Integrity in Modern Australia - The Maher Family, Part 2 — Dark Emu Exposed

Jan 16

Jan 16 Integrity in Modern Australia - The Maher Family, Part 2

Fakes, Kyam Maher, Just Making Stuff Up, Viv Maher

In our Part 1 post on ‘Aunty’ Viv Maher, we illustrated how the genealogical records indicated that twice failed, SA Labor candidate, Viv Maher had no apparent Aboriginal descent.

It thus appears that the late Viv Maher was mistaken (or misleading on purpose?) in believing, and allowing others to believe, that she was a descendant of an Aboriginal woman from Tasmania, or western Victoria, as was variously claimed by her family.

Several of our readers have now brought to our attention that if Viv Maher herself was not Aboriginal, then her children also would not be Aboriginal, via her maternal line.

One of these children we understand is the Labor politician, the Hon Kyam Mayer MLC, who is the Attorney-General and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs in the current (2022) Malinauskas Labor government in South Australia.

In 2022, The Hon Kyam Maher MLC told SBS NITV News that although he,

‘ … didn’t grow up surrounded by traditional Aboriginal culture, it’s always been known in my family that we have Aboriginal heritage in the family but it didn’t play a huge part in [his] growing up…

Raised in the state’s southeast, Mr Maher says he and his family found acceptance within the Aboriginal community there.

“Growing up in Mt Gambier amongst the Boandik and a lot of Ngarrindjeri people, there were signicant elders who were family,” he said. “My journey reflects my mum’s journey, getting more and more involved in the Aboriginal community, and it used to give me a great deal of pride walking down the street with my Mum and having kids come up, ‘Aunty Viv, Aunty Viv.’ “That sort of recognition and acceptance into an Aboriginal community that I didn’t have a lot of growing up when I was young.”

**Figure 1 - Excerpt from a 26 March 2022 interview of Kyam Maher by SBS NITV News.** *Source:* *SBS NITV News*

As outside observers, we are getting a little confused.

If the genealogical evidence that we have detailed in our Part 1 post indicates that ‘Aunty’ Viv Maher was not of Aboriginal descent, and the moniker, ‘Aunty’, was most likely just applied to her due to the excellent and caring social work she was doing in Mt Gambier, then how can ‘South Australia’s First Aboriginal Attorney-General’ think he is of ‘Aboriginal heritage’ via his mother, Viv Maher?

Does Kyam Maher simply think his mother was Aboriginal because people in Mt Gambier started to address her as ‘Aunty’?

However, to our mind it just can’t be possible that the highest-ranking legal officer in the state of South Australia, could be wrong.

When Kyam Maher swore his oath, or affirmation, in the presence Her Excellency the Governor Frances Adamson, on taking his ministerial position as the first Aboriginal Attorney-General of South Australia, surely he was speaking the truth?

His claim that he is Aboriginal must be true, mustn’t it?

Figure 2 - Her Excellency the Governor Frances Adamson prior to conducting a ceremony in 2022 for the four cabinet ministers, including Kyam Maher, who were in isolation due to COVID-19 when the Ministry was sworn in. *Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette.* *Source*

Surely the Labor Party of new premier, Peter Malinauskas, must have checked Kyam Maher’s paperwork and his disclosure declarations before appointing him as an Aboriginal member of the party?

The Premier and his party must have satisfied themselves that their new Attorney-General was in fact telling the truth when he said he was Aboriginal, mustn’t they?

**Figure 3 - SA Premier, Peter Malinauskas**. *Source*

South Australian Labor premier Peter Malinauskas appointed Kyam Maher as one of his ministers to cabinet portfolios. As was reported in the Adelaide Advertiser,

‘ … Mr Maher, who last week had Covid-19, became the first initiated Aboriginal man to be appointed as the Attorney-General of South Australia.

Mr Maher said it was an honour to be appointed, and then to also be sworn in as Aboriginal Affairs Minister.

“It was a very special moment, and I know there is a lot of expectation and work to be done over the next few years,’’ he said.’

Source: Adelaide Advertiser 1st April 2022

As Premier Malinauskas would appreciate, the Attorney-General and his department are looked upon by the people of South Australia as being of the highest integrity, honesty and hopefully beyond reproach when carrying out their public service. Indeed, one only needs to read the website of the SA Government’s Attorney-General’s Department to learn how seriously they take the pursuit of integrity, truth and justice:

Attorney-General’s Department : We promote justice by protecting the rights of all South Australians, holding people to account according to the law, improving safety, and contributing to an efficient and fair justice system. (Source)

**Figure 4 - Extract of the Government of South Australia’s website.** *Source*

The Attorney-General’s Department also is very mindful of respectng Aboriginal people and their culture. One could image that they would take a very dim view of South Australians who attempt to produce ‘fake’ Aboriginal art, defraud Aboriginal people out of their money or land, or indeed pass themselves off as ‘fake’ Aboriginal people.

