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12.4 Autonomy of the group
12.41 Political independence through the Law
In the case of the Strelley Mob, the strengthening and maintaining
of the Law becomes a point of reference determining the direction
and character of change of the group and strengthens,for the group,
the sense of autonomy, of political independence which first emerged
as a force at the six weeks of meetings at Skull Spring.
One of the more obvious areas in which this autonomy is exercised
is in decision making in the area of schooling.
The Station was purchased in 1972 and a Foundation linking its
name to the ’Nomad’ identity of the group was incorporated in 1973 to
raise funds for housing and education. The Nomads Group itself had
been in existence following the meeting of 1942 when the Lawmen of
twenty-three scattered tribes assembled at Skull Spring. The group,
known as the Nomads Charitable and Education Foundation, together with
the Nomads Research Foundation, set out in 1975 to establish a bilingual
school at Strelley Station.
Their aim was to retain and develop their economic
independence and cultural integrity separate from
white dominated institutions. For this basic reason
it had never been intended that Strelley Community
school should be a school in the ordinary or commonly
accepted sense of the word (Bucknall, 1980).
The result is that the forms of schooling at Strelley become a
real alternative to the western model of schooling and do not
reflect the ideology or practice of other contemporary school
systems, even where these are held to be ’alternative’1.
Sorokin posits that mere spatial agglomeration does not lead
to group cohesion. Rather, the autonomy of a group is dependent
upon the existence of ’causal-meaningful bonds’.
1∙Schooling’ as part of the total educational thrust, is discussed below,
pp. 218, 276. Education was always of paramount importance in Aboriginal
life.