Indigenous Identity Fraud is officially mainstream news in Australia.

In the last week we have seen reporting in newspapers across the country, and national television coverage on the 9 Network’s A Current Affair, and the 7 Network’s Nightly News in addition to non-commercial networks and radio.

For decades this issue has negatively affected Australia’s Indigenous population. On discovering the existence of this issue for what appears to have been the first time, many non-Indigenous Australians were carrying unhelpful assumptions and advice.

The following is an attempt to respond to some misconceptions appearing in this comments sections of some of the recent media regarding non-Aboriginal man Neil Evers, and the non-Aboriginal ‘GuriNgai’ group he is a member of::

1. There are existing Cultural and Legal processes in Australia to ensure non-Aboriginal People do not, by accident or maliciously, falsely pass themselves off as Aboriginal – Neil Evers and the GuriNgai group have not followed these processes, as detailed at guriNgai.org

2. Integral to both the Cultural and Legal requirements, is acceptance by the Aboriginal Community – this crucial requirement is not met by Neil Evers, or his GuriNgai group.

3. Representatives of the Aboriginal Community have been raising this issue in particular for many years now, as a simple Google search will show.

4. The group Neil Evers is a member of, the GuriNgai, claimed without permission or evidence, the name of a genuine Aboriginal group, the Ancestors and stories of another, and the Country of over half a dozen different groups.

5. Neil Evers has been aware that his various claims are false, and that they are directly and indirectly harmful to all Aboriginal People – he chooses to continue falsely representing himself as Aboriginal, an Elder, and a representative of genuine Aboriginal People and Culture.

6. When non-Aboriginal people experience strangers falsely representing themselves as members of their families and/or organisations, such misrepresentations are correctly viewed as fraud, and investigated by the appropriate authorities.

7. The following authorities have been notified of the actions of the GuriNgai, and provided with substantial evidence with which to start formal investigations:

• Local and State Police
• The Australian Federal Police
• ASIC
• ATO
• ORIC
• Heritage NSW
• Hornsby Shire Council
• NSW ICAC
• The NSW Attorney General
• The NSW  Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty, David Harris MP.
• The Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs
• And many more…

8. During NAIDOC Week of 2023 (07/07/2023) I made available a compilation of the publicly available evidence that the GuriNgai are definitely not who and what they claim.

9. The GuriNgai have spent two decades creating an appearance of ‘community acceptance’ by attaching themselves to non-Aboriginal groups, and deceiving these groups with further false claims. The two remaining non-Aboriginal organisations supporting the GuriNgai hoax are Hornsby Shire Council, and the Australian Museum – Sydney.

10. The trail of destruction left in the GuriNgai group’s wake is plain to see to us – the challenge is helping the non-Indigenous public recognise the harm. 

bungaree.org

Neil Evers

‘All of a sudden you’re Aboriginal’ :Neil Evers -Pittwater Life October 2023