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Policy arising from the theorizing may be categorised as .
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segregation, dispersal and assimilation.
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It is posited that the theorizing underlying these modes і
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of managing Aboriginal people is based within the conceptual machinery
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of nihilation.
8.41 Conceptual nihilation
The Foundation Act of 1834, of South Australia, declared the
land to be unoccupied territory.
The denial of the very existence of Aborigines made it possible
to allocate land to white settlers, without the problem of acknow-
ledging the rights of earlier occupiers of the land.
Katz and Braly. (1935:191-2), in early research into stereo-
typing, posited that negative stereotyping of minority groups was
used as a means of advancing the economic interests of the dominant
group.
β.41 (i) Legitimation of nihilation by economic arguments
Economic interests as a basis for the legitimation of policy
towards Aborigines forms a thread which continued to the forties.
In the early stages of the colony the self-interest of the
settlers permitted, perhaps required, prejudice and discrimination,
which permitted denial of rights, even denial of existence, so
that landowners could rationalise the obtaining or increasing
of their holdings at the expense of Aborigines.
Jenkin (1979:34) having discussed the inevitability of some
developed country settling Australia sooner or later, and exculpating
the settlers from deliberate malice in their dealings with Aborigines,
summarises the issue in this way: .
