Aunty Viv Maher - An Aboriginal Elder of the Labor Party? - Well, Maybe Not - Part 1
In response to our Deep Fake Project, we have received a stream of notifications from readers alerting us about Australians who are allegedly falsely claiming to be Aboriginal.
One name that has been supplied to us by several independent sources is that of the late Viv Maher, who was the unsuccessful Labor candidate in two South Australian state elections.
Viv Maher we understand was a South Australian who was a tireless and effective advocate for social issues in all the communities in which she lived. This post is in no way meant to detract from the excellent work and worthy causes that she may have undertaken and advocated for during her lifetime.
However, we understand that Viv Maher claimed, or allowed others to claim on her behalf, that she was an ‘Elder of the local Aboriginal community’ of Mt Gambier, South Australia. She allowed herself to be referred to by the Aboriginal title, ‘Aunty’, suggesting that she and others considered her to be in fact of Aboriginal descent.
In the words of her husband, Jim Maher we learn that she had ‘immense pride in her Aboriginal heritage.’
Figure 1 - ‘Aunty’ Viv Maher. Source: Borderwatch
In 2019, Viv Maher was posthumously inducted into the South Australian Women’s Honour Roll for her long contribution to the community.
When her husband Jim Maher accepted the award on her behalf, he told the newspaper, The Border Watch, that it was,
‘… an honour to have his late wife’s achievements recognised on such a large scale. “I had known about the nomination for a while before it was announced, but it was an extraordinary honour for her to be one of the 25 women inducted,” Mr Maher said … Mr Maher said he believes his late wife was honoured due to her commitment to social justice on all levels, as well as her intense commitment to the wellbeing of women.
“It was also due to her immense pride in her Aboriginal heritage and what that meant for both her life and our family’s life,” he said.
“Her growth and pride in her Aboriginal heritage is what I am most proud of, and her underpinned pride and passion for it and the wellness of Aboriginal people.”
- The Border Watch, Mount Gambier activist honoured among state’s extraordinary women, 03/12/2019
Other commentators also knew her as, ‘Aboriginal Elder Aunty Viv Maher’ (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 - Source
Even her son, Kyam Maher, believed that she was, ‘part of’ the ‘Aboriginal community in the South East [of SA]’ (see Figure 3)
Figure 3 - A Facebook notice by Kyam Maher acknowledging his mother, Aunty Viv Maher, as a recipient of the Aboriginal NAIDOC award in 2016 for her work ‘as part of the Aboriginal community.’ Source Facebook
Figure 4 - NAIDOC Award in 2016 to Viv Maher.
So, from the initial comments above, it is apparent that Viv Maher herself and members of her immediate family believed that she was Aboriginal.
As we researched further, we found details of where Viv and her family believed that her Aboriginality had come from.
Figure 5 - Viv Maher. Source: ABC
In her obituary of 2018, it was claimed that Viv herself had said the following of her own Aboriginal ancestry,
Figure 6 - Extract from Social Work FOCUS Magazine, Summer 2018, Vol. 3 Issue 1, p9. Source
On another occasion, her son Kyam Maher related another version of the family’s oral history, when he was recorded in about 2015 as saying his,
‘…mother had only recently discovered she has Aboriginal bloodlines from Western Victoria but details of which Aboriginal nation have become lost over the past two generations. His mother had identified herself as a proud member of Mount Gambier’s Aboriginal Community…’ (See Figure 7 below)
Figure 7 - Extract from a dictionary of prominent South Australians. Source: Adelaide AZ
Warning Bells on the Maher Family Oral History
As our genealogical researchers began to accumulate information on the Aboriginality claims of the Maher family, the ‘warning-bells’ started to go off. These are the warning-bells that the experienced staff at Dark Emu Exposed have heard before when researching family trees of proven Aboriginal ‘fakes.’
Now at this stage of our research, we are NOT saying that Viv Maher was not Aboriginal by descent.
We are only saying that the public claims attributed to her and her immediate family members are very similar in style to the types of claims that other known ‘fakes’ have made.
For instance, in our opinion, the following claims attributed to Viv Maher and her family are typical of the claims that we have found ‘fakes’ generally make, namely:
- a sudden, late in life revelation that they are Aboriginal. In Viv Maher’s case, she ‘only recently discovered she has Aboriginal bloodlines’ - this revelation occurred in about 2012-15 when she was around 64 years of age;
- ‘tribe shopping’ - a ‘fake’ will often claim to be a member of one tribe - in Viv Maher’s case that was Tasmanian Aboriginal (Figure 6) - and then, at a later date, the ‘fake’ will switch to another, unrelated tribe, or claim one or more additional tribes - such as where Viv Maher’s Aboriginality is now said to be ‘from western Victoria’ (Figure 7).
- ‘fakes’ will often associate with, or openly support, other ‘fakes.’ Viv Maher’s husband Jim is a staunch supporter of well-known ‘fake’ Bruce Pascoe (see Figure 12 below in Further Reading section).
