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#DefineAboriginal shows what it's like to be Indigenous in the face of racism

Speaking truth in the face of gross rhetoric.

Johnny Lieu

on November 28, 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Australian far-right politician Pauline Hanson has been quite the know-it-all recently.

Last week, she claimed the Great Barrier Reef is fine, then on Monday night, she decided that "there's no definition to an Aboriginal" and a person could be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander by marrying one.

It's part of her rhetoric around lobbying to repeal the country's Racial Discrimination Act, 18C, which makes it illegal to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate" someone due to their race or ethnicity.

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But with grace, a touch of sass and a large serving of reality, Indigenous Australians have responded with a hashtag: #DefineAboriginal.

"If you marry an Aboriginal you can be classified as an Aboriginal, or if the community or the elders accept you into that community, you can be defined as an Aboriginal," Hanson told Sky News. By that bizarre logic, one could be white by marrying to a white person.

The tweets are painted with tales of segregation and disadvantage, which still occur to this day in Australia.

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#DefineAboriginal follows a similar hashtag from back in August, #IndigenousDads, which showcased the positive contribution of Indigenous fathers in opposition to an offensive cartoon drawn by Bill Leak in The Australian.