The GuriNgai return to their true homelands – the United Kingdom

The GuriNgai return to their true homelands – the United Kingdom

On July 12, 2024 Captain Matthew Flinders, was re-interred in his birthplace of Donington, Lincolnshire, UK.

The event was the result of years of planning and hard work by the small team behind the Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home Project.

As Matthew Flinders was a one time companion of Bungaree, and as there would be a chance for exposure to a wider (non-Aboriginal) audience, the GuriNgai made it a priority to attend, in their own fashion.

In the months leading up to the event, Laurie Bimson was seeking funds from a shrinking pool of uninformed Australians.

Including apparently David Abrahams of Coast Community News, Central Coast:

Coast Community News paid for these people to misrepresent themselves on the world stage – despite being fully aware of who they really are.

Despite spending thousands of dollars in this failed attempt to be viewed as ‘important’ all that was achieved was the informing of the Donington Community of the ongoing issue of Aboriginal Identity Fraud and the GuriNgai’s place within.



The world’s media were present, yet only a handful of Australian Journalists proved susceptible to the absurd claims of the non-Aboriginal GuriNgai group.

These include Tory Shepherd of The Guardian who added this to her coverage of the event:

The Guardian have been advised, and provided evidence that Tracey Howie is not a descendant of Bungaree, not a Garigal Woman, and not even from the Central Coast.

Peter FitzSimons wrote the following for the Sydney Morning Herald, which is at least behind a paywall.

Both these slip ups are embarrassing sure, but remember – the GuriNgai have been at this for 21 years, and they have fooled more than a few non-Aboriginal People in that time to get where they are.

David Abrahams of Coast Community News, is another matter entirely.

Coast Community News have been accused many times in the past of being uncritically accepting, and publishing as factual, the opinions and prejudices of a very small group of Central Coast Locals, with a hyper-fixation of the area of Kariong, the debunked Gosford Glyphs, and the Grandmother Tree fable created by Beve Spiers in the early 2000s.

Coast Community News have seen first hand the harms these individuals have contributed to the local community – they were right there alongside their comrades.

For this bizarre situation to have now been brought to the world’s attention is…

AMAZING!

The rest of the world is a lot further along than Australia at recognising, monitoring, and dealing with Indigenous Identity Fraud.

Our international audience is only a small percentage of our overall audience – and it’s still staggering. The International Media and Community recognised the GuriNgai on sight, and the good people of Donington were advised well in advance of their arrival what to expect, and safety planning was a priority as always.

That the GuriNgai wasted so much time, effort, and funds to try, and fail to impress – chefs kiss!

That their impact on the weekend was able to be successfully mitigated is a testament to the professionalism and hard work of the good people of Donington, UK.

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