All one family: family and social identity among urban Aborigines in Western Australia

Abstract

This study concerns social identity and family life among an urban Aboriginal group of Western Australia who call themselves Nyungars. Most Nyungar people live in the southwest corner of the state, but some have migrated north along the coastal strip, settling in towns as far north as Broome. The focus of this study Is one of these northern groups. This family group numbers 161 individuals and spans five generations. The Nyungar system of social organisation emphasises the relationship between the individual and the group in two ways: 1. it emphasises the social and economic dependence of the individual upon the group; 2. a strong moral obligation exists to maintain economic and social relationships established in the course of child rearing and growing up. The questions I seek to answer in relation to these points are: 1. what are the principles of social organisation 2 what are the mechanisms people employ to generate and maintain an enduring structure of social relationships according to those principles? The answers to these questions are achieved through an analysis which Is focused on women. I seek to show that through the establishment of significant relationships In the Individual’s childhood there Is also established a means of systematically generating and maintaining Individual Identity. This Identity depends for Its continued existence on the confirming behaviour of these significant others. These significant others can successfully claim to know the individual In a unique way on the basis of their relationship which was established and maintained throughout the Individual’s childhood. It is because kinfolk maintain allegiance to one another's established identities that the structure of social relationships endures the hardships and vagaries of life at the bottom of the social, economic and political scales. Show more