AFL star's father gets Aboriginal certificateskynews.com.au
18 January 2017The deported father of AFL star Dustin Martin has been issued with a second certificate of Aboriginality.
Richmond Tigers AFL star Dustin Martin has been issued with a certificate of Aboriginality as part of a renewed bid for his father to be allowed to return home to Australia.
Dustin Martin's father Shane was born in New Zealand to New Zealand parents, but spent most of his adult life in Australia.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton cancelled his Australian visa last year under section 501 of the Immigration Act, over links to the Rebels motorcycle gang.
In a fresh push to have the decision revoked, he has been given new documents identifying him as having indigenous heritage, from Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania.
'We've researched Shane Martin's family tree, and we've issued him with three documents,' said the director of the Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania, Lance LeSage.
'One is called an Organisation Resolution, that's under common seal, signed by myself an Aboriginal elder, and Peter Barnes who is also an Aboriginal elder. There's also an Aboriginal elders' statement that is signed by two Aboriginal elders, and there is a certificate which is ornate, that is also under common seal.'
The documents say Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania has passed a resolution that Shane Martin is:
1. Of Aboriginal Descent,
2. Identifies as Aboriginal,
3. Is recognised and accepted as an Aboriginal person by the Manegin Aboriginal Community.'
These are the three pre-requisites, required by law, to classify someone as being an Aboriginal.
Shane Martin's Aboriginality was 'based on recorded data of Births Deaths and Marriages Registry records and Traditional Aboriginal Oral Evidence,' the documents say.
The claim to Aboriginal heritage goes back to Mr Martin's great grandmother - who Shane Martin says was an Indigenous Australian, from Tasmania.
Now his three sons have also received documents identifying them as Aboriginal.
Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania has issued confirmation of Aboriginality documents to Richmond AFL player Dustin, former soldier Brendon, and Tyson Martin.
Lance LeSage says these documents strengthen the case to allow Shane Martin back into Australia.
'I would hereby like to launch a 'Save Shane' campaign in an effort to get Shane brought back to Australia, to where he should be with his wife and children,' he said.
Documents identifying a person as Aboriginal can be issued by any number of community organisations around the country.
But one of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's top indigenous advisors, Warren Mundine, thinks they are too easy to get and a higher standard of evidence is needed.
'You just need to get an Aboriginal community to sign off the confirmation of Aboriginality and Bob's your uncle, off you can go,' he said.
He also thinks the process is hindered by politics.
'There's always been complaints about it for a number of years.'
Mr Mundine, a member of the Prime Minister's Indigenous Advisory Council, thinks all claims of Aboriginality should be examined through the same process as Native Title applications.
'In that, you have to prove your Aboriginality not just by having an Aboriginal community organisation sign off on you, you actually have to go through a whole entire process proving your descent, proving your connection to country, proving your connection to the original inhabitants of that country.'
Mr Mundine thinks Aboriginality should only be conferred on people by their tribal nation.
'This idea that you can go to Tasmania, then go to Western Australia, then go to Darwin looking for your Aboriginality is quite bizarre. Your Aboriginality comes from your first nation, from your tribal nation, and that's where it should be based.'
The certificates from Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania are the second set of documents identifying Shane Martin as having Aboriginal heritage.
Sky News first revealed Shane Martin was claiming Indigenous ancestry in a bid to be let back into Australia last year, when the Adelaide-based Aboriginal Sobriety Group issued him with a similar 'Confirmation of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Descent' document.
However, the Aboriginal Sobriety Group revoked that document days after it was made public.
Lance LeSage thinks it revoked the documents under pressure from the government.
'I've never known of a certificate of Aboriginality to be ever revoked before,' he said.
'I think there was some skullduggery behind the scenes, that is my personal opinion.'
Former executive of the Aboriginal Sobriety Group, Basil Sumner, shares that opinion.
He is the man who first took Shane Martin's case to the current board.
Mr Sumner claims the documents were revoked after CEO Joe Silvestri received a phone call from the South Australian government.
'They sort of just buckled and cancelled the papers for Dean and Shane and his family,' he said.
He believes Joe Silvestri told the board there was a potential threat to the group if they did not revoke the certificates.
'He got a phone call from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Adelaide here. I'm not too sure what the threat (was)... I think the threat he took was just a phone call,' he said.
A spokesperson for SA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Kyam Maher says no-one from his office discussed the documents with the Aboriginal Sobriety Group.
'Nobody from the Office of the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation has spoken with Gary Paynter or Joe Silvestri from the Aboriginal Sobriety Group regarding documents issued to Shane and Dean Martin,' the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson confirmed a phone call was made, but says it was general in nature.
'After the minister's office sought information from the Department of State Development to inform a response to questions from Sky News NZ, the department contacted the Group for the purpose of gathering information only about the nature of the organisation.
'Confirmation of Aboriginality is a matter for individuals and the Aboriginal community. The state government has no role in deciding who communities recognise.'
Joe Silvestri did not return phone calls.
Aboriginal Sobriety Group Chairman Gary Paynter was also party to the decision. He refused to explain why the documents were revoked.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton's office could not be reached for comment on Sunday night.
http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2017/01/16/afl-star-s-father-gets-aboriginal-certificate.html
