kinship when they developed the three items that form the basis of this identity: descent, identification and acceptance as an Aboriginal person.

Family, kinship, relatedness and connectedness are the basis of Aboriginal world-views and the philosophy that underpins the development of Aboriginal social organisation.

When Aboriginal people meet each other, in whatever circumstance, they talk genealogies, relationships and connectedness. This is common to indigenous people around the globe and is recognised as the basis for knowledge production – in New Zealand, the Maori people call it whakapapa.

In English, the word “genealogy” is inadequate to explain the import of genealogical connection to not only people but place, through time. In Aboriginal languages for example, the word “tjukurrpa” of language groups in Central Australia encapsulates all of this.

And so it is that continuing cultural values and practice are the true basis of Aboriginal identity in the whole of Australia today.

Understanding the true nature of Aboriginal identity gives us an opportunity to begin to make decisions on who has the right to claim Aboriginality. And Aboriginal people must be active in this, to define and establish what it means to be Aboriginal.

Unforgiven wrote on Mar 4^th, 2018 at 10:52pm:


Glad I've made your list.

You don't rate for mine

& don't warrant any list as a nondescript

Gnads wrote on Mar 5^th, 2018 at 8:20am:



Wouldn't be wonderful if that was true.  Unfortunately, white people all too often identify people on the basis of their so-called "racial characteristics", rather than any reality.   We have read here all too often about the failure of Prison Authorities to record "ethnic identities" of their prisoners, or their religion or anything else the Bigots like to use to judge people by.   All too often we have people like Andrew Bolt claiming someone isn't Indigenous because they don't, in his opinion, look Indigenous.   Some here have made similar comments.

As I keep pointing out, the matter of "Race" is a late 19th century, European concept which was used to allow Europeans to justify their imperialist take over and exploitation of native peoples' territories.   Genetically, it is meaningless.   We all share the same Genetic pool.  It is what makes Humans, well, human.  It is what allows all humans to interbreed.   "Race" emphasis is on superficial, physical differences - skin colour, facial shape, eyelids, lips, etc.  These were created by evolutionary adaptation to different environments over time.   If you look closely at the Geographic distribution of these attribute, you'll note that they blend together away from the major concentrations.

What we need is for White Anglo-Saxon/Celtic people to forget all about "Race".  It has no meaning and should have no meaning.   

Gnads wrote on Mar 5^th, 2018 at 5:54pm:


I am, fool.  It is you and your Racist mates which play the "Race" card the most often.  It is annoying, disgusting and above all else, completely inaccurate.   "Race" is a social construct created by European imperialists.  It appears you are either illiterate or just stupid. Which is it?  Mmm?   

Raven wrote on Mar 5^th, 2018 at 3:11am:


Greetings Raven. I hope you and your family are well?

Do you identify as aboriginal (I know your history - no need to share that again if you don’t want to)? It’s just that you were raised in the aboriginal way.