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On the wider Australian scene, in the area of education,
there is pressure for multicultural education,or at least education
for a multicultural society. Acceptance of this notion at the
governmental level stops short at the acceptance of a multi-
structural society, which is implict in the Strelley ’world’
construct.
For Strelley to have a firm basis of theoretical support, it
*
must be seen as operating autonomously not only within a situation
of cultural pluralism, but rather within the context of structural
pluralism, that is, a pluralism that’is not merely notional,
respecting a diversity of cultures, but one that permits alternative
structures to allow a real diversity of culture to develop.
The world view of the Mob allows for alternative structures
for others. They respect the white law, they respect those white
people who earn their respect. They are not racist in their rejection
of the structures that are the ’norm' for the dominant society.
They do not reject the structures for white people: they reject
them ɛs inappropriate for themselves. They seek to regain their
own independence, to regain a measure of control over their lives,
and hold that they cannot do this through white structures,since
their psychological model is quite other than that of white society.
For them, there is no point in a multi-cultural society without
multi-structures, since their biography tells them that their
traditional culture was destroyed, and currently their tradition-
oriented culture is threatened by the culture of others having
power to nihilate.
V
For Strelley,there is no place in current conceptualisations of
a multi-cultural society. The Aboriginal world is both placed outside
the frame of reference by the dominant group,and places itself outside
the frame of reference,in order to pursue the goal of building a
culture that excludes those not committed to it, and rejects (for
itself) the norms of other cultures.
It would be bizarre in the extreme to imagine the Strelley Mob
advocating the learning of a foreign language on the basis of