There was once a bit of a stir among the Australian community (me and a couple of mates) in regional Japan because the lady working at the 7-11 looked Aboriginal.
Thereโs no reason why this is impossible, we reasoned. Convenience stores do hire foreigners. Aborigines are just as able to travel overseas as other Australians. There was no impossible element.
However, we knew it was unlikely. Probably just a Filipino of strongly Austronesian phenotype.
Iโve never even heard of an Aborigine in Japan. I met Maori there, and assorted other Polynesians, and even an American Indian. I ran into Chinese Australians, Indian Australians, gay Australians, mentally ill Australians, even a couple of Tasmanians.
Never met an Aborigine.
Never met one in any other country Iโve been to, either.
Why not?
So far as I know, Aborigines tend not to travel overseas except for โAboriginalโ reasons like performing Aboriginal music, exhibiting Aboriginal art or attending UN First Nations conferences. Or for tennis/Olympics.
Of course some Aborigines must travel overseas for other reasons โ holidays, work, whatever โ but it is rare.
Actually, I just remembered a case. There was an Aborigine on death row in America for murder but they managed to get it commuted to life.
Hmm, just found an update on that case:
At that point he had been locked up since the evening of thanksgiving Friday, 1988, two days after he had brutally murdered his polar opposite, a wealthy divorcee and former debutante of the old Florida South.
Barbara Ann Barberโs brutal rape and murder at the hands of Russell Moore was a tragedy for her family.
But it would also be a disaster for Russellโs, and expose the diabolical circumstances which led him to her doorโฆ
At the time of the murder, an eminent social justice lawyer later said, he was โprobably the only Aborigine in North America โฆ transplanted and at stress and risk under which he ultimately snappedโ.
I suppose a lot of Aborigines lack the money, skills and education that might give them travel opportunities. But then, even those who are doing alright tend not to go far. Maori are well-known for working abroad but Aborigines donโt seem that interested for whatever reason.
Given this background, imagine my surprise when I found out about an older Aboriginal woman in Japan whoโs been making headlines:

Donna Nelson found guilty of importing methamphetamine into Japan
Australian grandmother Donna Nelson has been sentenced to six yearsโ jail by a Japanese court after being found guilty of importing two kilograms of methamphetamine into the country.
Nelson, 58, alleged a love scammer tricked her into carrying the bag with the drugs hidden, after she was caught at Tokyoโs Narita Airport in January last year.
Oh no, not like this.
Nelson was smitten and was desperate to find a โrespectableโ man after her husband left her while she was pregnant with her fifth daughter, the court heard.
I wonder ifโฆ well letโs focus on the case at hand.
They also pointed to Nelsonโs extensive community work, and her above average salary as chair of the Perth-based Aboriginal-run Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service which meant she had no reason to become involved with illicit drugs.
Letโs look at that:
Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service is an Aboriginal community controlled health organisation which was established in 1974โฆ We provide holistic and integrated primary health care services to Aboriginal people living in the Perth metropolitan region and employ 127 staff across our head office and clinic in East Perth and clinics in Maddington, Midland and Mirrabooka.
I wonder how you get an above average gig like that.
They have two positions open, by the way:
The Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service is seeking Aboriginal Health Practitioners to fill two roles.
The role of the Aboriginal Health Practitioner is to provide Primary Health Care for Aboriginal individuals, families and community groups, and assist in arranging and coordinating health care plans for clients.
The essential criterion of this role is that the successful applicant must be an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
More:
Nelson was also managing director of WA-based Pioneers Aboriginal Corporation, which in May 2019 received $1.65 million to expand a basketball program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children over three years, but did not secure follow-up funding.
Anyway, back to the conviction:
Japan has a 99 per cent conviction rate.
Everything about the Japanese system makes it dangerous to contest any charges. Stay silent until youโve consulted with your lawyer? Maybe in your country. In Japan, if theyโve got you dead to rights it can be best to bow and scrape and apologize profusely and claim you were drunk and donโt remember anything.
Six years for this offense sounds about standard for Japan. Light even, I suppose because she was tricked. If sheโd pled guilty from the start and got good behaviour, she might be more than halfway through her sentence by now.
Outside court, Nelsonโs lawyer in Japan Nishida Rie said her client would be appealing.
โI believe this was a very unreasonable decision,โ she said.
โWe definitely need to talk with Donna but we will fight until then end, until she gets freedom.
