SR, I just want to bring to your attention that if all this guy says is true then all these people and entities that are openly bagging, criticising him, would have been issued with a writ by now.
How is it that this has not happened?
Is it possibly because he has something to hide and therefore does not want it and he exposed.
You know what the media are like, they love to "get their man", and they have this uncanny ability to find out things that would otherwise be impossible to find.
Just a thought.

Hi Joe,

You asked about Maori genealogy or whakapapa. Ones whakapapa is the important element that links a person to their hapu (tribe). The wife is very familiar with her whakapapa, as are many of her relatives. Family names along with their ancestral location form an important part of that whakapapa. The European concept of kin is different to that of Maori, their's is far more extensive. The wife being a member of a very large hapu, I think its about 35,000 in a Iwi of over 100,000 means she has many many relatives, of course she doesn't know all of them, but certainly known many and how they fit into the whakapapa, who's related to who, and how they relate to her, that sort of thing.

Before speaking at the marae, it is an important protocol that you give a brief description of your whakapapa to the gathering, grandparents, parents and you, and where you and them originate from, and any marital relationship, so that those listing know who is speaking. Its considered bad form not to do so. When meeting people you are not familiar with you ask names and places that they are associated with, in that way a family relationship is established. Maori seem to be rather interested in who you are, I suspect a hangover from the days when it was important to know if you were dealing with a possible friend, or the opposite.

Back in the day many Europeans disregard custom and protocol at their peril. One story is of a French ship in the Bay of Islands. Having established good relations with the locals, but the French were warned not to fish in a certain cove, where a boy had drowned recently. The French took it upon themselves to disregard the tapu, and fished there. The Maori got upset and killed a couple of Frenchmen. The French retaliated and killed several Maori villages, men, women and children.

Steele,

The author is "Jan Holland and the research team" and is probably verifiable but there are many Jan Hollands on the net.

However, their offering is comprehensive and verifiable regarding Pascoe's ancestry and they can't find one Aboriginal.
Perhaps they didn't really try or perhaps Pascoe is lying.

They give references to all of their quotes so their claims are there to be tested.

Anyway, have a read and tell us if/where they are wrong.

Funny that Pascoe keeps contradicting himself on the subject.

Hi Paul,

Similar here. I bumped into an Aboriginal bloke who I thought I'd never met before, and after a while, both of us sort of guarded, he told me his first name, a fairly distinctive name, so I asked if he was from a major family at a particular community. Yep, his mother was so-and-so etc. (So it seemed that I used to drink with her and his late uncle back in the day, before my new friend was born). I suggested that she was related to my wife through a gr-grandfather's sister, etc., and we were away. All up, less than five minutes of cautious toing and froing.

So why can't Pascoe do that ? You can't just say 'Oh, I'm related to the [Group 1] or [Group 2] unless you specify how and who you're related to. If he ever spoke to a person from a group that he claims to be related to, they could very quickly establish if he's genuine or a liar. I wonder if he's ever tried that.

Nah.

So who is fooling who ? The Left is pushing a certain agenda on some pretty wild assumptions - are they manipulating Pascoe or he manipulating them ? You can fool all of the people some of the time .... well, if you get onto the right schtick, like this one about farming (and not 'mere' hunting and gathering) you can fool the Left all of the time, it seems.

After all, ideology beats evidence.

Joe

Paul, LM, IM,

The basis by which one identifies as aboriginal is similar to the way one identifies one's gender in that asking for proof is racist, transphobic etc.

That Pascoe is considered an aboriginal elder in spite of not identifying as one until adulthood is mainly due to the work of fiction that he produced that embroiders aboriginal history beyond belief so much so that I am surprised that Pascoe didn't mention a aboriginal space program before the horrible colonists destroyed it.

That the Dank Emu is being taught at schools is a complete sham.

Hi SM,

I'm puzzled why Pascoe relies on 'modified' [i.e. fabricated] versions of what some early colonists wrote (none of them ever mentioning the cultivation of the soil, i.e. farming) and then implies that all whites were in on an unspoken agreement to destroy any trace of farming, towns, storage, fencing, etc. that they ever came across. After all, even his 'modified' informants, many of whom were military officers, one would think, would have been at the forefront of such a conspiracy. Sturt went on to be the SA colony's Chief Secretary, i.e. head local.

Not only that but - given that the destruction of all traces of farming didn't occur in much small New Zealand - why just Australia ? And wouldn't the conspiracy have required the connivance of the colonial government back in London ?

And then the wholehearted cooperation of colonists, missionaries (not that likely already), government officials, Protectors, etc., etc., to explicitly write about hunters and gatherers - not to mention the hordes of government staff who would have been involved in forcing people to learn hunting and gathering and to stop speaking their farming languages and to adopt hunting-and-gathering languages.

Anybody who knows anything much about traditional Aboriginal culture and languages would be aware of words for spears, shields, clubs, gathering dishes of coolamons or yandies, wiltjas and yuus and pulgis, Dreaming tracks and song-lines, but surprise ! - may not have come across any words which related to farming or herding animals.

And I look forward to the day when, eventually, anthropologists, who may have spent decades with one or two groups, studying them up, down and sideways, open their mouths (perhaps once they have retired) and inform us, one way or the other whether or not they have ever observed any traces, in dance, ritual, song, etc., of farming. They may have to leave the country to do so safely.

Cheers,

Joe