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They are not privy to decision-making processes or to the
bases on which decisions are made.
They cannot therefore be ascribed leadership roles in
decision-making for the tradition-oriented people.
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The white world gives this group power over traditional
people by appointing them to positions in government agencies
where the marta marta ’speak for’ the marrngu people. The white
world constructs a situation that negates the structures of the
Law, and provides a basis for friction between the marrngu and the
marta marta.
Earlier identification of Aborigines by non-Aborigines
discussed aboveɪ acted to define those people of Aboriginal
ancestry who had positive attributes as ’white’, those with
negative attributes as Aboriginal.
The same categorisation applies in the contemporary situation.
Those who can ’pass' as white are denied Aboriginality. ‘Aborigines
do not want to be part of a multicultural society’. By definition,
those who want to be part of multicultural society are white
and no longer Aboriginal.
The assumption is always that all Aborigines want that
which the agencies established by the Government say they want.
27.13 Identification as Aboriginal Australian
The research findings show that there are those who wish to
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identify as Aborigines and yet at the same time to be integrated
into mainstream society (as Italian-Australians, Greek-Australians
are encouraged to do).
