The name is absent

152

diversity in Australia (Australian Institute of
Multi-CulturalAffairs, 1980:vii, 7).
V

The Institute did not include Aborigines in its concern.

The stated aims of this document were to promote a cohesive
Australian society by developing among Australian people an awareness
and understanding of the diverse cultures resulting from the
migration of various ethnic groups.

The Institute declared itself ready to cooperate with Aboriginal
groups. Yet Aborigines were separated out as not part of this
«■

cohesive society.

The question must be asked whether,. despite the granting
№

of citizenship to Aborigines, they were nevertheless not seen

by government or by official organisations, as eligible for therapy
-⅛

and appropriate subjects for integration.

The answer would seem to be rather that it is a question
of administrative organization which is at the bottom of this
problem, that Aborigines are not separated out because of their
•uniqueness* but they are excluded conceptually in order to maintain
the operations of a government department.

Separate administrative arrangements apply to those
areas and as the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic
Affairs made clear in November 1979, in his second
reading speech on the Bill to establish the Institute,
it would not overlap the functions of the Department
of Aboriginal Affairs or the Australian Institute
of Aboriginal Studies (Australian Institute of
Multicultural Affair⅞ 1980:v).

Whatever the basis for exclusion, as far as Aborigines are concerned,
it must be concluded that they are not seen by any of these reality
definers as located within the framework of a multi-cultural
Australia.

It must be concluded that, given contemporary conceptualisation,
there is no place for an Aboriginal world within the framework

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