Tag Archives: The Aboriginals

The Great Aboriginal history con

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Timeless History Invented Yesterday

Robert Hill, Quadrant, May 18 2026

I have never read the “First Knowledges” box set and, after a decade spent immersed in this field, probably never will. That is not intellectual laziness. It is recognition of a relentless and deceitful genre. The first box set of six books was released in 2023 and in June this year we are told we will be privileged to have a box set of 10 books for $195.

This article is not a review of the 10 books but rather a consideration of a cultural moment: one in which Aboriginal Australia has been steadily transformed from a small-scale hunter-gatherer society into a profound ‘civilisation’ of extraordinary sophistication retrospectively credited with astronomy, engineering, politics, mathematics, economics, architecture, agriculture and environmental science in forms supposedly hidden from every serious observer until the present age.

The boxed set represents perhaps the most elaborate construction yet assembled within this broader movement of institutional mythmaking, one in which historical restraint has steadily collapsed and the ordinary boundaries between evidence, speculation, and fantasy have become increasingly blurred. Yet given the continuing incentives within universities, publishing, government institutions, and ARC-funded research to reward ever more expansive reinterpretation, it is entirely possible that further cards remain to be added to the structure.

Read the rest HERE . . .

Concocted history

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It’s in vogue for the woke class – appointing coal black actors to play characters from lily-white stories, sometimes centuries-old, and concocting history as a demonstration that objections are racially motivated. The American feminist program ‘The View’ is shamelessly guilty of this propaganda trick. Of course, in Australia we have battalions of government-funded academics busy spinning the most preposterous ‘histories’ of the Aboriginals.

The madness of Native Title. Where will it end? Multiple white Aboriginal millionaires is where

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Native title holders awarded more than $54m for economic, spiritual loss from NT’s McArthur River Mine

A serious-looking man in a hat an a red shirt looking to the side, with a river and bushland in the background.
Jack Green was among the claimants who took the NT government to court for compensation over operations at the McArthur River Mine site outside Borroloola. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)

In short:

The Federal Court has ordered the Northern Territory government to pay more than $54 million compensation to Gudanji, Yanyuwa and Yanyuwa-Marra traditional owners.

The compensation is for economic and spiritual losses associated with the establishment and expansion of the McArthur River Mine near Borroloola.

It marks only the second time a court has calculated compensation for native title losses, the first being the landmark Timber Creek case in 2019.

Native title holders for the land surrounding one of Australia’s largest mining operations have been awarded more than $54 million in compensation for “intergenerational and enduring” economic and spiritual loss.

The court ruling is only the second of its kind in Australia’s history and could have implications for native title groups, governments and private industry around the country

Read the rest HERE . . .

Who’s surprised?

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‘The Aboriginal Land Rights Act was a Whitlam-era ideological experiment premised on the fantasy that land transfer and autonomy would allow Aboriginal people to revert to a viable “traditional” existence inside a modern nation-state. Wadeye is the living wreckage of that idea.

‘Fifty years on, it has no real economy, no self-sufficiency, no civic order, and no credible path forward. Land has been handed over, and the result is not empowerment but stagnation, violence, and permanent dependency. Wadeye is not transitional. It is the end state of a policy that mistook symbolic restitution for governance. No government has been willing to confront or unwind the model, because any attempt at reform is immediately racialised and treated as illegitimate . . .

‘The Northern Land Council is not a marginal or impoverished body. It is one of the wealthiest statutory land councils in Australia, controlling vast territories, negotiating resource agreements worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and maintaining substantial financial reserves. It asserts authority over land use, access, and exclusion, yet disclaims any operational responsibility for safety, order, or civil peace on the land it controls.’

*****

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Who were the Aboriginals? An examination minus the concoctions

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Australia is one of the only places where humans maintained a hunter-gatherer lifestyle into the modern era. This makes it an invaluable window into humanity’s deep past—a window that is closing, writes Mungo Manic. This video explores the complexities surrounding the identity and history of Aboriginal Australians, particularly focusing on the distinction between contemporary Aboriginal Australians and the pre-colonial foragers. It delves into the impact of colonization on these communities, the ambiguity of Aboriginal identity, and the challenges faced in preserving the archaeological and cultural heritage of Australia’s forager past.

Written by Mungo Manic, read his piece here https://quillette.com/2025/01/25/the-…