The name is absent

186

He was rather disconcerted by the unexpected response that
the Mob felt it was more important to Ieam how to vote than to
play football.

The mob is well aware that Party policies differ on a crucial
issue for Aborigines - Land Rights. They differ also on policies
of assimilation, self-determination - that is, on policies affecting
Aboriginal groups as discrete political entities.

12.44

Cii) Autonomy and government intervention

The autonomy that is real in the world of Strelley is dependent
on the goodwill of a number of groups in Government.

The Mob continues to exercise and strengthen the autonomy of
the Strelley ’world' vis-a-vis the world of white society. The
search for identity, however, rests on a fragile base. It depends
on many complex interactions with other groups. It is subject to

the unforeseen consequences and perhaps even unintended consequences
of the pursuit by other groups of their aims and objectives which

may be, and often are, in conflict with those of the Strelley
Mob.

For some time, in addition to income from the station, the Mob
will be dependent upon financial support coming from Schools
Commission grants, secondary study grants, and welfare benefits.
Such support will depend on the interpretation of policy and law
by the agencies concerned. The Mob will be dependent upon Government
support in its funding, upon Government support in recognising it
as an independent school, upon the sympathetic understanding of
school inspectors and their capacity to structure an alternative
evaluation for an alternative school. Currently that support is
present, and the autonomy of the group is real, though insecure, to the
extent it is dependent on outside factors.

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