A study of a mixed-blood aboriginal minority in the pastoral west of New South Wales

Abstract

The policy of the Aborigines Welfare Board is to assist aborigines in becoming full members of white society. In the Far West a few have come near to this goal; they are mostly town dwellers who have little to do with other aborigines out­ side the family circle. Others like Quinn and Wilson associate extensively with whites, while yet fulfilling their obligations to a wide circle of kith and kin. The majority, however, show no sign of becoming assimilated. The contacts they have with whites are largely impersonal, often ephemeral and limited very much to the business in hand. Thus, an aborigine may help to erect a fence for a white employer with­ out ever seeing him, and often the only contact aboriginal women have with whites is across the shop counter. The more intimate and permanent relationships of their lives, such as arise in the home and in recreation, are maintained exclusively with other aborigines, and they seek to establish themselves in the regard of their fellows rather than of white people. Moreover, their membership of an ethnically and culturally distinct group is often instrumental in defining their relations with and status among whites. This is not just a matter of white prejudice - we have seen that many whites are ready to take aborigines as they find them - but that aborigines may participate in white society as members of an aboriginal group. A man works to keep his family at a level of comfort considered adequate by his fellows, to have sufficient surplus to be able to satisfy the demands of kith and kin, and to be able to 'shout' a drink for his mates; having provided for these needs, he stops work and enjoys a period of leisure. This means that he is usually a casual worker and acquires a reputation for laziness, fecklessness and drunkenness among those whites who stress providence, industry and sobriety as virtues and who consider a higher standard of living desirable.