The name is absent

132

Aboriginal people talk spontaneously about ’the broken ones',,
’the dead’.

These are the ones who state flatly as their reason for alcoholism -
”1 want to die''ɪ. Thus escape from ’hopeless frustration’ was
seen by some to lie in abandoning Aboriginal society for white
society.

The move towards white society may be viewed as a compulsion
to escape from the vacuum of identity-diffusion.   If is better

to be white than to be nothing.
*
*

However, for some, the escape was from the situation of de-
ⁱ          humanisation enshrined in the legislation of the various Acts

L
f

і          which imposed restrictions on personal liberty that could only

r^l

I          apply to minors, the insane, or animals.

E

Integration into white society was seen by some as an antidote
to the fear of such oppression.

Vi Stanton pointed out that "It was put out in the 1950s
that if you dared identify as an Aborigine you would come tinder
the Protection of Aborigines" (Stanton, in Gilbert, 1977:8).

Smith and Biddle (1975:10) found the same reluctance of
individuals to identify as Aborigines when a question was addressed
as to the individual’s status under the Queensland Acts. Those
who, in interviews, had been identified by others, and identified
themselves as Aborigines, on being asked a question relating to
status under the Act, identified themselves as South Sea Islanders,
Polynesians, Maoris, Singhalese, United States Blacks, or some
other ethnic group, presumably through fear of the consequences
of ’protection’.
I
The Aboriginal people were acutely aware of the significance

Interviews, Pt. Augusta.

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