Just because I happen to have light-coloured skin, doesn’t make me less Aboriginal

By A. Luxembourg

There are a few things I am proud of – one of those is my peoples continued survival and fight against genocide that has been continually, since the invasion of 1788, perpetrated against Indigenous Australians.

However, many people fail to recognise my aboriginality, based simply on the fact that my skin is, well, light skinned.

In doing this, or outright denying it, it is perpetuating the genocide – the cultural destruction – and attempting to whiteify Aboriginal people.

That, of course, is the real crux of the issue. The policies, the culture of assimilation, and “breeding it out” are so entrenched in Australian culture, that if you have light skin, your own heritage is often denied to you by others – thus continuing the path of genocide and cultural destruction that was set up by the thieving colonialist bastards.

I am a proud Guringai and Wemba Wemba woman. I refuse to be told that I am not Aboriginal enough based on my light skin. And I most certainly refuse to allow myself to be torn from my culture by the thieving colonialist bastards.


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