Erasing David Unaipon, one design change at a time

Eloise Williams I 30 August 2024 I Spectator Australia

I invite you to have a look at the Australian $50 note – a really close look.

There are two legal versions in circulation [see below] with a tweak that speaks volumes about what our paternalistic overlords think of Australians with Aboriginal ancestry.

Both versions rightly feature a truly great Australian – David Unaipon. The original version has graphics that celebrate his remarkable achievements. The new version erases them and denigrates his achievements.

In 1872, David Unaipon was born in a Christian mission in South Australia’s Coorong region. His father was one of the first Aboriginal Christian ministers. He was born with exceptionally high intelligence. At the age of 15, an education official from Adelaide met Unaipon and wrote:

‘I only wish the majority of white boys were as bright, intelligent, well-instructed, and well-mannered, as the little fellow I am now taking charge of.’

Unaipon devoured the Western canon of writing and quickly developed a lifelong fascination with science, religion, and philosophy. He moved to Adelaide as a teenager where he spent many hours at museums and libraries absorbing all he could. He suffered overt discrimination (unlike the phoney baloney discrimination of today) but it never held Unaipon or his optimistic outlook back. He was equally proud of his Aboriginal culture and British culture which he revered.

He lodged almost two dozen patents for new inventions and played a key role in the development of sheep shearing technology. He also made detailed plans on how a helicopter could work (decades before they got off the ground). He was also interested in understanding the nature of light.

Later in life, Unaipon was commissioned to record Aboriginal religious stories, resulting in the publication of Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals (1930), an invaluable record and the first published book by an Aboriginal author. Although he was deprived of income from that book (and his sheep shearing technology), his curiosity remained undamaged, persisting until his death in 1967 at the age of 94.

Unaipon has been hailed as Australia’s Leonardo da Vinci. A nation’s currency typical portrays only the most revered figures and so it was right to include Unaipon’s portrait when our $50 note was first issued as a polymer note in 1995. Originally it portrayed Unaipon along with his inventions and some text from his writings plus his favourite church.

But in 2018 the $50 note was more than tweaked. While the updated version still features a smiling Unaipon, it removed all references to his inventions. Instead, the note now displays imagery of two Indigenous shields – associated with the Ngarrindjeri nation but starkly at odds with the life Unaipon led and his sophisticated technological achievements. The church was reduced in size by half (surprise! surprise!) and the writings reduced to a tiny picture of a book that you need magnifying glass to see.

The new banknote provides the opportunity to tell more of the rich story behind these distinguished Australians. Their stories are told through a number of design elements, including shields from Unaipon’s Ngarrindjeri nation and the practices of miwi and navel cord exchange about which Unaipon wrote. The banknote also includes a picture of the gumnut brooch Cowan had made to symbolise that entry into Parliament was a ‘hard nut to crack’ for women, and the King Edward Memorial Hospital, a women’s and maternity hospital that she helped establish. –The Reserve Bank of Australia

The removal of Unaipon’s modern achievements is the worst form of Woke revisionist history, minimising his accomplishments to fit a narrative that romanticises Indigenous Australians as simplistic and primitive ‘Noble Savages’. An Indigenous man who not only excelled in Western society but thrived should be celebrated, not reduced to a stereotype.

Who approved this design and why? Could it be that Unaipon’s accomplishments were at odds with the political narrative that Indigenous Australians are victims of Western society? This is why Woke ideology is so dangerous; it will modify history to suit an agenda and shun excellence that does not suit its narrative.

Celebrating Indigenous history and achievements should never come at the expense of acknowledging their contemporary successes. David Unaipon was a brilliant writer, public speaker, and inventor. A few shields do not do justice to his legacy.

Our Woke $50 note should be withdrawn from circulation and reissued in its previous form so that all Australians can celebrate his contributions to the modern Western world – a world in which he not only engaged but thrived.

There is no finer role model for Aboriginal youth of today but our Woke overlords have reduced his legacy.

Author: Eloise Williams