WA registrar of births, deaths and marriages says staff erased mentions of race in response to racial slurs on older certificates

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Authorities in Western Australia have confirmed that they have removed references to a person being “Aboriginal” from birth certificates.

In a statement on Thursday, the WA registrar of births, deaths and marriages, Brett Burns, said that staff at the registry had been instructed to remove all mentions of race from birth certificates in response to a number of racial slurs noted on older birth certificates. That included terms such as “half-caste”, “nomad” and “Chinaman”.

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Unfortunately for people researching their family history, particularly family members who may have been part of the stolen generations, the change means that mention of a person being Aboriginal has also been removed.

Tracing records is often the only way people whose ancestors were members of the stolen generations can investigate their identity.

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The statement follows a report by the ABC, which found that the word “Aboriginal” had been whited out of birth certificates bought by Perth man and family historian Gary Smith.

The documents related to his great-aunt and great-grandmother.

Smith told the ABC that a staff member at the registry told him that the word “Aboriginal” had been removed because it was offensive.

“We feel like we have people making decisions on behalf of us, just like in the past,” he told the ABC.

Burns said that there had never been a legal requirement in WA to include a person’s race on their birth certificate, because “a government official simply could not tell from looking at someone what nationality they were”.

“However, that did not stop some past registrars including references that were unjustified and unsubstantiated personal observations on racial heritage, and using offensive terms such as ‘Abo’, ‘Chinaman’, ‘native’, ‘nomad’ or ‘half-caste’ on official documents,” he said.

“That has prompted the removal of all references to race, which were never required to be included in the first place, from the registry’s records. This does not just apply to Aboriginal people and any suggestion we are ‘white-washing’ history is wrong.”

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Curtin University history professor Anna Haebich, who specialises in researching the stolen generations, Indigenous history and the significance of Aboriginal ownership of Aboriginal records, said she was “shocked” to hear records had been tampered with.

“I would not imagine that anyone could tamper with records of births, deaths and marriages,” she said.

Haebich said that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community in WA should have been consulted before the decision was made.

“Who are they protecting?” she said. “Aboriginal people are all grown-ups. A document calling someone ‘half-caste’ could be very important for their understanding of their family history.”