RBAN ABORIGINES guFay Gälc assisted by Alison Brookman brt This book concerns the re-entry of Aborigines into Australian life—specifically the life of urban Adelaide—after generations of restriction to isolated rural areas. Aborigines are moving into Australian cities in increasing numbers—in 1957 one in sixteen of South Australia’s Aborigines lived in Adelaide, by 1966 one in four did so. Some adjust easily to city life, others face seemingly insoluble problems of housing and employment, social tensions, health and welfare, education and law. Often their experience on reserves and the fringes of small towns has in no way prepared them for urban life. The physical confrontation involved in this re-entry is already leading to legislative and social changes for Aborigines. It is beginning to arouse public conscience about Aboriginal conditions, and the voice of the Aboriginal is beginning to be heard. This study is a representative picture of Aborigines in Australian cities today, and it speaks for the future of Australia, black and white. This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. URBAN ABORIGINES

I fa ;• "k e t 'tourn > i Eu< I O R IA L DEPARTMENT Immim national un ivebsitt

RECOMMENDED RETAIL PRICE ^ f ' S o PUBLiCATiON DATE n Aborigines in Australian Society 8

A series sponsored by The Social Science Research Council of Australia URBAN ABORIGINES

Fay Gale Assisted by Alison Brookman

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY PRESS CANBERRA 1 9 7 2 © Social Science Research Council oj Australia 1972 This hook is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may he reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should he made to the publisher. Registered in Australia for transmission by post as a book.

National Library of Australia Card no. & IS B N 0 7081 0259 X Library oj Congress Catalog Card no. 19-190694 URBAN ABORIGINES

NOTE ON THE SERIES n r 'h e Social Science Research Council of Australia (now The Academy A of the Social Sciences in Australia), which was founded in its present form in 1952, is the national organisation of social scientists. Some of its major functions are: to encourage the advancement of the social sciences in Australia; to act as a co-ordinating group for the promotion of research and teaching in the social sciences; to foster research and to subsidise the publication of studies in the social sciences. To these ends the Council has sponsored a number of major research projects. The first related to the role of women in public and professional life in Australia and was carried out by Mr Norman MacKcnzic. His report, together with the associated study of the legal status of women in Australia by Dr Enid Campbell, was published in 1962 in a book, Women in Australia (F.W. Cheshire Pty Ltd, Melbourne). The second major project, carried out by a group of economists, was concerned with the Australian taxation structure and under the authorship of R.I. Downing, H.W. Arndt, A.H. Boxer, and R.L. Mathews, the results were published in 1964 in Taxation in Australia: Agenda for Reform (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne). In 1963 the Council approved its third and most ambitious major project, Aborigines in Australian Society, with the broad objectives of: elucidating the problems arising from contacts between Aborigines and non-Aborigines and formulating policy implications from these; VI NOTE ON THE SERIES

drawing together existing knowledge in various parts of Australia and undertaking such further original research as can be carried out over a period of three years.

