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tribal group from which many are descended. They are able to
appropriate the idential of life-history as it is mediated through
Jenkins’ book and locate themselves as members of a particular
.t , ɪ
tribal group .
■*
Mrs. Doreen Wanganeen spent much of 1979-82 at the University
of Adelaide compiling genealogies and collecting old photographs
so that young people unaware of the life history of their people,
and of their kinship connections, might locate themselves within
such a life history.
Aboriginal studies programmes at Pt. Augusta schools,
presented by Aboriginal people, vetted by Aboriginal people,provide
a valuable introduction and/or strengthening of the idential of
b
life history.
The Taperoo programme does this also. These programmes, of
their nature,are more diffuse in presenting life history than
is the manner in which this is accomplished at Strelley. There,
life history is highly particularised. It is lived out in daily
life. In the urban situations, while Aboriginal studies in the
school curriculum aids understanding of the culture of Aboriginal
people, and can become a generalised source of pride, an identification
with the people studied cannot be equated with a personal life
history.
At Taperoo, the Aboriginal studies programme, integrated into
all subjects, and heightened by excursions, is aimed at making <χlΛ∙
students aware that Australian Aborigines can point with pride to
a cultural heritage in which they share.
All these programmes, adapted to particular situations,make
a valuable contribution towards giving Aboriginal people a sense
ɪlnglis (1961:205) pointed out in the sixties the- lack of
knowledge of urban Aboriginal people about their traditional culture:
’•Point Pearce people, who make up the bulk of the Adelaide
population, admit that what they know of primitive lore has
been learned from dark people from other places".