Aboriginal Identity: Who is 'Aboriginal'?

It is not easy to define Aboriginal identity. People who identify themselves as 'Aboriginal' range from dark-skinned, broad-nosed to blonde-haired, blue-eyed people, very much to the surprise of non-Indigenous people.

Aboriginal people define Aboriginality not by skin colour but by relationships.

Ironically light-skinned Aboriginal people are being challenged on their Aboriginal identity, even though the official definition accepts anyone who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and is accepted as such in their community.


Who is black and who is white? Many times our misconceptions make us assume we know when, in fact, we don't.

Who is 'Aboriginal'?

Ever since white people mixed with Aboriginal people they have struggled to define who is 'Aboriginal'.

Racist definitions of Aboriginal identity

Caste categories in an identity card used in the 1940s [4].
From 1910 to the 1940s white people classified Indigenous people into castes. They defined

a 'full-blood' as a person who had no white blood,
a 'half-caste' as someone with one white parent,
a 'quadroon' or 'quarter-caste' as someone with an Aboriginal grandfather or grandmother,
a 'octoroon' as someone whose great-grandfather or great-grandmother was Aboriginal.
These terms pervaded literature of that time. Today these words are considered offensive and racist.

Use of these terms stopped in the 1960s. Instead, authorities tried to find alternate definitions of Aboriginal identity, which, however, were still influenced by colonial thinking. Since legislation for Indigenous people was a state matter, each state found its own definition for 'Aboriginal'. Examples [1]:

Western Australia: a person with more than a quarter of Aboriginal blood.
Victoria: any person of Aboriginal descent.
The Commonwealth Parliament defined an Indigenous person as "a person who is a member of the Aboriginal race of Australia", a definition which was still in use in the early 1990s [2].

Read more on racist terms and racism against Aboriginal people.

Three-part definition of Aboriginal identity
It took a 'Report on a Review of the Administration of the Working Definition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' in 1981 to propose a new definition (my emphasis):

"An Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander is a person

of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent
who identifies as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and
is accepted as such by the community in which he (she) lives."
This was called the 'three-part' definition of Aboriginal identity and was soon adopted by all Commonwealth departments [2]. Variations of this definition were used later by legislative and government bodies. Many Indigenous persons carry 'certificates' from Indigenous organisations which state their Aboriginality.

However, the fact remains that a white authority defines who is an Indigenous person.

Proposals on genetic testing as a means of proving one's Aboriginality have been dismissed on the grounds that 'race' and 'ethnicity' are social, cultural and political constructs [2] which cannot be tested objectively.

Aboriginal people defining their Aboriginality
Prior to colonisation the First People of Australia identifed themselves by their nation. They would say "I'm a Dharawal man" or "I'm an Eora woman". Some country names around the greater Sydney area include Darug (near Katoomba, Blue Mountains), Gundungurra (near Goulburn, south-west of Sydney), Dharawal (Woolongong), Eora (Sydney).

Many Aboriginal people identify themselves as belonging to several nations for example as "Yuwaalaraay and Gamilaraay". This is because

their parents or grandparents come from these nations. Traditionally they would've come from the same nation, but contemporary relationships often involve partners from different Aboriginal nations;
they have lived in two places and identify themselves with each.
Another way Aboriginal people identify is by their boundary or state name.

Aboriginal boundary (state) names
State Name
New South Wales Koori, Goorie, Koorie, Coorie, Murri
Victoria Koorie
South Australia Nunga, Nyungar, Nyoongah
Western Australia Nyungar, Nyoongar
Northern Territory Yolngu (top end); Anangu (central)
Queensland Murri
Tasmania Palawa, Koori
Fact If Aboriginal people think highly of you, for example because you showed respect and have a deep understanding of their culture, you are an inverted coconut because you are white on the outside yet black on the inside.
Similarly, people who blend into Chinese culture are called an egg (which is a compliment) because they are white on the outside yet yellow on the inside.

Case study: Tim's struggle for identity

When Tim Eckersley was one week old he was adopted out to a white family. But all his younger years were a struggle to find his Aboriginal identity [24].

It led him to life on the streets when he was 13, and then in and out of boys' homes until 17.

"I was 17 when I went to jail and it was a long journey. I spent all of my 20s inside and I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be in society," Tim says.

"My [foster] family have always been supportive, they never gave up on me, but it was hard. I found it hard at school because I was alone and I didn't know who I was."

It was in jail where he reconnected with his culture, finding a brotherhood with other Indigenous prisoners. "In jail I experienced knowing about my culture, I learnt to paint and dance, and a lot about cultural issues. It was there that I really developed who I was, belonging to my culture and identifying who I was and where I fit into it, I felt proud."

