380
The notion that Aborigines should ’try to be white’ was
*
rejected by the non-Aboriginal students even more strongly than
the notion that Vietnamese should leave all their way of life
behind.
In response to the remaining statements in Table 26, the
theorizing of the students was consistent with the theorizing of
*
the schools. At Salisbury High, for example, 65.6 per cent of
students reflected school thinking that Aborigines should merge
into the general population. At Pt. Augusta, the students supported
the notion of a parallel model; only 37 per cent.of Pt. Augusta High
students and 36 per cent of Augusta Park students believed Aboriginal
students should merge into the general population.
*
The theorizing of the city schools would seem to be that
Aborigines should merge into the population (thinking that reflected
the theorizing of the Principals) but that they should not try
to be white, they should not lose their Aboriginality.
This interpretation is strengthened by the response of Salisbury
North and Taperoo supporting the idea of Aborigines forming groups
to get somewhere.
Fifty-seven per cent of the former, and 53 per cent of the
latter, supported this notion.
Seventy five per cent of the Taperoo sample, (the highest
proportion of all the schools), believed Australians showed
discrimination in employing Aborigines.
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The same group had 50 per cent of respondents supporting the
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notion that Aborigines should get jobs before migrants, a quite ⅛
surprising response in view of the fact that Salisbury North
population has a large proportion of migrants and unemployment is
of great concern.
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Throughout, students from Salisbury North, which had the lowest
Ievelofvisibility of Aboriginal people in the study and the lowest
⅛
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