NAIDOC Week: Honouring Our Grandmother Tree

The Australian Museum in Sydney is hosting a free program during NAIDOC 2024, titled Honouring Our Grandmother Tree, and featuring a selection of people claiming to belong to the Guringai group, yet also claiming to be Aboriginal, and holders of Aboriginal Culture and Knowledge.

The GuriNgai group’s claims have been conclusively debunked for some time. What Aboriginal People have always known, is increasingly supported by evidence of a scientific and judicial standard, and the truth of the GuriNgai is no exception.

Yet the Australian Museum would have us believe they were not already aware of the established, evidence based and Culturally authentic historical record, and so accepted the prima facie absurdity of the GuriNgai as somehow factual?

The Kariong ‘Grandmother tree’ fiction of Beve Spiers is now being represented by the Australian Museum as Culturally relevant to Aboriginal People, in what is advertised as a ‘family friendly’ NAIDOC program.

Ancient Racist Theory- taking ‘go back where you came from’ to ridiculous extremes in a Kariong Cult within a Cult

This Grandmother Tree:

Then Rebecca Hird Fletcher appears, having the claims she know full well are false published and amplified by the Australian Museum, for NAIDOC week.

Rebecca Hird Fletcher, mother of musical act Charlie Needs Braces/Charlie Woods, once again falsly claiming connection to Bungaree and Matora, and once again falsly claiming connection to the Awabakal – connection the Awabakal emphatically reject, having taken measures to ensure false claims of connection are never to be accepted on Awaba Country.

This Culturally, spiritually harmful event, despite being funded by the taxpayer, and has as little to do with history as it does Aboriginal Culture, NAIDOC, or basic standards of appropriateness.

I’d heard through community heaps of mob were attempting to raise the issue directly with the Australian Museum before I had a chance to email them. By the time I managed to speak to anyone there connected to the NAIDOC program, I felt like I’d been through an obstacle course.

Eventually I was directed to Claire Vince, Media advisor for the Australian Museum, so emailed Ms Vince my concerns and had more than one phone conversation.

Dear Claire Vince,

My name is Jayson (JD) Cooke, proud Marramarra man of the people today referred to as Dharug. I am writing to you out of concern for a proposed NAIDOC week program being held at your museum. As you are fully aware, Aboriginal People, community and organisations do not recognise the people from the Northern Beaches of Sydney and Central Coast of NSW, claiming to be Guringai or GuriNgai, or any of a multitude of variants on this theme, as being Aboriginal People, due to their not being Aboriginal People.

This was common knowledge in our communities for decades, but is now also widely understood by the general public, and has been covered widely in a range of media for close to a decade. My own work involved the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai People who falsely claim to be Aboriginal, and falsely claim descent from my Ancestors, Bungaree and Matora.

My family are not, and never have been known as GuriNgai, as the GuriNgai are a very recent invention of a single non-Aboriginal man named Warren Whitfield, in 2001.

The ‘grandmother tree’ is not a magical or Culturally significant tree – the fables and stories around it can be sourced to one Beverly Spiers, a non-Aboriginal flim-flam artist of the Central Coast.

Neither the GuriNgai you are proposing to present, nor the tree, nor the ‘lore’ are in anyway authentic to genuine Aboriginal People, Culture or Customs in the Sydney area, or anywhere else in Australia – personally I would hold severe reservations should any ‘expert’ claim otherwise, and can all but guarantee you will find a pre-existing personal relationship behind any and all ‘support’ for those people. I have tried to speak to someone from your institution but have become frustrated that not one person I have spoken to has been remotely helpful, kind, or empathetic in the slightest, and clearly this is an issue that is causing considerable trauma and harm, Cultural and otherwise.

I am imploring you to please run an accurate, Culturally safe NAIDOC Week program, and please do the work to find out how the proposed NAIDOC Week: Honouring Our Grandmother Tree was ever an option under consideration.

We should not be in a position of educating your museum, but you are putting us and our children in danger, and calling it a ‘family-friendly’ activity, so something is seriously amiss within your organisation and I am hoping you rectify this, again.

Causing so much pain through the arrogant dismissal of actual Aboriginal People in favour of new-age pseudo historical ignorance shouldn’t be what our first museum does in 2024. I’m not alone in thinking that.

JD Cooke

guriNgai.org

While on the one hand I was told by Ms Vince that my concerns were certainly being taken seriously and were being considered by the ‘people in charge’ of the Australian Museum, I received the following response from Ms Laura McBride, Director – First Nations.

