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in Armidale and places like Brewarrina and Moree who are
starting to come up now with reasoning and rationale
and politically minded ideas and who are going to win
this fight for us. It is not going to be those people
down there, the ones with ’paid off’ jobs with the
government. Michael Anderson works for the government,
Chicka Dixon works for the government. They were actively
involved in Aboriginal affairs until twelve months ago.
You couldn’t hear anyone speak but these people. Now you
can see the difference: they’ve been taken over by the
Federal and possibly the State government ... it seems to
me now that I really come to know them, that they’ve been
playing ball with the white people and the white people
have been using them.for years; they’ve been using black
men to exploit others (Lovelock, in Tatz, ed., 1975:68).
The Aborigines see themselves as divided on issues such as
leadership, ’passing’, being employed by 'the government’, the
very agency
that had so humiliated them for hundreds of years.
Within Aboriginal society, factionalism must be seen as a
major source of disunity in any social structuring of an Aboriginal
community that attempts to embrace the smaller, but powerful,
kin groups.
We have already shown that Strelley is a cohesive group, with
community structures providing for the settlement of disputes.
There is a flexibility that both permits different language groups
to establish sub-communities within the whole, and promotes the
unity of these groups into one, the Mob.
Adelaide reflects the factionalism perceived for Aborigines
in general. Governmental decisions made in consultation with the
group are violently attacked by telexes sent to Canberra by another
1
group .
Chicka Dixon's sketching of small groups and even individuals
unilaterally approaching the government remains true of Adelaide.
It is also a problem that wherever Aboriginal people exercise
their autonomy in providing new initiatives,
between opposing groups.
there will be factionalism
ɪpersonal communication from an Aboriginal civil servant, 1982.