Dear Andrew,
In the ABC TV show featuring yourself and Linda Burney, you
claimed to be an indigenous Australian by virtue of your having been born in
Australia.
Like you, I am a white Australian born here, as were my
ancestors on both the matrilineal and patrilineal sides of my family. My
great-great grandfather arrived in South Australia in 1839, three years after
the founding of the colony. He was a
direct participant in the unsettlement of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide
Plains and Fleurieu Peninsula.
However, I can see no justification for calling myself
indigenous to Australia.
Most dictionary definitions of “indigenous” agree on two
things: firstly, that indigenous means to have originated in a particular place;
secondly, that indigenous means to have certain characteristics that have
developed over time in that place.
My language and its associated cultural reference points are
largely English in origin. I can certainly slip some Australian slang or
neologisms into my English, but its cultural origins are in England. I love my
country’s landscape, its diverse flora and fauna, but that simply means I am a
proud citizen of Australia, not an Indigenous Australian.
Can you please do something for me? Find a warehouse wall or any type of building
with a long brick wall. Find a suitable
starting point and count out at least 40 and probably 60 bricks in a straight
line. Each brick represents a thousand
years. Now divide the last brick into ten equal portions. If you mark somewhat less than the final two
tenths of that brick, you will have approximately the length of time that my
direct ancestors have been in Australia.
My grandchildren might eventually push that timeline into the last three
tenths of that brick, but surely any reasonable person will deduce that any
claim I might make to have developed a language, culture and economy
originating in Australia in the short space of time that my family has been
here is simply fallacious.
For your part, having been born here, you will need to mark
out somewhat less than the final tenth of that final brick to represent the
time you have been here. Now look from
that final tenth of the final brick back over that line of 40-60 bricks. They represent the time that Aboriginal
occupation of Australia has occurred.
They represent the time in which the skyscapes, landscapes, languages,
laws and cultures characteristic of Australian First Nations people have
developed.
The entire continent of Australia, together with Tasmania
and the Torres Strait islands, had Indigenous people here prior to European
unsettlement. You cannot look at that line of 40-60 bricks and say to an
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, with smug equanimity, that your position
at the end of the last brick in the line entitles you to call yourself an Indigenous
Australian.
There are of course some qualifications that need to be
made, An Anangu from the Pitjantjatjara
and Yankunytjatjara language groups in Central Australia is certainly an
Indigenous Australian, but he or she is not indigenous to the Yorke Peninsula of
South Australia any more than a Narungga person from that region is indigenous
to the APY Lands. Both groups are Indigenous to our continent, and on an equal
footing as Indigenous Australians, but their languages, cultures and economies
are characteristic of different parts of the continent.
Another example: there is a hardy little daisy that comes to
life every now and then after soaking rains near Oodnadatta. It is called Senecio gypsicola, and as its name suggests, has developed its
defining characteristics at its place of origin, the gypseous plains around the
Painted Desert. It is an Australian
indigenous plant, but it is not indigenous to the Adelaide Hills or Cape York
Peninsula.
Neither you nor I have developed our defining
characteristics with Australia as their place of origin. We are Aussies, but we are not
Indigenous. It is sheer sophistry to
argue that having been born in one place negates the historical roots of our
languages, economies and cultures in another and entitles us to equal footing
with Indigenous Australians in terms of a supposed indigeneity.
