The name is absent

283

17.6 Summary

The Thetoricofcurrent policies is directed to self-determination,
self -management.
⅛

Where there are civil servants with empathy, aware to some
extent of their ethnocentrism, there is the possibility of a liberal
interpretation of policy, of a departure from the pragmatic
(programmes for housing can be seen and measured)^ to an attempt
≠

to understand.and come to grips with,the problem of identity. This
f

presupposes an effort on the part of pivil servants to interact
• ’ ∙ * ∙

with mainstream theorizing,in order to bring about its realization.
Such a possibility, however, rests on the availability of staff
with rare gifts of understanding and toleranceɪ.

The marrngu are dependent on the good will, availability and
suitability of teachers to undertake work with the Mob which demands
special qualities of physical and psychological endurance.

The Strelley ’world’ is not a world ’tout court’. It is a
world over and against the world of dominant culture. It is
dependent for its continued existence on its own strength from
within to surmount the problems strewing a path towards autonomy;
it is dependent upon its ability to construct a ’world’ of meaning
within which identity is satisfactorily located; it is dependent
upon the support (or at least lack of opposition) of those exerting
power in funding agencies.

The fact that Strelley is going from strength to strength
indicates that there is sufficient good will currently, from the
white ’world’,and sufficient inner strength from the community,
for them to achieve a high degree of autonomy.

¹In other locations in the outstation movement, where there is a
trend for Aboriginal people to withdraw from the mission∕reserve situation,
the Aboriginal people are dependent on the tolerance and sympathetic
understanding of the State Education Department to support their
moves, and to provide teachers.

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