61
than at Pt. Augusta High and the Aboriginal enrolment was thus
less visible.
d
5.3 Adelaide
5.31 Background
The Aboriginal people of Adelaide were wiped out through death
and dispersal in the early years of settlement. A description of
their culture is found in Edwards (1972), The Kaurna-People of the
Adelaide Plains.
The Aboriginal population surveyed by Gale (1972) were migrants
from Point Pearce, Point McLeay and the West Coast of South
Australia. Smaller groups had come from the South East and the
Upper Murrayɪ. All these groups formed quite distinct kinship
groups (Gale, 1972:76). By 1966, the year in which Gale’s data was
gathered, half the people originally from Point McLeay, and one
third of Pt. Pearce people, had migrated to Adelaide.
Aboriginal people in Adelaide identify themselves as belonging
to the Point McLeay group or Point Pearce group (Gale, 1972:81).
However, it must be pointed out that this ’belongingness’ is to
a group structured by white people, church or government. Both
Point Pearce and Point McLeay were originally missions. Thus in
tracing their origins to one of these places, the people are in
fact identifying themselves with a reserve or mission which over
generations has come to be their home.
IVhile it is common to speak of ’the Aboriginal community’,
in fact there is rather an aggregation of people from different
*
kinship groupings, often traditionally at variance with one
another.
ɪɛee Figure 2.
