The name is absent

167

typifications of Aborigines have become positive,
і
The Schools Commission projects positive theorizing both
in typifying Aborigines and in the conceptualisation of their
location in society. The Commission supports structural differentiation.

Researcliers have changed the focus of the view through which
the Aboriginal world is seen.
«

Nevertheless, a number of problems must be faced.

The following questions may be asked.

In the exercise of self-determination/self-ɪnanagement,
can a hitherto powerless group, socialised into
powerlessness, take the initiative necessary?

Is the policy of self-determination∕self-management
a real one? or merely a way of dismissing an impossible
problem so that the ensuing situation of failure
can be explained in terms of a social pathology

model. (The Aborigines have been given (by committees)

the right to self-determination.

they fail to use this right is further proof of
the innate deficiency of their race).

Are Aboriginal people already excluded from Australian
multicultural society by the frames of reference
currently held, and will they be forced into
separatism from mainstream society?

Are there specific Aboriginal values which make
contemporary Aborigines ’unique’ and different
from other members of the multi-cultural society?
or do the policy platforms mythologise about the
uniqueness of the effects of the Aboriginal situation
and in their mythologising confuse Aboriginal people,
who feel obliged to isolate ’Aboriginal* values
and culture that mark them off as different? Does
Aboriginality consist rather in the exclusion of
Aboriginal people, the imposition of boundaries
from without?

ɪ In early 1982 the Department of Aboriginal Affairs was negotiating
for a study to evaluate self-management projects. University
people and Aboriginal people had many apprehensions about undertaking
this, fearing the study would be used to prove self-management
was not successful, thus providing a rationale for funds to Aboriginal
agencies to be cut.

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