The name is absent

364

The S.A.I.T. group had a less favourable view of Australians than
that of the schools studied on ten items (marked + in Table 20)_j

*

a finding that is easily explained in light of the fact that these
people and their families had experienced the segregation and
nihilation of the pre-seventies.

On these ten items, there was cohesion in the low degree of
*

support of positive typifications compared with the schools. On
only two items, ’care for possessions' and 'motivated to get somewhere*
was there a degree of support of more than 50 per cent, compared
with seven items from Port Augusta High, five items from Augusta
Park and two items from Taperoo.

Even on one of the two items supported, more Aborigines saw
the Aboriginal self as highly motivated (88.8 per cent for Aboriginal self
compared with 50.1 per cent for ’Australians').

Thus there is evidence, in the pattern of response, of the S.A.I.T.
Aboriginal group distancing themselves from Australians in general
by a more negative response than is found in the schools.

The hypothesis that the more visible the Aboriginal group _b the
less positive the typlflcatlon of ^,Australians^, was supported In the
case of the adult_j S.A.I.T. group. Itwdsnot supported In the school
situations.

It is possible that, like Strelley, one element of group cohesion
is- found in establishing the group over and against an ’enemy’, and
that Aboriginal identity in the post-secondary group is constructed
and legitimated by rejecting the world of white people which has
rejected them.

One can posit the rejection, not necessarily of the values
of white society, but of the people purported to hold those values.
It will be seen (p.442ff,below) that ’white’values are embraced in
the positive self image of the Aborigine.

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