The name is absent

216

During the 1950s we collected Buffel grass seed.

Lots of marrngu stayed in this area and they worked
there. Day after day we went to work from early
morning and we continued to work and eat our lunch
out there before we returned to the camp at sunset.
We continued to take full bags of Buffel grass
seed.

At another place, de Grey crossing, we stayed and
worked collecting the seed in the same way. It
was always this way, we worked day after dayɪ (Mikurrunya
8.10.81:11)                        .

Indirect approval of the hardship and suffering that won out
in the end provides an example of rudimentary theorizing, as do all
the value statements approved or written by the group for the newsletter.

(ii) Autonomy in work

The notion of autonomy is central to the work situation as it
is to every other situation of Strelley.

The white advisers at Coongan and Warralong are ’’working under
the direction of the Pastoral Management Committee” (Mikurrunya,
3.8.80:2).
4

Praise for hard, successful work also comes from this body.

For the group, self-esteem comes from the praise and encouragement
of the marmgu, not the white staff.

The directors of Strelley Pastoral Company congratulate
the various station teams on the work carried out
this year (Mikurrunya, 8.10.81:2).

It was the Pastoral Company which negotiated with members of
the Aboriginal Lands Fund Commission to obtain direct control of
the Coongan/Warralong lease. They were able to point to all the
accomplishments achieved through hard work as a basis of their claim.

13,16 Theorizing about alcoholism
⅛

Theorizing about alcoholism is bound up with the marrngu theorizing
about intervention by squatters, government and missionaries and
the destruction of marrngu culture by these groups.

ɪMonty was about twelve at this time.

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