In 2002, 31-year-old Tim finally got the chance to reunite with his Aboriginal family from Western Australia, but, sadly, his mother had already passed away.

"For me, reconnecting with your family is almost like revisiting your pain. It's not just painful for me, but for them also, so it is an ongoing journey that I will eventually get to reconnect with more of my family as I get a bit stronger."
Deconstructing myths about Aboriginal identity

Take the following identity test to see if you can find out which face belongs to a person who identifies as Aboriginal and which does not:

Which face belongs to an Aboriginal woman?


Tell me!

Solution:

These women were posing for a calendar. All of them are proud Aboriginal women.

It is a common mistake by non-Indigenous people to judge a person's Aboriginality by their skin colour. Skin colour does not define an Aboriginal person, descent does.


Myth: All Aboriginal people have black skin colour

Aboriginal identity is not a black face. Bindi Cole (front) and light-skinned members of her family pose with black faces to challenge the stereotypical notion of what black identity should look like. The red headbands were traditionally worn by Indigenous elders. Photo: 'Wathaurung Mob', Bindi Cole
In a 2008 exhibition, Not Really Aboriginal, Aboriginal artist Bindi Cole explored what non-Indigenous people thought what an "Aboriginal identity" should look like [6].

She photographed members of her light-skinned family who had blackened their faces, an allusion to early movies where white actors had blackened their skin to play Aboriginal people.

Given her background you could imagine the hurt she must have felt when people, seeing her blonde hair and blue eyes, asked "What are you? But you're not really Aboriginal...!".

With remarks people try to define Bindi's identity for her, but they are utterly racist. And the fact remains that these remarks are still 'rampant throughout Australian society' [6].

It should be emphasised that Aboriginal identity no longer has anything to do with the colour of the skin.

What is Aboriginal? According to most white experts and the media, it's a black person who lives in a remote community, has social issues and claims benefits that are way above what they deserve. So being Aboriginal but white, fairly socially adjusted and living in an urban area, where do I fit in?
—Bindi Cole, Aboriginal artist

Aboriginal people are not a skin colour, we are a community and people by history, spirituality, locations, country, thinking, politics, treatment, laws, cultures and most importantly, our stories.
—David Towney, readers letter, Koori Mail [18]

Mark's story

Mark McMillan belongs to the group of fair-skinned Aboriginal people. In this extract [17] he tells you his perspective on Indigenous identity.


Marc McMillan, from the Wiradjuri people from Trangie, central NSW.
"I was a 'white' black man."
"I am a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned Aboriginal Australian. Every time I look in the mirror, that's what I see... As a child, I grew up expecting everyone to be like me, to look like me - with the blonde hair and blue eyes.

Clearly, my naive ideas about how Aboriginal people were 'supposed' to look were wrong. But being Aboriginal and fair and blonde was normal to me and I grew up in a world where I was treated 'normally'. Along the way however, I noticed that not everyone was receiving the same brand of treatment and that made me angry. It has taken a while to let go of that anger...

It has taken me a long time to realise that I am Aboriginal because of my family, my community and who I am in general. I know now that no one has the power to take that from me...

In our household, Aboriginality was never discussed as being something special or anything less than ordinary. It was just who we were, both as individuals and as a family. I never looked at my family members and thought, 'Wow, you look really Aboriginal.' Or, 'Gee, you look really white!'...

Impeding my growth from that young person into the adult I wanted to become was the profound issue of identity. I was a 'white' black man...

I grew up in a place where everyone knew I was Aboriginal and part of an Aboriginal family, but the moment I moved outside that environment, I found I had to constantly explain away that aspect of my identity...

How do you begin to explain to someone that you have started to question everything you ever believed about yourself because you are required to defend it so often?...

Over the years education has continued to unlock me for me. I am Mark McMillan and I am a lot more than just a 'white', black man. Although being Indigenous - or more importantly, a proud Wiradjuri man - is fundamental to my own sense of humanity, I am much more than that dimension."
Aboriginal people of mixed descent feel the double sword with which Australian society judges them. When they blend in or are successful it is their 'white identity', but they are Aboriginal if they go to jail, die early or suffer from alcoholism.

Read more about Aboriginal stereotypes.

"It's hip to be black"
To add injury to insult, some non-Indigenous Australians suggest that people who identify as Aboriginal do so out of self-obsession and "driven more by politics than by any racial reality" [20].

