The complaint, prepared by elders from the Waywurru, Ngurai Illum and Dhudhuroa groups who say some of their traditional lands and ancestors are being claimed by the Bangerang, accuses Mr Dowling of having "stolen" Mary Jane Milawa's identity and of weaving his false Aboriginal heritage into the Bangerang story. It cites birth, marriage and other public records showing Annie Lewis was the white daughter of English settlers with no connection to Mary Jane Milawa. If correct, this means Mr Dowling has no Aboriginal blood. “He has manipulated those spirits, those ancestors, who are buried in the ground,” said Gary Murray, the chairman of the Dhudhuroa Waywurru Nations Aboriginal Corporation that also lays claim to Wangaratta. “He is basically stealing identities. By doing that he steals country, steals clans, steals ancestors and worse.” Marlene Scerri, the sister of Mr Dowling’s first wife, has known him since he was a young man living in Abbotsford. “There is no way that he has got any Aboriginal blood in him,’’ she said.

“In his younger days he used to hang around with black people but that doesn’t make him black. He started a little lie and it has grown and grown and grown.” Mr Dowling, a director of the Bangerang Aboriginal Corporation, said the attack against him had more to do with land than Aboriginal blood. The grave of Mary Jane Milawa. Credit:Justin McManus “I know what I know, I know who my ancestors are,’’ he said. “They want to try to claim it is Waywurru. They think if they can get me out of the picture they have got a clear run. Well, they haven’t, because there are thousands of Bangerang people.”

Mr Dowling moved to Wangaratta nearly 50 years ago and since then, has identified and been accepted as an Aboriginal man. Liz Thorpe, a Waywurru elder, said the case should be resolved as a matter of urgency given Mr Dowling's advanced age. Liz Thorpe (second from left) and Thorn Smith with Thorn's children Shaniece and Jalina, pay their respects to Mary Jane Milawa at her grave in Wangaratta Cemetery Credit:Justin McManus "I just find it an absolute disgrace that someone can be accepted as Aboriginal when they are clearly not or haven’t been investigated,'' she said. "It needs to be pulled up and it needs to happen before he dies.'' The First Peoples' Assembly, a newly elected body established late last year, has made no formal response to the complaint, which has also been forwarded to Victoria’s Attorney-General Jill Hennessy and the state’s former minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Gavin Jennings.

Loading The case of Mr Dowling, following on from the fierce debate about historian Bruce Pascoe, exposes a fault line within Indigenous communities over how best to test claims to Aboriginality. Although identity and community acceptance are important requisites, there is a push to give more weight to the genealogies that connect people, through their ancestors, to clan and country. Vincent Peters, a Ngurai Illam Wurrung man, is a plaintiff in a Supreme Court case that has pitted three First Nations against the Taungurung traditional owners. The case, which is scheduled for trial in June before Justice Melinda Richards, is a challenge to the legality of a $33.7 million agreement reached between the Victorian government and the Taungurung owners enshrining land rights over a stretch of central Victoria.

In their 2018 agreement reached with the government under the Traditional Owners Settlement Act, the Taungurung named Mr Peters' great grandmother Lizzie Davis as an ancestor at the time of white settlement to support their claim over land near Murchison where his ancestors are buried. Mr Peters calls it a “new kind of dispossession''. Ngurai illum Wurrung elder Vincent Peters. Credit:Justin McManus “The real problem is we have got people who are not Aboriginal people claiming to be Aboriginal people and who, potentially, can claim land without having a proper genealogy,’’ Mr Peters said. “We have got Aboriginal people who are claiming ancestors who aren’t theirs to claim their land.

“It is very simple; you need to be able to prove who you are.” Loading The Andrews government has announced a review of its traditional-owners settlement regime. The state framework was established in 2010 as an alternative to the Commonwealth’s Native Title process. David Shaw, a lawyer who is representing the Ngurai Illum Wurrung, Dhudhuroa and Waywurru in their dispute against the state and the Taungurung, said the agreement was finalised without consultation with his clients, despite their traditional connection to some of the land in question. “It is fundamental to any reconciliation process that everyone gets an opportunity to be heard and understand what the connections are and tie these things together into the future,’’ he said.