if you can show connection with a cultural past surely you wish to preserve it. Isn't that what folk singers do? It may be narrow-minded of me but the wellspring of the song surely should be recognised, and the fact of it reserved.

A great aspiration.

The Australian "definition" of indigenous identity seems to be the most acceptable of the various options that were considered (and the US version was considered but rejected) and, although there have been some unpleasant episodes in Tasmania (where some who claimed "Aboriginality" were denied it by others with more influential argument), it seems to have worked well. To the extent that various rednecks, mistaken in their beliefs that Indigenous people get free perks and money, have tried to denigrate (there's that language problem again) the whole concept. The Australian concept of identification seems to allow more people to celebrate such cultural connections more easily than the agricultural concept.

Cheers, Rowan