Bruce Pascoe ‘finally confronted’ over ‘fake Aborigine’ claims

The 'Bolt Report' on Sky News. Andrew bolt questions the claim of Bruce Pascoe, author of 'Dark Emu' that he is of Aboriginal descent.

This is a transcript of a YouTube video.   Offline copy

0:00
Bolt: It’s finally happened Bruce Pascoe has been confronted on television about claims, by me for one, that he is a fake.

The first time I can recall this happening it was on SBS last week, which Professor probably thought was safe territory, has refused to be interviewed by me. Now the most amazing thing about this Pasco hoax is not just that the evidence suggests there's indeed a white man pretend to be Aboriginal. Selling hundreds of thousands of copies of his fake Aboriginal history, ‘Dark Emu’ — even to schools. The most amazing thing is how desperately even intelligent people want to believe him. Even when two Aboriginal groups have really called them a fraud … and even when I've presented Pasco's changing stories and also genealogical evidence from the 'Dark Emu Exposed' .org website showing that every one of Pasco's ancestors are actually listed as of English descent.[Quadrant articles debuking 'Dark EMu' (link).]

Now Melbourne University has struggled. They’ve even made him a professor. The ABC's promoted Pasco for years, specially to schools, and hardly one journalist has called him out.

But that did change last week when SBS filmed a program on fake Aborigines and somehow got Pasco to come!

1:07
Now, many Aborigines in its audience said well … big problem, fake Aborigines are even taking powerful jobs in land councils and other Aboriginal organizations:

Male audience member: “A financial gain. I mean people are growing rich on our misery.”

Bolt: In fact the problem is so big that labor has got to sort it out before creating its Aboriginal only Parliament, because census figures suggest anything up to one third of people claiming to be Aboriginal may not be, as one of the SBS guests at least pointed out.

1:40
Female audience member: “If we were to look at the … um … the census numbers, it's now projecting past 800,000. If there was to be an actual review on that and an audit on that, I would suggest … and there has been some data to suggest that it's actually probably about 300 000 less. So we've got 300 000 people here who are counting themselves amongst us.”

“I think this is something that Australians really do need to start asking ourselves … um … really start looking, and am I qualified to be able, otherwise it's just going to erase Aboriginal persons.”

2:15
Bolt: It really is staggering but you know my troubles when I first started pointing that out … but there was Bruce Pasco listening to all this and still claiming he was a member of no fewer than three Aboriginal tribes and then came the questions.

Look they were too gentle for me. Pasco should have been confronted with the evidence showing he was a fake, and asked to name his ancestor but … his answers are still Illuminating.

2:38
Pascoe: I identify as Ewan and bonnarong and Tasmanian because we can trace family back to those regions.

SBS Interviewer: Now Bruce, some Aboriginal people have rejected your claim to be indigenous. What do you make of that?

Pascoe: Thing those people have in common is they've never talked to me about it.

SBS Interviewer: Do other members of your family agree you all have Aboriginal heritage?

Pascoe: Some do many don't.

3:08
Bolt: Even some of his own families don't go with the story. Well. Well. What I found interesting is the evidence, very weak, that Pasco now gives, claiming he really still is now Aboriginal. It was through his father's Tasmanian side of the family he said. And his late father had left mysterious clues on the back of some photographs. Clues the Pasco didn't actually explain.

3:30
Pascoe: I thought, geez, I'd better go and have a look at those photos again. And I realized I could pull them out, and on the back, my father had written their names.

3:42
Bolt: That's actually a big change in his story because, let me explain. When Pasco wrote his first novel called ‘Fox’ in the 1980s, a reviewer in the Canberra times marked him down for not being Aboriginal — at least at that time. The reviewer said Pasco was imagining the psyche of an Aboriginal person in this book — his main character— but was writing as a white man. And Pasco later said well it was from somewhere around then, when he was about 40, that he did then start to identify as Aboriginal. And a few years later he placed an ad asking for help to actually prove it, because he had no proof. He wrote: ‘I've been looking for my Koori family for a number of years without much success. My great-grandmother, Sarah Matthews, was born at Dudley South Gippsland Victoria. If anyone has any knowledge of this family I would be very grateful.’

4:32
Well that Sarah Dudley turned out to, actually, well she's actually his mother's grandmother, not on his father's side at all. But birth records show she'd actually been born in Dudley England, not Dudley Victoria and she was English not Aboriginal. And Pasco finally did admit, a couple of decades after going around saying he was Aboriginal, that the woman he thought was his Aboriginal ancestor was in fact English.

5:01
You'd think that would stop him, but it didn't. He now claims to be of three Aboriginal tribes. So this time through his fathers side. What a coincidence!

Now who this mystery Aboriginal ancestor is, he's never publicly said. Records show again, all his ancestors of English descent. There may be a mistake. Pasco refuses to tell tell me what it is, or to name who the Aboriginal ancestor is.

5:23
How is it then that Pasco can sit there in that studio, with a straight face: 'I'm Aboriginal.'

How can it be the ABC still promotes him, Melbourne University still pays him. And you have to ask, if even Bruce Pascoe can get away with all this, how many tens and tens of thousands of other white Australians are doing the same.

SOME COMMENTS LEFT ON YOUTUBE 10TH NOVEMBER 2022

Nothing like ticking the box and not being able to be questioned about it.

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Last year at work we had to watch some compulsory training videos, including one on Cultural Awareness. It told us to NEVER EVER question anyones claim of Aboriginal heritage as it’s the most insulting thing you can possibly do. My suspicions were immediately raised.

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A DNA test would sort this shit out.

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The silence of the ABC is deafening

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My great grandmother was a full aboriginal. That makes me just as much an aboriginal as most of these activists claiming aboriginal heritage. I also have Scottish and English heritage. I prefer to call myself an Australian.

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I was applying for Austudy in the 90's (on hold for well over an hour) when a lady who usually works in ABstudy answered. She was lovely and advised me to apply for ABstudy instead. She said it was 4 times the rate of Austudy. I thanked her and told her I wasn't aboriginal. She said it didn't matter, I only had to get a recognized elder to vouch for me. She also said they did it all the time.

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Bruce Pascoe is about as Aboriginal as I am a Vulcan.

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I needed an MRI scan done on my knee 12 months ago, but because I’m over 50 and white it was going to cost me over $500. No way I can afford that on a carers pension. If I had have just ticked the box claiming to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander it would have been free. No such luck, still limping

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People can identify as anything they want now, why is “aboriginality” off limits?? I was born in Australia so I am aboriginal of this country like millions of others, though claiming to be one is not something I aspire to…

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Follow the money and NEVER question a VICTIM Hahahahahaha

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I think that people are almost fearful of calling out the impostors for who they really are because they are scared of being persecuted as a racist. They would rather let things go unnoticed or unpunished just to keep the peace. The government is definitely like this as well, we are ruled by a hopeless system that is getting worse every year.

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Just an idea.. but why don’t ALL of us aussies , tick the box , next census and really test this theory out

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I know 2 people falsely claiming indigenous heritage. They told me it was for the benefits, they even suggested I do the same. When I pointed out the ethical concerns with such actions, they simply shrugged and said "it's free money".

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The sooner we recognise existing law in this country that we are all equal, period, no favours or hand outs unles by genuine need and not by race the better.

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