The name is absent

431

25.11 (iii) Discussion

There was a rejection of the feeling of being ashamed of housing.
The majority of Aborigines (65.2 per cent) did not echo the complaints
found in Aboriginal literature where housing was seen to prevent
social interaction. Housing for most was seen as a positive
idential. This was also true of the non-Aboriginal group.

Statement 48 revealed that 29 Aboriginal people, (one-third
of the group) owned their own homes. Of the remainder, responses
were spread, with 32.3 per cent agreeing, 38.5 per cent not sure, and
29.2 per cent disagreeing with the need to own their house in
order to feel secure. The owning of one’s home, while it was not
a contentious issue, was seen as the reality already achieved, or
the aspiration of another third of the group.

In the case of non-Aborigines, 167 out of the 289 owned their

own houses. Of the remainder,half wished for this security, a
higher proportion than in the case of Aboriginal people. There is

*

thus a difference between the two groups in seeing this as an
idential - a finding that supports Gale and Wundersitz¹ statement
that the owning of a house was not seen as a value by people from
the reserves (Gale and Wundersitz, 1982:70).

25.12 Religion

Erikson emphasised the importance of faith, either religious
faith, or faith in a person,as an idential important in building
and maintaining one’s own identity . Statement 17 aimed to establish
whether or not, as suggested by Aborigines in interviews when seeking
to delineate the problem to be researched, and by Calley (in Reay,
1964:56), Aborigines found adherence to a church group a source
of feeling worthwhile.

25.12 (i) Hypothesis

It was hypothesized that affiliation with a church would
be an important idential for Aborigines.

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