- ‘fakes’ will often invoke a version of ‘the dog-ate-my-homework’ excuse as a reason as to why they can’t provide any paperwork as evidence of their Aboriginal ancestry. Viv Maher’s husband, Jim blames faulty ‘record keeping’ for the difficulty that some Aboriginal people have in proving their Aboriginality. To the contrary, we have found in general that most ‘real’ Aboriginal people can find supporting documentation to confirm they are of Aboriginal descent. It’s only the ‘fakes’ and the New Identifiers who struggle to prove their Aboriginality. In our opinion, they really struggle because they are in fact not of Aboriginal descent. The reason why there are no records is not because of poor record keeping, it’s because no records ever existed given that they are in fact not really of Aboriginal descent.
- ‘fakes’ thus often entirely rely on a version of ‘my [great] grandmother was said to look dark/Maori/Aboriginal according to our family oral history, a fact which we have only just recently discovered.’ Viv Maher too appears to have been a ‘recent discoverer’, at the age of about 64, and there appears to have been a family ‘discovery’ of some information, but which the family have never, to our knowledge, made public.
Now at this stage of our post we are NOT saying Viv Maher was not of Aboriginal descent.
What we are saying however, is that we have received many submissions from different readers, many of whom are Aboriginal themselves, alleging that she was not Aboriginal, and that the ‘warning-bells’ are ringing loudly that her claims, and those made on her behalf, sound very much like what a ‘fake’ would make.
So, was Viv Maher really of Aboriginal descent?
What do the publicly available genealogy records show?
The Genealogical Records of ‘Aunty’ Viv Maher
We can now reveal the results of the genealogical work carried out by our Dark Emu Exposed researchers.
The alleged family tree of Viv Maher [Vivienne Gayle Maher, nee Kellam (1948-2017)] is shown in Figure 8.
Readers will see that none of her ancestors appear to be of Aboriginal descent.
Her ancestors on her mother’s side all trace their ‘bloodline’ back to England, and on her father’s side, back to England and Germany.
We could find no people of Aboriginal descent in Viv Maher’s family tree.
Figure 8 - Alleged Family Tree of Viv Maher, based on publicly available records. The wives of the ‘male forebears’ of Viv Maher are numbered 1 to 10. This family tree is supported by some 88 pages of research notes which include the unbroken links of Birth, Deaths & Marriage records, newspaper records and immigrant arrival notices. Family Tree File Download here
Based on the above research, it would appear that Viv Maher was either, mistaken about her Aboriginality or perhaps was ‘pulling our leg’ with her claims of being Aboriginal?
Instead, there is documentary evidence for each generation of her ancestors to show that they were typical Victorians of immigrant descent. She came from solid, country bloodlines, from people who were predominately born and raised in the regional towns of the colony of Victoria. Her ancestors were immigrant, pioneering colonists of European descent - they were not traditional Aboriginal people.
Viv Maher’s ancestors were people such as the following.
- Great-grandfather William Kellam, who arrived in the colonies as a 21 year old, assisted migrant, agricultural worker and who later became a miner (Source)
Figure 9 - Said to be a photograph of William Kellam [Viv Maher’s great-grandfather] (Date Unknown). Source: Ancestry user Bob Kellam originally shared this on 27 Mar 2022
- Great-grandfather George Pratt, [Brother Pratt] who was at the first meeting in new hall of the “Hope of Warragul” Tent Independent Order of Rechabites in 1926, where he very interestingly hoped his ‘great-grandchild - that would have been Viv Maher! - might one day join as a member,
…..Later in the evening, the opportunity was taken to present Bro. George Pratt with a medal donated by an unknown well-wisher of the Tent, for the member initiating the most new members within a specified time. Bro. McMicken handed the medal to the winner, and congratulated him on his success.
Bro. Pratt, in returning thanks, said he was very proud to have won the medal, and he was pleased to say that the contest for the gift had resulted in 28 new members being enrolled. He might mention that he had proposed 4 grand-children in his quota, and he hoped that he would one day be able to propose, a great-grandchild as a member. (Hear, hear). He was proud that he had been spared to see the fine hall they had secured for the Tent, and he was sure they all thanked the District Officers for what they had done for them. (Applause)
Source: Rechabite, West Gippsland Gazette, 5 October 1926, p. 3 Here
Figure 10 - Rechabite poster. Source
- 2X Great-grandfather Thomas Treadwell, a 32 year old labourer, born in Oxfordshire, England arrived in the Colony of Victoria at Geelong in 1849. He was accompanied by his wife Martha (nee Hornblow) [Viv’s 2X Great-grandmother] and their two children, Maria, aged 4, and James, 2.
They were not Aboriginal but solid English workers (Source)
Figure 11 - Said to be a photograph of Thomas Treadwell [Viv Maher’s 2X Great-grandfather](Date Unknown). Source: Ancestry user Michele McMahon originally shared this on 11 Jun 2016
Our researchers could find no indication at all that any of Viv Maher’s ancestors were Aboriginal.
