A Sikh immigrant Labor MP has claimed that Indians and South Asians in general are more Australian than White people because some aboriginals share some of their DNA.
Dr Parwinder Kaur, who was sworn in as a Member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia on the Sikh scripture in June, made the claims in parliament on September 9 in response to March for Australia anti-immigration rallies across the country.
Dr Kaur, a biotechnologist who came to Australia in 2007, accused “angry voices” of “pointing their fingers at migrants, at people like me” and said she wanted to address the debate over “who has been in this country for how many generations and how that makes people more Australian”.
Sikh immigrant Western Australian Labor MP Parwinder Kaur says Indians and other South Asians are “more Australian” than White people because they share DNA with some aboriginals.
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“As per DNA evidence, and it goes back not just a few generations but approximately 141 generations, the people and the community who were targeted, particularly because of the number of migrants in this country, which is my community, the South Asian community, or the Indian community in general, has genes that are integrated in the very first people of this nation,” she said.
“The science and the DNA provide that approximately 4,000 years back there was migration from India to Australia and some Aboriginal Australians carry up to 11% of their ancestry from those migrants. This coincided with the arrival of dingos and tools, and that binds our histories long before Europeans set foot here.
“Even further back, this urban route out of Africa saw our South Asian forefathers share deep ancestral roots with the First Peoples (sic) of this land. I think we need to stop the debate right here about who is more Australian and how we define that, because if we are looking for evidence, the evidence is very, very clear.”
She also tabled a number of documents to back up her claim (WA Parliament PDF link).
Dr Kaur went on to provide statistics that she claimed showed immigrants “make, not break, Australia” in response to earlier statements in parliament that they are a burden on the health system.
“Migrants hold nearly half of all our STEM jobs in this country, which includes in the engineering, IT, research and innovation sectors. In our hospitals specifically, over 40% of doctors and 35% of nurses were trained overseas. In aged care, two in every five workers is a migrant,” she said.
“People like me and my family have chosen to live here and work for this country, leaving our aged parents behind. It is a choice that we made because this is a gorgeous place.”
Dr Kaur came to Australia from a small village near Nawanshahr in Punjab, and worked as a scientist for two decades before being elected, which she told SBS Punjabi was a “milestone” for the Sikh community.
“This gives a lot of hope not just to me to everyone who is in this country, thinking about what Australia we are building looks like,” she said at the time.
Her comments come after a Western Australian town with a Sikh population of zero was given the state’s first Sikh place name, the Liberal Party boasted about running six Indian candidates, the state government brought in 150 Indian trainee doctors, and Labor pledged $4.2 million for Sikh community projects.
Header image: Left, Kaur addresses parliament about aboriginal DNA. Right, being sworn in on the Sikh scripture (WA Parliament).
