Loudmouth, people can call themselves what they want, at a social level.
They cannot assume a title they clearly are not.
I see where the govt. none-the-less has weighed in on this fiasco and because the govt is a 'YES' machine, it will cede to any minorities so as not to be seen as discriminatory.
And the fact they don't care, as it does not affect them, other than to garner more votes and followers, so yes, why would they not adopt a particular stance which can only help THEM in the long run.
The hypocrites pushing the abo agenda, refuse to see the truth and facts behind their misconception.
In the 'real' world they would probably be referred to as 'Anglo-aborigine'.
But no, that won't make them 'special'.
I have never denied someone the right to call themselves, say, Australian born Italian, because that is not only the truth, it is fact.
Totally discarding the govt's nonsensical acceptance of what being an abo or indigenous means, the truth or fact is that they are Australians, with absolutely no distinguishing factors.
They can relate to a tree stump or a river or a mountain or a million other locations on a map, I don't care, that has nothing to do with their country of birth in a legal format.
I will not cede to this air-headed view that because one of my ancestors, out of twenty, was an abo, I decide, by my choosing, not some genetic disposition, but MY choice, to 'relate' with some distant abo past.
Pathetic.
And as I have said before, disgraceful, because you chose ONE of your ancestors over the MANY who were all part of your physical being here today.
Those who have chosen that path should be ashamed of themselves and shunned in the strongest possible terms, and not seen as some kind of shining example of abo's today.
Quite the opposite.
What I write is based on logic and fact, what the abo's contend is based on fiction and is in fact, arguably one of the strongest examples of 'confirmation bias',ever.

Alt Rave,

The only relations - or overwhelmingly so - that you know: if they are, say, Patagonian, and all Patagonians think of you as Patagonian - AND all non-Patagonians think of you as Patagonian too - then you likely to very honestly think of yourself as Patagonian. Your brothers and sisters are Patagonian. Your mother is Patagonian, your uncles and aunts, and maybe a surviving grandparent. The people you hear about, yarns about your ancestors. Most of your life-long friends. Patagonians. Patagonian Australians.

And at the same time, although you may be aware that somewhere along the line, there were non-Patagonians involved in your creation, or your parent's creation, or a grand-parent's creation, before they buggered off, you've never known them, or even what they might have been like, or looked like. No idea. Only about your Patagonian relations.

Your ideas about the world are coloured by those Patagonian experiences and view-points. You hear or see other view-points being expressed on TV but that's a non-Patagonian medium. Not too many Patagonians on TV. You go to school and hardly ever come across a Patagonian teacher, although you've heard if them, of course, auntie so-and-so, for example. And cousin such-and-such graduated as a doctor and is working at a major hospital in Brisbane, good on him.

But your world is much more skewed to Patagonians and their view-points, every day. Of course, as an Australian, you take it for granted that you can be both Patagonian AND Australian - for you, that's precisely what 'Australian' means. In fact, non-Patagonians seem to be that much less Australian than you are.

I'm sure you can understand all that, Altrav ? Just substitute the ethnicity of your choice for 'Patagonian' and see how it works.

Joe

Dear Joe,

Beautifully reasoned.

Well said.

Dearest Foxy,

Your kind words make it all worth-while :)

Do you have positive feelings for Lithuanians or Russians, or both ? As well as other ancestries and ancestral homelands ? Im sure you do. My step-grandfather (my grandma ran off with him in 1932) helped to raise me for about a year when I was seven; he was Hungarian Jewish, Sephardi, not very observant, so I've felt affections for Hungarians and Jewish people for nearly seventy years now. And of course, they would be Australians as well. Hyphenated-Australians, like pretty much all of us.

I think my wife's father was Italian, although she never met him or knew what he looked like, so of course I feel some sympathy, admiration and affection for Italian-Australians too. It's not an either-or world :)

Love always,

Joe

//In the 'real' world they would probably be referred to as 'Anglo-aborigine'.//

This would be the 'real' world that only exists inside your head, I presume.

//What I write is based on logic and fact//

That's not how it works, ALTRAV. An argument is logical and factual if it's logical and factual, not because you declare it to be logical and factual.

You can't just type 2 + 2 = 5, followed by:

What I write is based on arithmetic.

Well, not without people giggling at your posts anyway.

Dear Joe,

I'm proud of my ancestry.
It, like I suspect many people's, is from
a rich and wide mix. Enriched even further
through our families marriages. However
it has never occurred to me to question my
identity. I was born in this country and
consider myself an Australian. My Russian/
Lithuanian ancestry is the icing on the cake