In May 1964, Mr C.D. Rowley, formerly Principal of the Australian School of Pacific Administration in Sydney, was appointed Director of the Project, to work under the general guidance of a Project Committee appointed by the Council. The volumes now being published represent a major research enterprise in which many social scientists collaborated over the length and breadth of Australia. However, the whole enterprise depended in very large measure on the magnificent support received, from the outset, from the Myer Foundation of Australia and the Sidney Myer Charity Trust. The Council wishes to acknowledge its gratitude for their generosity. W.D. B orrie Canberra, 1969 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS f I 'he most important people involved in assisting with this study are, A ot course, the Aborigines of Adelaide, but so many helped in so many different ways and in differing degrees that I hesitate to single out any individuals by name. I can however thank formally the members of the two Aboriginal associations in Adelaide, the Aborigines’ Progress Association and the Council for Aboriginal Women of South Australia. In the academic field the one to whom I am most indebted is Professor Graham H. Lawton, of the Department of Geography, University of Adelaide. W ithout his encouragement and assistance with both facilities and finance this study would never have been completed. But then, too, the study may never have begun had it not been for Professor C.D. Rowley, Professor of Political Studies at the University of Papua and New Guinea. When he was Director of the Aborigines Project of the Social Science Research Council he suggested this topic to me and the Council supported the initial stages of the project. The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies provided the study with money to employ a part-time research assistant for the first three years. Additional funds were provided by the University of Adelaide under its Research Grant for the payment of casual assistance, computing, and travelling. Without financial assistance from these sources this study could not have been attempted let alone completed. Mrs Glenys Little began work as research assistant in 1965 and organised the initial collections of data and helped to systematise the study. Mrs David Brookman took over the position of research assistant at the end of 1965 and continued for the duration of the study. I am grateful for her enthusiasm and perscvcrence. When funds were depleted Mrs Brookman continued on an almost voluntary basis to help organise the material for publication. The collection and checking of data took a long time and I am grateful for the assistance given by a number of social work students in the early stages of this project. They are too numerous to mention by name but they will always be remembered for the impetus they gave to this study. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The amount of detail amassed from a study of such a large population made it necessary to use a computer in analysing the results. Mr D. Simmons, formerly manager of the computing centre at the University of Adelaide, planned the recording schedules. Dr Jeorge Kautsky and his wife, Dana, programmed the collected material. The field data could not have been checked and correlated with recorded material had it not been for the generous co-operation of the directors and staffs of several government departments. I owe thanks in particular to Mr John Millar and the staff of the former Department of Aboriginal Affairs. As well as the government departments and public hospitals, private welfare, medical, and educational institutions which dealt in any way with individual Aborigines provided valuable assistance. I am most appreciative of the assistance given by so many persons, too numerous to name, in these departments and centres. The final preparation of the material for publication owes much to Mrs J. Johnsen, Mrs B. Parker, and Miss S. Nott who typed the manu­ scripts and to Dr Diane Barwick, Australian National University, Mr S. Casson, Parliamentary librarian, Miss Catherine Guinness, Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Dr F. Lancaster Jones, Australian National University, Dr J. Norelle Lickiss, University of Tasmania, Mr Cameron Stuart, stipendiary magistrate, and Mr A. Whitelaw, Education Department, who each read various sections of the manuscript. My husband, Milton Gale, edited the final manuscript for publication, suggested numerous corrections, and prepared the index. The maps and diagrams in this book were constructed in the carto­ graphy laboratory of the Department of Geography, University of Adelaide, by Mr Kevin Harris with Mr Max Foalc as adviser. The Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies gave grants to assist in the preparation of this material for publication. The State Library of South Australia provided photographic equipment and I am grateful to Mr R.L. Commane for his assistance. Other plates, acknowledged individually, have been reproduced with the kind per­ mission of the Advertiser Newspapers Ltd and the South Australian Department of Lands. Most of all I wish to thank the Aboriginal people of Adelaide for the interest they have shown in this study, and I hope that, as a result, they will be rewarded by an improvement in their overall situation. F.G. METHODOLOGY I 2 The study location location study The SETTING THE 2 II 4 Legislation for Aborigines in South Australia South in Aborigines for Legislation 4 Bcgon t Aoiia affairsin Aboriginal to Background 3 1 The approach approach The 1 I TE RA SITUATION URBAN THE III V ASS N RESULTS AND CAUSES IV 10 Welfare services for Aborigines Aborigines services for Welfare 10 12 Employment of Aborigines in Adelaide Adelaide in Aborigines of Employment city the in Health 12 11 14 Educational achievements of Adelaide of achievements Educational law the and Aborigines 14 13 00 >vj on U1 9 Kinship in the urban environment environment urban the in Kinship 9 Introduction Introduction Acknowledgments Borrie W.D. Series, by the on Note brvain , Abbreviations The pattern of urban migration migration urban of pattern The The demographic structure structure demographic The Adelaide in Aborigines of Distribution Housing of Aborigines in Adelaide Adelaide in Aborigines of Housing South Australia South Aborigines Aborigines CONTENTS 204 243 xiv 222 115 191 175 133 161 vii 27 50 36 95 71 v 9 1 X CONTENTS

