The name is absent

383

out as a group. This would be seen as counter to the developmental
* *

thrust of the Aboriginal people.

However, the disadvantages of Aboriginal students, along with
the disadvantages of white students from low socio-economic back-
grounds, are to be recognised and.countered as far as this is
possible in the school. At the same time measures are taken in
one of the schools, Taperoo, to support the construction of an
Aboriginal identity without articulating this as policy to the whole school

body.

The theorizing of the school was reflected in the theorizing

of the students. It is good to Ieam about other cultures.

Aborigines are accepted and supported; they should merge into
the population, but at the same time should form groups to get

somewhere, and there should be some support for positive

discrimination in jobs.

At the same time, stereotyping of Aborigines was still negative
(though less negative in city schools than at Pt. Augusta).

-t
J

In the rural urban situation, with a different historical

background, and with larger visible groups of Aborigines, there was            ⁱ

significantly less support for Aborigines merging into the                     ;

population, both at the level of school philosophy and student
response. Aborigines Wereperceived as a separate group.

Coinciding with this perception on the part of students, there
was significantly less support for Aborigines forming groups to get

л

somewhere, and even less support for the notion of positive

discrimination in jobs.

Interview data confirmed the perception that policies of
positive discrimination for Aborigines coming out of the Whitlam
era produced a backlash of opinion against Aborigines.

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