Instead, the records show that her ancestors consisted of solid German and English immigrants who arrived into the colonies in the mid- to late-1800’s. Her ancestors were the ’foot-soldiers’ of colonisation, who went on to form solid, pioneering families of farmers, miners, labourers and housewives. They settled predominantly in country Victoria, in towns such as Poowong, Warrigal, Craigieburn, Wollert and Maryborough.
Who Was the Aboriginal Tasmanian Woman?
It has been claimed that,
‘… Later in her career, Viv found and acknowledged her own Aboriginal heritage through a male forebear of hers married to an Aborginal Tasmanian woman. The name of “that wonderful woman” was unrecorded Viv said … ’ (See Figure 6)
Our researchers tracked down all the women in Viv Maher’s alleged family tree who had married one of her ‘male forebears.’ According to the genealogical records, there were ten such women and they are numbered 1 to 10 in the alleged family tree shown in Figure 8.
These ten women were:
Violet Florence Pratt [Viv’s mother], Married in 1926, born in Australia
Doris Agnes Runge [Viv’s grandmother], Married in 1903, born in Australia
Eliza Ann Glover [Viv’s great-grandmother], Married in 1903, born in Australia
Maria Elizabetha Schafer [Viv’s great-grandmother], Married in 1857, but born in Germany
Kathrina (Tyrina) Freudenberg [Viv’s great-grandmother] Married in 1860, but born in Germany
Elizabeth Treadwell [Viv’s great-grandmother], Married in 1875, born in Australia
Emily Jolley [Viv’s great-grandmother], Married in 1883, born in Australia
Martha Hornblow [Viv’s, 2X great-grandmother] Married in 1843, but born in England
Ann Lee [Viv’s 2X great-grandmother] Married in 1851, but born in England
Elizabeth Poulter [Viv’s 2X great-grandmother] Married in 1857, but born in England
Now, Viv Maher [and those who spoke on her behalf] claim that one of these ten women, who were married to her ‘male forbears’, was ‘an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. The name of “that wonderful woman” was unrecorded…’
This is incorrect. As we have shown above, the names of all these ten women were in fact recorded. Five of them could not have been Aboriginal as they were born in either Germany or England.
For the other five, we have located an extract of their Marriage Certificates in which the names of the women are recorded. None were recorded as being Tasmanian Aboriginal. Additionally, the ancestors of all these five women can be traced back to immigrants from Germany or English. None of these five were of Aboriginal descent.
The evidence presented here shows that all the women in Viv Maher’s alleged family tree were of English or German descent. There is no evidence that any of Viv Maher’s male forebears married an Aboriginal woman, Tasmanian or otherwise.
This genealogical evidence informs us that Viv Maher appears to have been mistaken in her belief that she was of Aboriginal descent.
Now perhaps we are wrong because there is some hidden factor that we are unaware of, such as an undocumented adoption of an Aboriginal person into Viv Maher’s family in the past, which therefore flows through as Aboriginal descent to her. Or perhaps there is an Aboriginal ‘love-child’ way back in Viv Maher’s ancestral tree that was quietly incorporated into her family. We just don’t know.
But what we do know is that the claim that her Aboriginal ancestry arises because one of her male forebears married an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman - a ‘wonderful woman’ whose name ‘was unrecorded’ appears to be false and it would be misleading for people today to perpetuate this story.
In our opinion, Viv Maher was either just mistaken in her belief, or perhaps even just making up a story, that she was Aboriginal.
Neither she nor anyone else has ever publicly provided compelling evidence to support her claim of Aboriginality.
Our series on the Maher family will continue so stay tuned!
This post is dedicated to the Anangu
Further Reading
Jim Maher and Aboriginality.
Mr Jim Maher, the husband of the late ‘Aunty’ Viv Maher takes a keen interest in the politics of ‘fake’ Aboriginality. He has posted on his Facebook page his support for ‘Aboriginal’ man Bruce Pascoe.
Figure 12 - Said to be an extract of a Facebook post by Mr Jim Maher, Viv Maher’s husband (supplied by a reader)
Jim Maher has also shown his distaste for our Dark Emu Exposed website, which he labels as ‘vindictive.’
Certainly we at Dark Emu Exposed spend a lot of time, money and resources exposing ‘fake’ Aborigines as well as critically assessing the works of writers such as Bruce Pascoe and his Dark Emu, but ‘vindictiveness’ (having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge) never comes into it and is not our motivation at all.
In fact, we can’t be revengeful at all, as we haven’t lost anything or suffered any harm ourselves. Our motivation is to protect others - real Aboriginal people and the taxpayer who are being ‘ripped off’ by the ‘fakes. We also believe our young people, especially young Aboriginal students, are being mislead by the ‘pseudo-profound bullshit’ espoused by the likes of the ‘fake’ Aboriginal Professors, Bruce Pascoe, Dennis Foley, Jaky Troy and Kerrie Doyle.
