Actually, I think it was worse than that. I really think he was trying to justify things like child marriage (and other patriarchal marriage norms) because they are part of local cultures that "we shouldn't judge by Western standards." It took me a while to realize what was going on and when I asked him about it, he wouldn't engage with that - not even to tell me that I was off base (because I don't think I was). He kept talking about how it was unfair to call these cultures patriarchal because that was a modern Western idea, and I kept telling him that overwhelmingly, indigenous cultures are not patriarchal, even when they have child marriage. I couldn't understand why he kept putting words in my mouth and refusing to accept that I wasn't saying these cultures were patriarchal - until it finally clicked.

For example, aboriginal girls often marry a much older man soon after menarche, but they have a say in who they marry and can get divorced if they want to. In fact, most younger men marry an older widow as a first marriage, and might only marry a younger girl later on as a second wife. These marriages are arranged, often from birth, to cement kinship ties and foster cooperation and sharing, but the girl can refuse if she really wants to - which is a totally different dynamic than say child brides in India. But even when I quoted to him about this from the official website of the Australian government, he refused to accept it. I thought he was just being maddening and refusing to believe what a woman had to say, but honestly, I think it was a lot creepier than that.