Aboriginal Musos Hit Back At Pauline Hanson With #DefineAboriginal Hashtag

By Zana Rose

Indigenous Australian musicians have banded together in a collective backlash against controversial One Nation politician Pauline Hanson, after she used an appearance on The Bolt Report on Monday night to question how anyone can truly define what an “aboriginal” is.

Hanson launched into a controversial rant during the program, and attempted to highlight the supposed need to reassess the definition of what is is to be aboriginal in Australia.

“What defines an Aboriginal? Do you know there’s no definition to an Aboriginal? If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal. Or if a community, or the elders accept you into that community, you can be defined as an Aboriginal?” Hanson said.

“And that’s not good enough. Because then, if you make a comment about it, well what are you? Are you an Aboriginal or not an Aboriginal?”

Here’s video of the ignorance in its entirety:

In a beautiful backlash against her remarks, the hashtag #DefineAboriginal spawned, and many indigenous musicians have banded together to speak out about their challenging firsthand experiences with racism in this country. Briggs, Gurrumul and Nooky are just some of the musicians who have spoken out.

Here are some of their tweets, among a bunch of others:

https://twitter.com/funkoars/status/803416287149891584

https://twitter.com/funkoars/status/803408526978609152

https://twitter.com/funkoars/status/803406080092958721

https://twitter.com/BriggsGE/status/803413066234769408

https://twitter.com/TasmanKeith/status/803399546478829568

https://twitter.com/TasmanKeith/status/803399023784665089

If you still can’t quite come to terms with the fact that Hanson’s One Nation party has actually made a reemergence since it died in the late ’90s, you’re obviously not alone — rock legend Jimmy Barnes also slammed Hanson’s hate speech on Q&A a couple of months back.

Read the full transcript of Pauline Hanson’s “What defines an Aboriginal?” rant, below.

Pauline Hanson ‘The Bolt Report’ Partial Transcript:

“What defines an Aboriginal? Do you know there’s no definition to an Aboriginal? If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal. Or if a community, or the elders accept you into that community, you can be defined as an Aboriginal. And that’s not good enough. Because then, if you make a comment about it, well what are you? Are you an Aboriginal or not an Aboriginal?

“I think the whole lot needs to be opened up, a big debate on this. And to say that you’re humiliated or intimidated, where does it stop? I think that people need to toughen up a bit. I think we’ve all become so precious, we’ve stopped freedom of speech to have a say, to have a an opinion, and I remember when I was a kid, “sticks and stones may break you bones”, and that was the old saying.

“If I’m going to come out and say anything that’s extreme… the people will judge us. The people will have their say. I’ll be shut down the public. I don’t need someone sitting in their office making their determination. I’ll let the people judge me before that.”

Zana Rose
Zana Rose

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