454
I
I
Among the government supported bodies, the Schools Commission,
in particular, gave positive recognition to Aboriginal worlds (pp.
156 ff.)
* It set up a Consultative group to advise it (1975) .
* It set up the National Aboriginal Education Committee
(1979) and proposed (1981) that this committee be
I
responsible for allocation'of funds to Aboriginal
Education.
* It recognised differences among Aboriginal groups at
the level of theory and practice, and placed
responsibility on schools to theorize and prepare
programmes for particular Aboriginal clienteles. It
thus focussed attention, not on abstractions, but on
the real life, lived life of Aboriginal people contexted
into different 'worlds'.
The study has shown that school personnel have interacted with
the theorizing of the Schools Commission to articulate a positive
theorizing about Aboriginal identity and to structure schooling in
a way that reflects the different models of 'worlds' with which students
interact (p. 314 ff.).
Hypothesis 1.1 (p. 42)
The hypothesis, that there would not Ъе different models of
Aboriginal worlds conceptualized by mainstream society was supported
by pre-1967 legislation and policy, and post-1967 practice. It
was not supported in the case of the Australian Schools Commission,
and schools.
The hypothesis that it would be shown that the conceptual machinery
of nihilation was used to locate Aboriginal people outside mainstream
society was supported for the period before 1967. .
In post-1967 policy, Aborigines were excluded from mainstream
society, but their world of meaning was not nihilated. Positive
recognition was given to the Aboriginal world at the theoretical
level.