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14.2 Worlds of meaning with which Strelley interacts
Figure 4 shows the complexity of interaction in the construction
of the ’world' of Strelley and the numerous groups with which the
Mob interacts.
There are the worlds of predecessors - tribal forefathers. The
world of predecessors also contains the worlds of station owners
with their particular morality and attitudes to Aborigines.., It
contains the 'world of missionaries'.
It further contains the police (often also the so-called
•protectors').
From all these 'worlds' the Strelley Mob has inherited sedimented
1
meanings that are opaque and difficult for them to examine ,since
they are part of a 'world' that is 'given', the world tout court
as Berger puts it.
The mining exploits of the group produced a further history -
a history of suffering and survival. The 'traditionalism' of
Strelley, and the typifications formulated must be seen as filtered
through these worlds of meaning and worlds of experience.
Ih contemporary times, the Mob interacts within itself, with
other Aboriginal groups, Consociates and contemporaries, and with
white 'worlds'. In the latter case, there are both the world it
absorbs within its own structures, in the case of the teachers it
employs, and the world to which it sees itself contiguous, whose
footnote 2