This TRULY Amazes me How things have changed over the last 30 years that I have been gone..... Instead of struggling to be accepted for who you were - regardless of being an aboriginal now we are struggling to be accepted as a member of the aboriginal race, ----- Original Message ----- From: Nicole & Neil To: AUS-KOORI-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 3:28 PM Subject: [AUS-Koori] "proof of Aboriginality" Hi all I've been foolowing this discussion for the last few days with much interest, and thought I'd through in my two bobs worth. For the most part I've never had my Aboriginality questioned. Although there have been some instances where I too have had to provide the obligatory "proof of identity" papers. Its just another one of those hoops we Kooris have to jump through. I've gotten used to that. I wanted to tell you though about my experience back in the Family Court in 1999. It was there that my Aboriginality was seriously questioned! I was in court at the time concerning my two eldest children and a serious part of our argument concerned the fact that the children are aboriginal (their mother is not). Basically I wanted them to grow up in a home where their aboriginality is not something shameful. Any way to cut a very long story short I provided some 300 or so pages of Affidavit material of which 30 pages directly concerned my Aboriginality. I gave evidence about my mother, grandparents and greatgrandparents, about our country, its boundaries, native title claims and land claims my family had initiated. The things I had learnt from my grandmother and her sisters. I also had affidavits from other family members (one a very well known Aboriginal Identity). I didn't dream for a minute that my Abriginality would be questioned. Yet all of the above (the 30 pages of my history - MY IDENTITY) was struck out as hearsay. They wanted irefutable documentary proof - documents confirming my aboriginality and the boundaries of my country. Aboriginal protection board files were not enough. Indeed it was never clear what kind of documentation would have been enough. The other thing worth mentioning is the language employed by the lawyers and magistrate in court. Terms such as full blood, half-caste, quarter-caste, white race, wholely European, mostly white and it goes on..... The whole thing was so offensive. At one point I thought they were going to want to do blood tests and measure my skull! I'm sure if there was a blood test they would have insisted on one. Any way, sorry that this is so long, but I thought it was relevant to the discussion. Regards Neil ==== AUS-KOORI Mailing List ==== Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, User Research Database and Aboriginal links at: http://www.stardate.bc.ca/ivan/sub_pages/aus-koori.htm