The name is absent

324

19.4 Salisbury North High School

This school is set in a low socio-economic area; it is
characterised by low cost housing and multiple problem families.
There is a high percentage of deserted wives (settled there because
of low-cost housing), single parent families, and migrant families,
many of them English, often suffering a sense of dislocation resulting
from their leaving home and families in England. One feeder area

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for the school is settled by market gardeners, mostly recent migrants.
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Unemployment is high. Juvenile delinquency of a minor nature
is common. Adult delinquency is common. The Principal made
the observation that the court lists, particularly those connected
with growing marijuana, ’’read like the school roll”.

Information received from the Principal of Taperoo High indicated
that Aboriginal families moved to Salisbury North in order to move
away from relatives in more established areas, who were seen as
demanding and disruptiveɪ.

The philosophy of the school was consonant with this legitimation
of Aborigines moving into the area. A strong assimilationist
line was pursued. It was the school policy that all children,
from whatever ethnic background, were to be regarded as Australian.

In line with this philosophy, Aborigines were not separated
out for treatment or comment. The Principal and staff were unsure
of the numbers of Aborigines in the school (this was in marked

contrast to Taperoo and Port Augusta). Neither Principal, nor
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staff was able to furnish information, for example, about whether
the Aborigines in the school were from the Point. Pearce or Point
McLeay groups or were from the north.

ɪɑale and Wundersitz (1982:100) assert that ’’spatial distance
from other members of the same regional group may be used as a
measure of the integration or separation of Aborigines from the
majority community”.

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