C o n clu sio n 2 5 5

A p p e n d ix I 26 3 Appendix II 26 4 Appendix III 2 6 5

R eferences 2 6 7

In d ex 2 7 5 FIGURES

1 The study area 28 2 The growth of Adelaide 30 3 Mission and government stations 47 4 Aboriginal migration to Adelaide, 1950-65 72 5 Proportion of city migrants from each regional group 78 6 Proportion from each area in Adelaide population 80 7 Migration by regional grouping, 1950-65 82 8 Pattern of migration 84 9 Reasons for migration 87 10 Reasons for migration by region 89 11 Reasons for migration by age 92 12 Residential institutions 97 13 Distribution of Aborigines in Adelaide 100-1 14 Distribution by regional groups 109 15 Distribution by sex and marital status 112 16 Classification of residential areas, Adelaide 116 17 Accommodation for Aborigines 119 18 Regional variations in accommodation 122 19 Mobility in relation to accommodation 124 20 Accommodation according to length of residency in Adelaide 127 21 Types of housing 128 22 Regional variations in housing types 130 23 Housing density 132 24 Adelaide Aboriginal population structure, 1966 135 25 Adelaide non-Aborieinal population structure, 1966 136 26 Rural Aboriginal population structure, 1966 137 27 Population structure, Aborigines from southern reserves, 1966 147 28 Population structure, Aborigines from northern areas, 1966 148 xii FIGURES

29 Marital status of Aborigines and non-Aborigines, Adelaide, 1966 151 30 Marriage choices of males and females 155 31 Family size in relation to intermarriage 157 32 Influence of kinship upon migration 166 33 Influence of kinship upon marriage choice 168 34 Parental origins 111 35 Welfare contact by age 181 36 Welfare contact by regional grouping 183 37 Children separated from parents according to age 185 38 Children separated from parents according to regional grouping 187 39 Hospitalisation according to age 199 40 Hospitalisation according to regional grouping 200 41 The Aboriginal workforce 206 42 The non-Aboriginal workforce 208 43 Employment and welfare 211 44 Employment in relation to length of residency in Adelaide 215 45 Regional variations in occupation 217 46 Employment in relation to mission background 218 47 Comparison of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal gaol admissions, South Australia 230 48 Aboriginal gaol admissions 231 49 Ages of offenders 234 50 Regional affiliations of offenders 236 51 Length of residency in Adelaide of offenders 239 52 Educational levels of offenders 241 53 Educational attainments—secondary 247 54 Educational attainments—upper secondary and advanced 248 55 Employment opportunities in relation to educational attainments 250 PLATES

Between pages 138 and 139 1 Aerial view of Point Pearce reserve 2 Ground view of Point Pearce reserve 3 Children at play, Gerard reserve 4 Housing in a country town 5 Housing in an inner suburb, Adelaide 6 Housing Trust double units 7 Children who have gone to Adelaide for fostering 8 Visitors to the city 9 Health as a factor in migration 10 An Aboriginal picnic 11 Sport and urbanisation 12 Aborigines and the law ABBREVIATIONS

C.A.P.P. Commonwealth of Australia Parliamentary Papers C.L. & I. Crown Lands and Immigration Correspondence S.A.A. South Australian Archives S.A.G.C.R. South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register S.A.P.D. South Australian Parliamentary Debates S.A.P.P. South Australian Parliamentary Papers INTRODUCTION