Yaama Jayson,

Your email was sent through to my office. I have responded to Nathan Moran on the matter and have attached the response to this email for your information.

Thank you, yaluu,

Laura McBride

Director | First Nations

Australian Museum 1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia

With the following attached:

Yaama Nathan,

Thank you for your email (attached). The Australian Museum have noted your advice, and we wish to assure you that we value the relationship the Australian Museum has with Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC) and the role that land councils represent in our communities.

The Australian Museum is not in any way the arbiter of Aboriginal identity, since this needs to remain the business of Aboriginal communities. Can I suggest you email your comments and concerns to Amanda Reynolds directly?

We do however vet cultural programming to ensure its cultural validity, and as you know, the Sydney Red Gum is an important women’s tree across Sydney but also down into areas of the South Coast. It is referred to by many Aboriginal women in these regions as the Grandmother tree and that it holds lore, as do all species. Our program is a craft activity looking at the importance of Red Gums and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos as important species in Sydney. We will be utilising natural materials for some of the program and educating audiences about these materials as we do in our education programs. These materials are shared by many different Nations or language groups. The aim of this program is to engage kids with these two species and get them to also advocate for them. This is not culturally incorrect, regardless of whether individuals or organisations may oppose the identity of the person leading the program.

I would like to note that this program does not speak to North Sydney or the debates around Guringai people. Nor does it include Me-Mel. In respect for your organisation, I will speak to Amanda Reynolds and ensure that information specific to Me-Mel is not included in the program.

Your information about the process for exploring “registered Aboriginal Owners” for Me-Mel project is noted, and we are aware that Amanda Reynolds and several members of MLALC are on the committee for that project.

Thank you, yaluu,

Laura McBride

Director | First Nations

Australian Museum 1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010 Australia

–

This response from Laura McBride fell short of what I expected from an organisation taking this matter seriously, as well as baffling me as it was a response to another party, regarding another complaint that was not my own.
I responded:

Yamma Laura,

If you could show me the courtesy of reading, considering, and addressing my clearly stated concerns, I personally would consider such a response more appropriate than forwarding on correspondence from an organisation I am not a member or representative of.

Personally and professionally I consider respectful communication, Culturally, ethically and legally to be a bare minimum expectation rather than something to aspire towards.

Now the confidentiality has been broken whoever, may I draw you attention to the following paragraph:

–The Australian Museum is not in any way the arbiter of Aboriginal identity, since this needs to remain the business of Aboriginal communities. Can I suggest you email your comments and concerns to Amanda Reynolds directly? –

What jumps out to me is the first sentence is immediately contradicted by the second sentence.

Putting aside that as the organisation you represent “is not in any way the arbiter of Aboriginal identity, since this needs to remain the business of Aboriginal communities” it is not your role/place/function/right/responsibility to make the absurd suggestion you make here.

You, and your organisation are being told directly, by actual representatives of the actual community, that your choices and actions are harming our communities, and you take it upon yourself to suggest we contact one of the very people fraudulently claiming our Ancestors, Country, Culture as their own?

This is and will remain the business of Aboriginal communities, and we are telling you what you are doing is wrong, offensive, and Culturally and spiritually harmful to all involved, regardless of the level of preexisting ignorance.

The GuriNgai are a fiction, their history has been traced back to 2001, and this is a matter of common knowledge, on the public record, for over a year. Some people commercially invested in maintaining that fiction are doing so, in spite of the known and demonstrated factual record.

Placing the burden back onto the community to sort this out is grossly unfair and unjust. We have sorted this out, we have made all the evidence available for those that can’t actually recognise transparent Aboriginal Identity Fraud when they see it.

guriNgai.org

If someone claims to belong to a mob that is literally a fiction concocted by a non-Aboriginal man in 2001, they are either misinformed and acting out of ignorance, or aware of the fraud and carrying it out through malice.

Rebecca Hird Fletcher is completely aware the GuriNgai are the invention of two cousins of hers; Warren Whitfield and Tracey Howie. Ms Hird Fletcher is also aware that non-Aboriginal woman Beve Spiers invented the fable of the tree referenced exclusively by the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai group.

All of this is documented within guriNgai.org, and elsewhere, and none of this is ‘news’. This was the work of the community you suggest this is the business of.

I am appalled to be experiencing this degree of disrespect when I am going out of my way to prevent your organisation making an absurd error of judgement that harms mob first and foremost, while encouraging Cultural erasure and calling it a ‘family friendly’ NAIDOC event.

I honestly expected better, and held your organisation in regard.

Thank you for educating me that I was very far off the mark.

