Greg Warren says he’s always known about his Aboriginality.
But now the State MP for Campbelltown has made it official.
He spent the past 12 months engaged in genealogical research to get the evidence to apply to the local Aboriginal Land Council – Tharawal – for a certificate that confirms he is of Aboriginal descent.
“I really enjoyed that journey of having to go through a long process, looking up the family tree and photos, then front the board out at Tharawal, who were brilliant,’’ he told the South West Voice in Macarthur.
“I don’t need a bit of paper to tell me who I am, or who my family are and where they come from,’’ the Labor MP said.
“But I’m in public life and these things are always looked at and questioned, so I decided to go ahead and do it.
“Uncle Ivan [Wellington, the local Aboriginal elder] asked me to do it and my kids also encouraged me to do the research; they had a strong interest in that.’’
Mr Warren’s Indigenous blood comes mostly from his paternal side, although there is also a bit on his mother’s side.
His mother – a Fitzgerald – is a direct descendant of the First Fleet.
References to Indigenous links were never too far away among the family: “We talked about it a lot in our family, more so with my dad,’’ says Mr Warren.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I grew up in Dubbo and there was very much that stigma towards Aboriginal people. But my mum and dad brought me up to see good in everyone.[/social_quote]
“That’s not an exclusively Aboriginal thing, it’s just the humanity in me,’’ he says.
“Australia is such a beautiful country, and one of the things that makes it so beautiful is our unique diversity of cultures.
“We’ve had migration booms going back to the gold rush in the 18th century, all these people, they came for a new start, worked hard.’’
Mr Warren says he is conscious of the fact that Campbelltown has got the second biggest Aboriginal community in the metropolitan area after Redfern.
“I would love to see some Aboriginal representation on council, but not in a tokenistic way,’’ he says.
Mr Warren says that he would also like to see a bigger effort to keep alive Indigenous dialects and languages.
“It was so wonderful to be at Airds High School when the students sang the national anthem in Dharawal,’’ he says.
“We encourage people to learn other languages such as French and Japanese, but we don’t do the same about Indigenous languages and dialects.
“It would be such a shame if we lost these wonderful languages.’’
Mr Warren says he always been a strong advocate of the plight of Aboriginal people.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, in terms of life expectancy, health, especially in remote areas of NSW, there’s still massive drug and alcohol problems, mental health, violence.
“These issues have been around for a long time and it’s systemic.
“Shoving millions upon millions of dollars into these problems is not the answer; it’s obvious it hasn’t worked.’’
During his genealogical research Greg Warren found many links to his Aboriginality, including that his family belong to the Yuin nation, which stretches from the South Coast to Goulburn.
The man who encouraged him to undertake his research, Uncle Ivan, also comes from Yuin nation territory.
But while he is proud of who he is and where he comes from, the Campbelltown MP says having a certificate saying he is of Aboriginal descent hasn’t really made a difference to him and how he goes about things.
“Ultimately, it doesn’t change anything about who I am,” he says..
“But it is what it is and I am glad I have done it.’’
Good on you Greg Warren! The photo of your great grandfather looks like your son …
I need to do same and my kids are very interested to know more my son has even recently told them at school he would like to learn the language