HIDDEN NO MORE — BORN INTO THE FIGHT
Our ancestors hid to survive. Now their descendants must fight for the right to be recognised.
By Brian AJ Newman, LLB
Principal Employment & Human Rights Advocate
14 October 2026
A new research and advocacy paper examining generations of hidden Aboriginal identity, the racism that forced families into silence, and the gatekeeping and lateral violence confronting their descendants today.
There was a time in Australia's history when being openly Aboriginal could cost you your job, your home, your children, your freedom and, sometimes, your life.
For generations, Aboriginal families were forced to make impossible choices. Some stood openly against oppression. Others found ways to survive by concealing their ancestry, changing their names, remaining silent or allowing the outside world to believe they were something other than Aboriginal.
They were not necessarily ashamed of who they were.
They were trying to survive.
Today, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those families are standing up, uncovering their history, reclaiming their identity and refusing to remain hidden.
Yet many are confronting an extraordinary contradiction.
The same society that once demanded their ancestors conceal their Aboriginality now questions why their descendants cannot produce an uninterrupted history of publicly identifying as Aboriginal.
And, perhaps most painfully, some face challenges not only from outside Aboriginal communities, but from individuals within those communities who seek to determine who is Aboriginal enough to belong.
You cannot punish a family for hiding to survive and then punish its grandchildren for emerging from hiding.
That contradiction is at the heart of my new paper, Hidden No More — Born Into the Fight.
Why I wrote this paper
My own family's history is one of survival, displacement, achievement, silence and rediscovery.
My ancestry connects me to Anaiwan (Nganyaywana), Wiradjuri and Ngarigo (Bemeringal) people, through generations whose lives crossed the New England Tablelands and north-western New South Wales.
I have spent years researching the stories of my ancestors, including Milbona, Corumba, Lulu, Granny Duval and the extraordinary Duval horsemen.
Their names appear in historical records, family accounts, photographs and stories passed between generations. But, like so many Aboriginal families, the complete story was not always recorded, nor was it always safe to tell.
My father once told me our family was Māori.
It was my Nanna Rita who later told me the truth about our Aboriginal ancestry.
I do not blame my father for the story he carried. I understand more clearly today the fear and social circumstances that could lead families to protect their identities through silence or alternative explanations.
When Nanna Rita explained our ancestry, I did not suddenly become Aboriginal.
I was Aboriginal before that conversation. I simply came to understand more of the truth that had always been there.
This distinction matters.
Aboriginal identity does not begin on the date somebody finds an old photograph, receives a family document, reconnects with relatives or publicly acknowledges their heritage.
Our ancestors existed long before government records attempted to classify them.
And their descendants should not be required to apologise for the silence that helped keep those families alive.
The new generation is rising — but the fight has changed
Many descendants now have opportunities their grandparents could scarcely have imagined.
We can speak more openly about our ancestry, investigate historical records, celebrate our families and challenge racism through public institutions.
But the battle is far from over.
Racism has evolved. It now operates through social media, public humiliation, identity challenges, racial stereotypes and attempts to discredit people's family histories.
Alongside this is the issue of lateral racism and lateral violence.
These terms describe forms of hostility, exclusion, intimidation and discrimination that can occur within communities already affected by longstanding oppression.
It is particularly destructive when individuals appoint themselves as gatekeepers of Aboriginal identity, treating physical appearance, family separation or gaps in documentation as grounds for denying another person's ancestry.
There is an essential distinction between respecting the genuine cultural authority of Traditional Owners and Elders and allowing individuals to weaponise Aboriginal identity against others.
One protects culture, Country, kinship and responsibility.
The other risks perpetuating the very oppression that earlier generations struggled to survive.
We must be capable of recognising that difference.
What the research paper examines
Hidden No More — Born Into the Fight is a 17-page research and advocacy paper drawing on published scholarship, historical records, human rights research, family history and my professional experience representing people affected by discrimination and vilification.
The paper explores:
Generations forced into hiding: how historical racism, assimilation policies and institutional oppression influenced decisions to conceal Aboriginal identity.