JD Cooke

guriNgai.org

–

Followed by:

Hi Laura,

Despite having not seen the complaint your response to Nathan Moran was addressing, it is clear from context that MLALC and I have not raised the same issues.

This is unsurprising as I am not related to, a representative of, or even a member of MTALC, and did not in any way give a contrary impression.

My issue, which is not something I appreciate having to repeat ad nauseum to your museum, is as follows:

As you are fully aware, Aboriginal People, community and organisations do not recognise the people from the Northern Beaches of Sydney and Central Coast of NSW, claiming to be Guringai or GuriNgai, or any of a multitude of variants on this theme, as being Aboriginal People, due to their not being Aboriginal People.

This was common knowledge in our communities for decades, but is now also widely understood by the general public, and has been covered widely in a range of media for close to a decade. My own work involved the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai People who falsely claim to be Aboriginal, and falsely claim descent from my Ancestors, Bungaree and Matora.

My family are not, and never have been known as GuriNgai, as the GuriNgai are a very recent invention of a single non-Aboriginal man named Warren Whitfield, in 2001 on the Central Coast of NSW.

The ‘grandmother tree’ is not a magical or Culturally significant tree – the fables and stories around it can be sourced to one Beverly Spiers, a non-Aboriginal flim-flam artist, also of the Central Coast of NSW.

Neither the GuriNgai you are proposing to present, nor the tree, nor the ‘lore’ are in anyway authentic to genuine Aboriginal People, Culture or Customs in the Sydney area, or anywhere else in Australia – personally I would hold severe reservations should any ‘expert’ claim otherwise, and can all but guarantee you will find a pre-existing commercial relationship behind any and all ‘support’ for those people. I have tried to speak to someone from your institution but have become frustrated that not one person I have spoken to has been remotely helpful, kind, or empathetic in the slightest, and clearly this is an issue that is causing considerable trauma and harm, Cultural and otherwise.

Community is not failing to address this issue, you are now completely disrespecting the community you are harming.

JD Cooke

guriNgai.org

–

Finally, giving the last benefit of the doubt that possibly Laure Mcbride was unaware of the actual ‘history’ of the so-called Grandmother Tree, I sent the following:

Hi Laura,

This is Beverly Spiers, the non-Aboriginal source of the fable of the Grandmother tree the GuriNgai refer to:

Goolabeen – Saving Kariong ‘Sacred Lands’

This is Rebecca Hird Fetcher, cousin of GuriNgai founder Warren Whitfield:

Rebecca Hird Fletcher: Advocate for GuriNgai in all the Wrong Places

The timeline and entire history of the GuriNgai group is found here: guriNgai.org

While I compiled all the information and put it in chronological order, the information was already publicly available, and old news in Aboriginal Communities around the Country.

The non-Aboriginal Community were made aware however through the many newspaper articles and media found within guriNgai.org

To pass the buck back onto the very community that has already been ignored for 21 years, even after going to the efforts we have to have this issue addressed is nothing short of shameful behaviour.

All we want is to be safe, to have our history recognised, and to not be replaced by offensive knock-offs.

We just want the same standard of evidence applied across the museum – not ahistorical pseudo history from a group that fits the criteria to be classed as a Cult, not an Aboriginal People.

We just want the same standard applied – there is no evidence base for the GuriNgai, therefore you are promoting an ahistorical group, simple.

Were the museum hosting a minstrel show for NAIDOC 2024, the effect on Aboriginal People would be the same.

From our perspective you may as well be promoting ‘Con the fruiterer’ as an authentic representation of Greek Culture, and then asking why this is a problem.

It is offensive when treated this way for taking the time of asking your institution to actually listen to the community as opposed to the transparently self interested appointees within the very place fermenting this nonsense.

Our community has done the very work you allude to, and your ignorance of that reality also, has only caused more harm.

Please do better, we deserve it.

JD Cooke

–

Despite this bizarre and incredibly disrespectful response from Laura McBride I am being told that many people are also letting the Australian Museum know what their NAIDOC program really is, and the demonstrated harms it will cause. Yet I was told by one representative of the Australian Museum that I ‘am only one person’ as if one person with evidence means little compared to lots without.

The following people at the Australian Museum may need reminding I’m not the only person impacted by their poor judgment, and our kids and community deserve better.

lucy.rayner@australian.museum

Laura.McBride@australian.museum

narelle.lewis@australian.museum

mariko.smith@australian.museum

https://www.facebook.com/australianmuseum

https://youtu.be/FMUEcxvDVLc?si=yqCL09qi87lrZNm3