Andrew Bolt, journalist and blogger for the Sun Herald, lists at length Aboriginal people of mixed descent who he claims have "a racial identity you could not guess from [their] features". When he proposes to "go beyond racial pride, beyond black and white" he implies that these people not claim they are Aboriginal. But he fails to suggest what they should do instead.

Bolt's article reflects an attitude felt by some Australians that mixed-descent Aboriginal people identify so to claim benefits they would otherwise not be entitled to, taking away jobs from other 'more black' or – worse – white people.

Australians like Bolt seem to forget that we have a choice. Who but prejudiced people can stop you from identifying with one part of your heritage stronger than with another? I'm sure there are people out there who have also Aboriginal blood in their veins but don't mention it with a word.

We should also not forget that the first mixed-descent Australians came into existence not by choice but through crimes by white people. Just ask any member of the Stolen Generations.

Once we we were too black and now we are too white. We reject that. Black or white, we are and always will be Aboriginal because of our unique cultural experience and identity.
—Abigail Burchill, President Tarwirri Indigenous Law Students and Lawyers Association of Victoria [21]

For people who still judge Aboriginality after skin colour Abigail has these words:

Aboriginality is not a question of skin colour—it is about our cultural connection to our communities and our history, a history that is alive and thriving.
—Abigail Burchill [21]

Myth: Aboriginal people live in remote communities

Prof. Larissa Behrendt thinks that Aboriginal communities in urban areas are invisible to non-Indigenous people.
Young urban Aboriginal people complain about being told they are not 'real Aborigines' because they don't live in a remote community [9].

And many urban non-Indigenous people have no idea how many Aboriginal people live in the big cities.

I am often asked, 'How often do you visit Aboriginal communities?' And I reply, 'Every day, when I go home'.
—Prof. Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal lawyer [11]

Only 25 per cent of Aboriginal people live in remote areas.

While the vibrant life of urban Aboriginal communities goes mostly unnoticed, the national eyes turn willingly to reports of violence, criminal activities or antisocial behaviour (such as drinking) which then shape the perception of urban Aboriginal identity.

Too many Australian government policies are about Aboriginal people who live in remote areas, almost as though if that's not where you live you can't be a real Aboriginal person.
—Nyoongar Prof Colleen Hayward, Edith Cowan University, Perth [19]

Myth: Aboriginal people are beautiful and healthy

A stereotypical image to promote Australian tourism. The Victorian Aboriginal Tourism brochure shows an image of a young Aboriginal boy painted with ochre. Hundreds of images like these are used to promote Australias's tourism industry.
You don't need to venture out far to find images of beautiful young Aboriginal children or adolescents promoting Australia, mainly for tourism.

But the stories behind these images can be surprisingly different. When Qantas published a similar picture of a young 18-year-old Aboriginal girl unter its 'The Spirit of Australia' slogan it forgot to mention that the girl acutally lived in a mission dormitory which she shared with more than a dozen in-laws, family and dogs. Her community suffered from diabetes, heart disease and obesity, and had poor access to essential services [11].

These beautiful and glamorous images about Indigenous Australia often belie the reality of these people.
—Linda Burney, chairwoman NSW State Reconciliation Committee [11]

Myth: You can pick Aboriginal people by their name
Many people try to tell if a person is of Aboriginal identity by reading their names. This technique can fail easily. Take the following test:

Which name belongs to an Aboriginal person?

David Wang
Sir Douglas Nicholls
Elsie Gertrude Hill
Emily Kngwarreye
Jimmy Pike
Peter Yu
Shannon McGuire
William Ferguson
Vernon Ah Kee
Sermsah Bin Saad
Tell me!

Solution:

People whose identity is Aboriginal are bold, non-Indigenous people are italicised.

David Wang (1920-78) was an Australian-Chinese businessman and community leader and the first Chinese-born Melbourne City councillor.
Sir Douglas Nicholls (1906-1988) was born in Cumeroogunga, near the Murray River in New South Wales, and was Australia's first Aboriginal state governor [15].
Elsie Gertrude Hill is the Kamilaroi mother of Aboriginal singer LJ Hill [12].
Emily Kngwarreye is a famous Aboriginal painter (1910 - 1996) from the Utopia community, near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Jimmy Pike (1940 - 2002) is a Walmajarri Aboriginal painter from the remote Great Sandy Desert area in north Western Australia.
Peter Yu is a Yawuru man from Broome who headed the review of the Howard government's controversial intervention into Northern Territory Indigenous communities. He's also chair of the Halls Creek Project Management Committee and a former director of the Kimberley Land Council [13].
Shannon McGuire is an Indigenous model and girlfriend of West Coast Eagles star David Wirrpanda [16]. Her picture is the second image in the test above.
William Ferguson (1882-1950) was a trade unionist and Aboriginal politician of the Australian Labor Party [14].
Vernon Ah Kee hails from Innisfail, Queensland and is an Aboriginal photographer.
Sermsah Bin Saad, a Nyoongar man from Western Australia, was awarded Dancer of the Year in 2008 for his performances on So You Think You Can Dance. "I'm black and I'm beautiful!" he says.
Myth: Aboriginal people cannot be successful
Another white misconception is about success of Aboriginal people. Malcolm Tulloch, former Holroyd City Council Mayor, says white people "see you as a 'blackfella' first, and whatever I have achieved, it is perceived that someone has given it to me because of my black background." [10] Hence he finds himself not making his Indigenous identity known as much as he might want to.