The descendants of silence: why disrupted family histories, missing documents and lost language cannot automatically be treated as evidence that ancestry never existed.
Gatekeeping and identity policing: the harm caused when people are required to prove they are Aboriginal enough to satisfy another person's expectations.
Lateral racism and violence: how exclusion and hostility can reproduce colonial patterns of control within communities.
My own family's experience: the stories of Milbona, Corumba, Lulu, Nanna Rita and the Duval horsemen, alongside my experience of having my Aboriginal identity publicly challenged.
A pathway forward: practical principles for truth-telling, respectful community recognition, procedural fairness and protecting legitimate cultural authority without perpetuating discrimination.
The paper also considers human rights principles, relevant Australian frameworks and the importance of distinguishing Aboriginal descent from authority to speak for particular Country.
This is not an attempt to diminish the rights or responsibilities of Traditional Owners.
It is an argument for recognising those responsibilities while protecting people from malicious and discriminatory identity policing.
We cannot allow historical silence to become modern disqualification
As an employment and human rights advocate, I have spent much of my professional life confronting discrimination, workplace bullying, harassment, victimisation and unfair treatment.
I have seen how discrimination can destroy a person's confidence, livelihood, relationships and sense of belonging.
But there is something particularly confronting about witnessing a person being attacked for their ancestry, especially when the historical oppression of their ancestors helped create the very gaps in their family history now being used against them.
We cannot seriously advocate reconciliation while ignoring the experiences of Aboriginal families who survived through concealment.
Nor can we celebrate Aboriginal cultural revival while humiliating descendants who are attempting, in good faith, to reconnect with histories disrupted by colonisation.
Honest investigation, evidence, cultural responsibility and respectful community relationships remain essential.
But a person's skin colour, surname or the silence of a frightened ancestor should never become an excuse for racial abuse.
An invitation to read, reflect and contribute
I have written this paper not only for my family, but for every Aboriginal descendant who has searched for an ancestor, questioned a missing family story or struggled to understand why their grandparents remained silent.
I have also written it for non-Indigenous Australians who want to understand the lasting consequences of racism beyond the more familiar historical accounts.
And I particularly invite Aboriginal Elders, community advocates, academics, historians, human rights practitioners and people working in reconciliation and truth-telling to read it.
Not everybody will agree with every conclusion.
That is entirely appropriate.
Constructive disagreement, respectful cultural discussion and rigorous historical research are all necessary.
What should never be acceptable is turning those discussions into racial humiliation, intimidation or an attempt to erase another person's humanity.
Download my paper: Hidden No More — Born Into the Fight
I invite you to download the complete paper, consider the research and share it with others who may benefit from understanding this often-overlooked part of Australia's Aboriginal history.
The paper includes a detailed contents page, historical and contemporary analysis, source references, bibliography and subject index.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL RESEARCH PAPER — HIDDEN NO MORE: BORN INTO THE FIGHT
I particularly encourage readers whose families have experienced concealment, interrupted cultural connections or challenges to their Aboriginal identity to contribute to the broader conversation about recognition, dignity and truth-telling.
We were never absent
My ancestors did not require government permission to exist.
They lived, worked, raised families, survived hardship, carried knowledge and, when necessary, protected their identities from a society that too often refused to recognise their humanity.
Some of their stories were preserved.
Others remain incomplete.
But their silence was never proof of their absence.
My daughters and the generations who follow deserve more than the uncertainty and fear inherited from that history.
They deserve the freedom to know who they are, where they come from and why their ancestors made the choices they did.
The generation that hid deserves understanding.
The generation that rises deserves recognition.
And every generation deserves dignity.
We were not absent.We were not invented.We were here.
HIDDEN NO MORE — BORN INTO THE FIGHT.
Play Hard, But Fair.
Brian AJ Newman, LLB
Principal Employment & Human Rights Advocate
Author's note: This paper is written from a human rights, historical research and personal ancestry perspective. I do not purport to speak as a cultural authority for any Traditional Owner group or Aboriginal community.
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