The name is absent

8.42 I (iii) Isolation and dispersal

(a) Full-blood Aborigines

Tindale, summarising research in part supported by the Government,
talked of the full-blood Aborigines of South Australia as a dying
remnant. He noted

The full bloods in the settled districts are a diminishing
group and will soon be extinct. Isolation of the
surviving desert tribes which have not yet completely
lost the old ways of living would be an economic
advantage to the State of South Australia. It would
enable the control of faunal pests and the effective
occupation of a desert area which is a menace to
the pastoral areas (Tindale, 1941:68).

Tindale would have thought of himself as humanitarian. Yet

his solution for the tribal people did little to differentiate
them from well-trained dogs, or some native animal promoting a
balance in the wild - much as, in game parks, a mingling of animals
preserves a balance. His solution was based on a widely held
assumption, the belief (or wish) that Aborigines were dying out.
He unashamedly posited the economic advantage of white people
as a basis for banishment, physical nihilation.

8.42(iii) (b) Half-castes

On the question of half-castes, Tindale (1941:67) noted

The problem of how to deal [with the half-castes
who replace tribal people] is a difficult but not
insoluble one. They are faced with the same problems
as we are in nurturing their families securing education
and finding a place in the community. They should
not be treated as if they were a highly developed
species of animal, to be viewed only as though they
were inhabitants of a zoological garden. They should
not be shut away in segregated (almost caged) communities.

The last two sentences are most revealing of the perception

I

and treatment of Aborigines in the early forties when Tindale                     ¹
was writing - animals, inhabitants of zoological gardens echo
the stereotype of subhuman, a stereotype based on the ‘scientific*
findings of the followers of Darwin, which found ready acceptance
in a racist population.

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