The name is absent

149

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conceptualisation locates Aborigines outSide the framework of
a multi-cultural society. Further enlightenment will be sought
from the conclusions Ofgovernment supported bodies.

11.32   'Policies of government supported bodies

(i) Australian Ethnic Affairs Council, 1977

In its submission to the Australian Population and Immigration
Coxincil', August, 1977, Australia as a Multi-cultural Society,
the Australian Ethnic Affairs Council isolated three key issues
confronting Australia as a result of migration policies, namely
social cohesion, equality and cultural identity.

The Council further identified three principal processes
by vιhich multiculturalism develops:

1. Cultural stratification; socio-economic stratification
coincides with ethnic stratification to produce
a hierarchy of cultural layers

2. Differentiation by cultural regions (e.g. Switzerland)

3. Differentiation by cultural communities (Australian
Ethnic Affairs Council, 1977:16).

In its submission, the Council held that where the process

of developing multiculturalism is one of cultural stratification
(as in 1. above), the concentration of people of certain ethnic
origins in low socio-economic strata, a process which is associated
also with lack of knowledge of English, "devalues and stigmatises
that ethnic community in the eyes of the larger society and threatens
the identity and self-esteem of its members" (ibid:16).

If this is so, then, in the case of Aborigines now under

discussion, the question must be asked whether or not, in the
conceptualisation of Australia as a multi-cultural country, Aborigines

*

are Coilfrontedwith a non-cħoice, a situation structured for failure,
since in general they are part of process 1. above, namely cultural
stratification. As a group, they are contexted into a socio-
economic stratification that coincides with ethnic stratification,

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