Challenge yourself: Do you know of someone who identifies as 'Australian' but actually has migrated to Australia? Like Melbourne's Lord Mayor John So who was born in Hong Kong. We have to be careful when we define identity because our first definition might be utterly wrong.

Apparently we're disadvantaged by being born Aboriginal. I don't accept that.
—Alison Page, Aboriginal designer and TV personality [22]

What does it mean to be 'Aboriginal'?

A friend of mine [3] put it this way:

"To be Aboriginal is many things and different to all. But at this moment, to me, it includes:

to follow a path to those who journeyed before you, similar but different,
to hear the secret and loving stories of the land with understanding,
to be independent,
to hear and see with feeling that which can not be seen with open eyes,
be part of a group,
be as natural as the land,
to be hospitable and enjoy hospitality."
To me, Aboriginality is about that shared experience, that shared culture and that shared pride.
—Amy McQuire, Aboriginal journalist, Koori Mail [6]

I tell my grandchildren you might not want to go to an Aboriginal dance and you might not want to talk our language, but the whitefella still calls you Aboriginal, I don't care how you act like the whitefella. You are still Aboriginal, you can't change that.
—Joyce Injie, Aboriginal woman, Yinhawangka tribe [23]

Being Aboriginal is about relationships
Being Aboriginal is a lot about relationships. Here's an extract from a Welcome to Country given by Rob Welsh, Chairman of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council in Sydney, which illustrates in a humorous way what this means in practice:

This is a bit of wisdom that comes from one of my elders in Redfern. I was walking along Redfern Street, and an elder came up to me. And he said to me: 'Rob, as a leader in this community, there's something you gotta know. And what I'm going to tell ya affects the Aboriginal people in Redfern and right around Australia. But it also affects the people from right around the world, every culture.' He looked at me and said: 'Rob, where there's a will, there's a relative!'
—Rob Welsh [5]

Peace and Aboriginality
Patrick Dodson, a respected Aboriginal elder and leader, received the 2008 Sydney Peace Prize. In his thank you speech he described what peace means to him, revealing his notion of Aboriginal identity at the same time, in an almost poetic manner [8]:

Peace from the drunks, the alcohol abuse, the violence, and the molestation that takes place...

Peace from the harassment from police, peace from discrimination and racism, that people experience when they try to get a flat or a house or seek to get a job.

Peace from the gazing eyes of the public as you enter a room because of the colour of your skin.

Peace because of the unsettled nature of our relationship with this country, which was once ours and has since been taken over...

And a peace that comes from knowing that you have to justify who you are every day of the week just because you are an Aboriginal person.

Sick of Aboriginal identity?
One would assume that Aboriginal people are always proud of their Aboriginal identity. Surprisingly some Indigenous women choose to marry outside their race as a way to escape their impoverished lifestyle [7]. Sick of their disadvantaged circumstances, which they assume would continue if they marry within their own race, they hope a white partner is the quickest way to owning a home outside the Aboriginal ghettos.

These women give up their Aboriginal identity and become white in their thinking and lifestyle. But some then face unexpected domestic violence from their white partner. Others have to deal with open or subtle racism from their partner's family even if their relationship is a loving one.

57%
Percentage of all couples involving an Indigenous person in 1991 where only one partner was Aboriginal [7].
64%
The same percentage in 1996.
55%
Percentage of mixed partnerships in 1996 where the woman was of Indigenous identity.
Resources


In Hey Mum What's a Half-Caste? Lorraine McGee-Sippel finds out that she is not of Afro-American descent but part-Indigenous. A search for identity follows.

ED's NOTE

For all the comments of " they cant be black, cause they're white.
Indigenous by heritage & culture, not by the colour of your skin