Letter to the Editor - Their agitation for "constitutional recognition" and a changed date for Australia Day is morally built on sand

To The Australian        Gerard Henderson rightly notes that "the division between indigenous and other Australians is not quite what it seems" ("This nation of immigrants rightly cherishes its rich past", 26-27/1). There are important implications in this, which he does not draw out, but which need to be, so that ordinary Australians (the great majority of us) are not taken for a ride by confidence tricksters. The fact that most Australians "who identify as indigenous" have some non-indigenous blood, and that only "a very small number of Australians have only indigenous DNA", means that almost all those who currently present themselves as "indigenous leaders" of our so-called "First Peoples" are really laying claim to a representative status that they do not and cannot possess. In a nutshell, this means that their agitation for "constitutional recognition" and a changed date for Australia Day is morally built on sand.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic