479
27.41 The question of segregation
*
Segregation was seen aboveɪ as a policy of management by
I *
nihilation. The same policy at the school level was put into
. ɪʌ . 2
practice in Port Augusta , until 1968,by the segregation of
Aborigines from the content of .secondary schooling and the source
of secondary schooling (i.e., schools in the town). Segregation
of Aborigines within the secondary school system, once they were
admitted, was also put into effect with consequences disastrous
both for teachers and students.
Negative stereotyping and discrimination define boundaries
from without for Aborigines. Voluntary self-segregation, ’forming
groups to get somewhere', is a step that turns to advantage the
formerly imposed segregation and permits the putting into practice
of the ideal of self-determination, firmly internalized by
Aboriginal people, particularly at the micro-cosmic level of ’doing
things for themselves’.
It has been pointed out above that racist groups, in white
society, while imposing segregation as a means of control,
violently reject self-segregation for Aborigines as a means of
3
gaining autonomy .
However, in mainstream society, the segregation of students
into the Independent school sector has long been accepted as serving
manifest and latent functions for groups within that society.
That is the purpose of an independent school.
IVhite mainstream society accepts independent schools as a
given for themselves; nevertheless, the establishment of independent
schools for a minority, nihilated sector could well present a problem
of acceptance by the host society.
ɪɛee ρ. 101.
2
Tins practice was not, of course, particular to Pt. Augusta.
Aborigines were segregated into reserves throughout Australia.
ʒsee p. 104 ff.