f I 'he urban Aboriginal is a new aspect of the population in the Australian A. city. Aborigines were, until quite recently, rural dwellers. They lived in the more remote areas and were virtually separated from other Australians. This is no longer the case. Aborigines are now moving out of their isolation. They are moving into the cities and country towns. They are attempting to become—locationally if not socially—a part of the general Australian community. Rural depopulation is a common phenomenon in the modern world and migration from rural areas to urban centres is a significant force in the Australian economy today. Social changes inevitably occur when people move from one environment to another, but Aborigines who have migrated have been forced to undergo greater social changes than other migrating rural Australians because their social and cultural distance from the urban society was initially greater. This book studies the impact of urbanisation upon Aborigines who have moved, in recent years, from isolated reserves, missions, and rural communities into the city of Adelaide. It attempts to analyse the social changes which occurred when these Aborigines became urban dwellers. It is hoped that this case study made in depth in one city will provide some understanding of the problems which face urban Aborigines in Australia. The emergence of this group as a new sector of the population of Australian cities is significant because it represents a change in the economic and social status of Aborigines. Furthermore, it has led to a physical confrontation between Aborigines and other Australians. This, in turn, 2 INTRODUCTION has caused repercussions on an increasing scale: for example, wider press coverage and representation of Aborigines’ viewpoints; legislative changes; public awareness of Aborigines as human beings; the arousal of a public conscience about Aboriginal housing, employment, health, and education; and a mounting campaign to secure land rights and social equality for Aborigines. Thus confrontation of Aborigines and Europeans in the cities has made Europeans more aware of Aborigines as people whose needs arc similar to their own. In turn, this has led to legislative and social changes for Aborigines—not only for urban Aborigines, who arc in a sense the spearhead effecting such changes—but also for rural Aborigines, who play less of an initiating role. The 1960s have seen not only the equalising of such opportunities as housing and education for urban Aborigines, but also a period of debate about such topics as equal pay and land and mineral rights for Aborigines living in the outback. Aborigines have moved into Australian cities from conditions that are many and varied; they exhibit widely differing adaptations to European society. They can be divided broadly into six groups, according to the extent to which they have adopted the European way of life. Firstly there are those Aborigines who live and think as members of a traditionally oriented group. They are full-blood people, and their visits to the city are usually of a temporary nature only. They come from missions or reserves where life is vastly different from that in the city. Secondly there are the Aborigines, both full-blood and mixed-blood people, who are more or less in regular contact with Europeans. Their traditional culture has broken down. They no longer follow the social patterns or obey the laws of their ancestors, although they are strongly influenced by their past culture; they live neither as traditional Aborigines nor as modern Aboriginal Australians. Some have migrated to the cities to take up permanent residence, but most arc only transient visitors. Until very recently they have known little of life beyond the mission, or govern­ ment settlement, or station homestead. They arc tempted but frightened by the city. The third group of Aborigines has come from the older reserves, such as Point Pearce or Point McLcay, in the southern part of South Australia. These people long ago adopted an almost entirely settled way of life and have retained only a little of their original culture. They have, however, previously lived in protected reserves apart from the general Australian community. Although they have adopted many material features of western culture, they have been isolated socially and have developed INTRODUCTION 3 social patterns different from those of either the traditional Aborigines or other Australians. They have, in fact, developed a subculture which blends traits of traditional and western culture. A fourth group of Aborigines has lived in various shacks and make­ shift dwellings on the outskirts of country towns, especially in the remoter areas. In South Australia such people are to be found on the edges of towns like Oodnadatta in the far north or Port Lincoln in the west. They have been referred to as ‘fringe people’ or ‘fringe dwellers’ because they live, quite literally, on the fringes of other communities. There arc few such camps left in the southern part of South Australia now because the fringe Aborigines were among the first of their people to participate in the urban migration. The Aboriginal population also has representatives of another type; those who have lived and worked alongside Europeans in the country or the city, quite independently of any government assistance. They are the integrated people although they still think of themselves as Aborigines and indeed, in most instances, their darker skin colour gives them no alternative but to recognise their Aboriginal ancestry. A sixth class of Aborigines is also present in the city, but has only limited application to this survey. This class comprises the Aborigines who have become absorbed into the general population and seldom think of themselves as Aborigines. They are fair-skinned and arc not readily identifiable as Aborigines. They have ‘passed over’ into the white com­ munity. They do not acknowledge their Aboriginal ancestry and it is not known by their associates. There must be many such people, of some Aboriginal descent, who have now disappeared into the general com­ munity. These, of course, could not be included in this survey. There are fair-skinned people who have been absorbed into the general community and yet are known and recognised by their Aboriginal relatives. These persons, although in a sense border-line cases, were included in the survey. Why arc these various groups coming to the city? What is their situation when they arrive and settle? How do they adjust to the changes? These were the questions that this study sought to answer in mainly quantitative terms.

