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Incorporation of Aborigines into mainstream society (a form
of therapy)is predicated upon nihilation of the symbolic universe
of Aborigines. The same strategy may be observed in the assimilation
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of activists into Government positions where activism can be contained .'
Rowley (1971:35) provides a comment. In his view, assimilation
in practice was an ’’effort to train the Aboriginal to make him
less offensive to whites”.
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8.5 Summary
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Conceptual nihilation
It is clear that, until the changes brought about by the
Labor Government in 1973, following the Referendum of 1967, legislation
and policy concerning Aborigines, viewed as part of a machinery
to manage the Aboriginal minority group at the conceptual level,
must be categorised within the framework of conceptual nihilation,
at times permitting and legitimating physical nihilation.
The theorizing permitted murder, death through debilitation
as people were pushed from their food gathering activities, and
psychological debilitation as the Law was fractured, autonomy
in the political and social areas removed, and adults became perpetual
minors.
Negative tyρifications were constructed and institutionalized
by the settlers. The power of the dominant group was strong
enough to nihilate those descriptions of positive identity of
the Aboriginal people which were extant.
Aboriginal people were seen as a ’problem' irritating white
society. The nythology grew up that Aborigines were a problem
because ontologically they were less than human: they would always
be resistant to civilising influences. The problem of colour,
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proclaimed Bleakley, (1961) a former adviser to the Commonwealth
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See p.183 below,where tradition-oriented people make this very
point.
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