UP TO nine fair-skinned people will testify that they were hurt, humiliated and offended by newspaper columns that questioned their right to claim they were Aboriginal, the Federal Court was told yesterday.

The nine are suing Herald Sun journalist Andrew Bolt over articles and blogs including one headlined ''White is the new black'' that suggested it was fashionable to choose Aboriginal racial identity, which brought ''political and career clout''. Earlier articles, ''It's so hip to be black'', and ''White fellas in the black'', had similar themes.

Hurt and offended: Pat Eatock

Bolt wrote that ''white Aborigines'' were ''people who, out of their multi-stranded but largely European genealogy, decide to identify with the thinnest of all those strands, and the one that's contributed least to their looks''.

Bolt will be the only witness in response, his lawyer told the court.