Who Do You Think You Are? Geoffrey Robertson

2008, 52 Minutes

Barrister and human rights advocate Geoffrey Robertson QC believes that it is nurture not nature that shapes our moral integrity, but does his family history support his theory?

Fifth generation Australian Geoffrey has lived in London for decades, but he remains proudly Australian. He traces his Scottish ancestors—early mountain cattlemen who were the first of the self-made Robertsons in Australia—as well as another part of his family, surrounded by a life of wealth and privilege.

Throughout his family tree there is evidence of hard work and determination, from his great great grandmother, the first female chief steward of Australia’s Parliament, to the God-fearing peasants who fled years of poverty and hardship in Scotland to sail for the ‘promised land’.

Within his family history he finds links to royal patronage, the whiff of a cover-up and even a royal scandal. Could Geoffrey be descended from a Prussian king? And if he is, does this change who he is today?

His own family, he discovers, is a perfect example of the cultural and ethnic melting pot that makes up Australia.

A Film Australia National Interest Program, Serendipity Productions, Artemis International production in association with ScreenWest and Lotterywest and SBS Independent. Format licensed by Wall to Wall Media Ltd. The Who Do You Think You Are? word mark and logo are trade marks of Wall to Wall Media Limited and are used under licence.
© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Artemis International, Serendipity Productions, ScreenWest and Lotterywest, SBS Independent.

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