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21.7 Sunimary

The picture of the Aboriginal groups is one of people able to               '

structure a positive self-image, despite rejection by the dominant                ■
society. The conclusion can be drawn that students at Port Augusta_j
despite a racist atmosphere outside the school, and negative stereotyping
within the school, are able to draw strength of mind, and a positive
outlook,from school structures and school policy, together with the
positive theorizing of definers of reality within the Aboriginal
community.

Similarly, it may be argued that the S.A.I.T. group, who have
experienced rejection in the milieu of white society, have built
on that rejection to form a group cohesiveness which is strengthened
by the enclave system which promotes high visibility. The theorizing
of the enclave staff is, like the theorizing of the Port Augusta
group, overtly directed towards the strengthening of Aboriginal identity.
The theorizing is of a highly positive nature in that it is predicated
on a belief that Aboriginal people are intelligent, and that they
can succeed in tertiary studies.

` The puzzle still remains as to how it is possible for Aborigines
to construct positive self-images in the light of their rejection
by their white consociates, unless the theorizing of Aboriginal people
at Port Augusta about their society being parallel to white society
is accepted.

Interview data reveals that theorizing on the part of non-Aboriginal

definers of reality in educational contexts was, without exception,
favourable to Aborigines. (In the case of Salisbury North, the
refusal to theorize about Aborigines as Aborigines, rather than as
’Australians’ on the part of the Principal, was certainly, in his
view, the ’theorizing’ most favourable for Aborigines).

The question must be asked whether, at the level of theorizing,
the non-Aboriginal students were more supportive than they were on
the question of typifications. Non-Aboriginal response to Schedule
II Statements relating to Aborigines will now be examined in Chapter XXII,

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