450
25.24 (iii) Discussion -
It will be seen that both groups saw ’coping with whatever
1
life brings' as the most supported mark of success. Neither group
saw success as centred on the amount of money earned, or on having
lots of friends (though the non-Aboriginal group was equally
divided on this last issue).
F
Both groups gave support to the statement that there were
more important things in life than jobs or money. The Aboriginal
group gave less support than the non-Aborigines and 41.3 per cent disagreed
with the statement (more than supported it).
1 ..
On the whole it could be said that the value structures were
not greatly different on this issue.
Aborigines tended to give rather more importance to having a job
as a measure of success than non-Aborigines: Hon-Aborigines tended to
support the notion of having friends slightly more than Aborigines.
25.3 Summary
It is concluded that there is no clear evidence that the group
studied have internalized,in an unequivocal way, поп-materialistic
values held to be culturally distinctive of Aborigines.
There is some evidence to suggest that Aboriginal people embrace
the values of the dominant society, though there is less support for
that' view.
Table 51 shows that Aborigines and non-Aborigines saw Aborigines
putting self and family first,
as did Australians and Italians.
Aborigines saw Australians and Aborigines (but not the Aboriginal
self) wasting money. Theydidnot see 'generosity with money' as a
cultural value for Aborigines.
1This was a phrase commonly used by Aboriginal people in interviews,
when asked to define what success meant to them.