It is inconceivable that Premier Malinauskas would allow Her Excellency the Governor Frances Adamson to be mislead by having her swear in a ‘fake’ Aboriginal man. It is just not possible, is it?

**Figure 5 - Extract of the Government of South Australia’s website.** *Source*

Our readers of Dark Emu Exposed readers will now see the conundrum that is placed before them.

In our Part 1 post we believe we determined, beyond reasonable doubt, that Viv Maher was not of Aboriginal descent, contrary to what she claimed. It would thus appear that her son, South Australia’s Attorney-General Kyam Maher, would then also not be of Aboriginal descent, via his mother’s heritage, as he has claimed.

But we also know that Attorney-General Kyam Maher himself, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas and his Labor Party, and Her Excellency the South Australian Governor Frances Adamson, all believe Kyam Maher is South Australia’s ‘first Aboriginal Attorney-General.’

Not only that, but he is also an ‘initiated’ Aboriginal man, as he related in a 3 June 2021 magazine interview (Figure 6) and on ABC Radio (Figure 7).

**Figure 6 - Kyam Maher MLC describes himself as an initiated Aboriginal man**. *Source* *here*

**Figure 7 - ABC Radio listen** ***here***

Hence our reader’s conundrum. How can the political elites in South Australia - the Premier, the Attorney-General and their government’s Departments, Her Excellency the State Governor, as well as our ABC, all say Kyam Maher is of Aboriginal descent and an ’initiated’ Aboriginal man, when the genealogical evidence of his mother clearly suggests that she was not Aboriginal - and, as far as we have been able to determine, Kyam Maher himself has never provided publicly any documentary proof of his Aboriginality?

We will leave this conundrum with our readers for a short while as we continue further in our research into the Aboriginality of Kyam Maher and his family.

So stay tuned as we will be posting some interesting research in the public interest on the Maher family in the coming week or two.

One question we at Dark Emu Exposed keep asking ourselves is why are more and more Australians, who are Aboriginal people of Distant Descent [New Identifiers] or even totally non-Aboriginal by descent, identifying themselves as Aboriginal, even specifying themselves as a ‘proud [insert tribal name here] Aboriginal (wo)man’?

We believe that two academics, Elizabeth Watt and Emma Kowal in their 2019 paper, ‘To be or not to be Indigenous? Understanding the rise of Australia’s Indigenous population since 1971’ , discovered some truths about the motivations of these ‘New Identifiers’ who, ‘were more likely to believe their ancestors – known and unknown – played an active role in defining their identity…[and] were particularly drawn to Indigenous ancestors, it would appear, because they seemed to offer them a sense of deep belonging to the Australian continent, a holistic spiritualism, and a meaningful family history’.

We wonder whether Kyam Maher believes he is a New Identifier for above reasons as well, plus the additional reason that perhaps in the Labor Party of today, being Aboriginal is perceived to have some distinct, political career advantages? (And distinct political career disadvantages when a ‘fake’ is exposed, as Victorian Labor candidate, Lauren O’Dwyer, learnt recently).

Anyway, perhaps we will discover the motivations of Kyam Maher in his claims for his Aboriginality as our research continues. Or perhaps even the Hon Kyam Maher MLC himself will release publicly some documentary proof, onto his Twitter or Facebook accounts, that proves his Aboriginality and clears up the concerns and the allegations of our Dark Emu Exposed readership, and many ‘real’ Aboriginal people, that he might actually be a ‘fake.’

At this point however, it is instructional to consider the case of Joe Smith, a member of the widely popular internet series, ‘Black As’.

Joe Smith is described as,

‘…an initiated white man who was fostered, as a teenager, by an Aboriginal family. Like the Aboriginal members of the ‘Black As’ group (Chico and Dino Wanybarrnga and Jerome Lilypiyana) Smith, speaks Yolngu Matha’. (Figure 8).

This is interesting because here is a working class, white man, who is initiated into Aboriginal society and speaks an Aboriginal language, but as far as we have been able to determine doesn’t (and most probably wouldn’t dream of) saying he is Aboriginal in the sense of having descent. He doesn’t try to ‘fake’ anything - what you see is what you get with him and his group.

This gets us thinking that maybe this whole new idea of scrambling to identify as Aboriginal by an increasing number of Australians has more to do with ‘class’, rather than ‘race’ or ‘culture’. Is it increasingly ‘hip’ and economically and politically advantagous today to call yourself a ‘proud [insert tribal name here] (wo)man’?

So perhaps we should ask ourselves, is ‘class’ more important to Kyam Maher - a St Marks College boy rising up the through the middle classes in his pursuit of a successful political career - than his interest in an accurate assessment of his ‘race’ or heritage? Some readers have alleged that he may be just using the claim of an ‘Aboriginal heritage’ as a stepping stone in the pursuit of his political career. They say his wearing of the red headband is ‘affected’ and they note that he doesn’t speak language and doesn’t have an observable daily interaction with his claimed Aboriginal kin (in contrast to Joe Smith). This sounds a bit harsh to us, but we shall see.