โWe strongly believe her innocence so we will fight until the end.โ
I suppose this lawyer is making a name for herself and raking in fees by dragging it out, allegedly, in my opinion, donโt come for me Rie, but come on what are you doing? This is Japan. You turn up in Japan with a kilo of drugs and youโre going away for a few years. You know that.

The circumstances are pretty odd:
On the way [Donna] stopped over in Laos, where she almost abandoned the trip after she became sick, ending up paying for a hotel, despite being told Kelly would pay.
โIโve cried too much and spent my last money to get this room for tonight. If this is how a wife is treated, I donโt want to be married,โ she said at the time.
But Kelly convinced her to stay, she said, telling her an associate would give her a suitcase to take with her on her journey to Tokyo Airport.
Just had a quick look on Agoda:
โThe defendant committed the crime because she was deceived by Kelly and she had hopes of marriage,โ Judge Masakazu Kamakura saidโฆ
Nonetheless, Nelson was labelled โuntrustworthyโ for failing to declare the suitcase was hers, and claiming she was travelling for business not love.
Maybe she kinda knew and kinda didnโt know kinda thing, not being honest with herself.
Some further background:
Ms Nelson told the court she had previously met two online love interests overseas, one from New Jersey and the other in Oklahoma, in the United Statesโฆ
Kelly has been described as a Nigerian man, but his whereabouts is unknown and he is not part of the legal proceedings.
The court heard Ms Nelson was seeking a โblack manโ for a partner, as the pair would have shared interests and experiences.
โDiscrimination โฆ family โฆ cultural issues,โ Ms Nelson explained.
For a woman discriminated against, Donna seems to have been on a pretty good wicket until she got scammed.
Iโve known plenty of Nigerians and I donโt get much of an Aboriginal vibe from their culture. That sentiment sounds like the scene in Crocodile Dundee when the African American naturally knows how to throw a boomerang:
Forgot how stupid that film was.
More:
As an Aboriginal woman facing daily discrimination, she said she did not want to stereotype Kelly, a Nigerian man who purported to live in Japan, as a scammer.
โI didnโt like to judge Kelly that he was a scammer based on his race, his skin colour,โ she said.
I knew one very decent Nigerian fellow in Tokyo, a devout Christian who ran a respectable bar and restaurant. Felt a bit sorry for him because of course everyone would judge him by the behaviour of his compatriots. All the others I knew were, I regret to say, shady characters. Some were a lot of fun and mostly harmless, but shady.
Anyway, a further curiosity about this case is the attention it has gathered. On the day of the conviction, the story was one of the major items on ABC TV news!
And itโs not just the media:
Speaking outside court on Wednesday, Australiaโs ambassador to Japan, Justin Hayhurst, said consular assistance was being provided to Nelson and her family.
โI just wanted to say that the Australian government has been here throughout this trial to provide consular support to Ms Nelson and her family, and we will continue to provide that support,โ he said.
โToday is obviously a very difficult day for the family and our sympathy is with them.โ
Wow! They wouldnโt answer my calls or reply to my emails when I was locked out of Australia for two years, but something about Donna makes her specialler than me:
The jailing of an Australian woman in Japan is โreally distressingโ for her family, the federal government has acknowledged as it committed to doing all it could to help her.
The Australian federal health minister, Mark Butler, made the promise a day after Donna Nelson was sentenced to six years for smuggling methamphetamine into Tokyo
Even the West Australian premier was involved in the case.
Ah, whatโs this?
Big club, you ainโt.
A certain type of white Australian considers it his duty to bend over backwards to excuse every Aborigine of every misdeed, and is baffled and outraged when someone else (like the Japanese) just wants to treat them normally. The Greens bit only adds to her being โone of usโ in addition to her protected species status.
The average Australian is not like that. The majority (going by online comments) think she should do the time and thank her lucky stars she got off easy.
This brings to mind the Bali Nine drug smugglers (not Aborigines), who the Oz government expends much effort on saving. Polls indicted that most Australians want them shot and were glad when two of them eventually were.
How you get treated by the great and good of the diplomatic world is very much a who-whom situation, either via connections or through the inverted moral pyramid of the goodwhite mind.
Got drunk and bashed a local who attacked you in a pub? Youโll get a quick visit from a low-ranking official whoโll pop his head in once and ask if you have enough blankets, at most.
Donโt expect the full Donna treatment, pleb.
If youโre caught with a kilo of drugs in Japan, be glad of this neglect. Thereโs nothing more disastrous than well-meaning, good white people trying to help.