Hi, @Moree_mick education officer, from IndigenousX here. I saw that old tweet of Luke’s doing the rounds again asking people not to use the Creative Spirits website:
The page Luke shared isn’t on the site anymore, but there is still plenty of dubious and dodgy content there, so I thought I’d do a Top 5 of #CreativeSpiritsWTF:
5: Don’t sell fridges to Blackfellas in Toomelah!
Creative Spirits is full of fun trivia like the one above, or this one: “Why are Aboriginal cancer rates 8% lower than those of other Australians (19%)*?
Because Aboriginal people die young from other causes.”
See, isn’t trivia fun? #CreativeSpiritsWTF
*That’s not true about cancer rates - also, people in Toomelah have washing machines, I even rang my Auntie from Moree, who works in Toomelah to check… which made for a weird phone call. “Hi Auntie, how are you? So …” they have bore water and river water. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
4: Members of the Stolen Generations don't care much about their birthday… #CreativeSpiritsWTF
Creative Spirits has this amazing habit of taking a throw away line or obscure reference, usually from an old opinion piece from the Koori Mail, and then rewriting it is a universal truth, eg #CreativeSpiritsWTF
3: FACT: Of coconuts, eggs, and bananas.
The site is full of helpful little ‘factoids’ like this. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
The whole site reads like a bunch of obscure one off comments taken from Twitter and Facebook were collated by an 18th Century aspiring anthropologist and used as the basis for a PhD thesis titled ‘I, the Aborigine Whisperer”. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
2: Out of date references.
Like saying there's only 125 Indigenous doctors in Aus, which was true in 2008 but less so in 2020.
If you’re gonna present yourself as a go to site for students then it’s important to update your stats at least every decade or so. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
1: Uses quotes from mob without their knowledge and permission, gives mob titles like ‘Aboriginal Elder’.
Here’s a quote from one Aboriginal elder we got permission for in response to this: “Elder? I’m not even 40 yet, fuck ya!” Luke Pearson, Aboriginal impending midlife crisiser. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
Its surprising that people still use this website as a reputable source for information. If you want to find out information about Aboriginal people at least make sure that the source is reputable and written by an Aboriginal person. #CreativeSpiritsWTF
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