The results of this study are grouped into three sections. The first section, Part II, following the methodology is largely descriptive. It attempts to evaluate the backgrounds of the Aboriginal migrants and the forces which have moulded their different social situations and their adaptive abilities. 4 INTRODUCTION

Part III deals with the actual situations in which Aborigines are to be found in the urban community of Adelaide. The chapters in this section describe where Aborigines have come from and where they arc located in that capital city. It is a spatial and demographic analysis of their patterns of migration and their distribution upon arrival. In the last section (Part IV) of the book, chapters 9-14, the causes and results of this urban movement are tabulated and discussed. The chapters are organised according to the relative importance of each factor in the migration and adjustment of these people. Thus the first chapter in this last section deals with the kinship and family patterns of Aborigines in the city because it was found that these forces were the most significant of those attracting people to the city; as well, these ties played a role in the process of social change. The history of contact between Aborigines and Europeans is the history of the increasing erosion of Aboriginal independence. Aborigines have become more and more dependent upon government and church welfare services (Chapter 10). In fact, the need for welfare assistance of some kind is a prime cause of migration to the city, where welfare services are centralised. The unemployed and the unemployable, the deserted and the widowed, all have to seek financial help in the city. Juvenile offenders and neglected children are sent to the city to be accommodated according to the law or their needs. Poor social and economic conditions have led to a high degree of ill- health in the rural Aboriginal community (Chapter 11). Thus Adelaide has attracted many Aborigines through its medical services. Specialised medical treatment for physical and mental afflictions, and pediatric care, are available only in such major centres. Many Aboriginal children are cared for in children’s training centres for handicapped children and many others have been sent to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital for short- or long-term care. Over-population in some country districts has given an impetus to Aboriginal migration. The population on the nearer reserves, such as Point McLeay and Point Pearce, has grown very greatly over the last fifty to sixty years. The densely settled, closed communities and the practice of early marriage has greatly affected the population increase on reserves. This increase has grown to startling proportions as the death rate simultaneously declined. It is inevitable that the nearby rural areas and towns were limited in their capacity to absorb the labour available from the missions. It is necessary for the inhabitants to move further away to find work (Chapter 12). Under such circumstances the capital city INTRODUCTION 5 becomes the inevitable Mecca for prospective migrants. It seems to offer work, housing, schools, medical care, opportunities for a younger generation, and fun and stimulus. The population growth on the reserves has been an expulsive force driving Aborigines to move elsewhere, but other factors, some associated, but some independent, arc also bringing Aborigines to Adelaide. One is the law (Chapter 13). In country areas the facilities for high-security or long-term imprisonment are not available. Consequently long-term prisoners from local towns and country areas have to be accommodated in metropolitan gaols. For this reason, Aboriginal offenders have been brought from country areas and the Northern Territory, where there is also a lack of high-security accommodation, to serve their terms at the Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide. Such prisoners tend to remain in the city after serving the term of their sentence. Gaining opportunities for better education (Chapter 14) is the sixth main reason given by Aborigines for their movement to the city. Several children have been brought to Adelaide from outback areas, by welfare organisations, to receive normal schooling. Others have moved with, or been sent by, their families to the city because one or both of the parents had strong ambitions for the children. Thus it is both by independent volition and arbitrary circumstance that migration begins. Once begun it tends to gather momentum. The strong kinship ties amongst Aborigines tend to prompt members of a family group to visit relatives who have moved to a city, and to try to establish themselves nearby. Many bring their older relatives to live with them because of the availability of medical care in a city; nephews and nieces live with a city relative in order to get an education which will not be interrupted by the unsettling moves which may be forced on a parent who is a casual rural labourer, and so on. Many and varied are the back­ grounds of the Aborigines moving into the city. Many and varied are their reasons for migrating, but nearly all Aborigines would agree that moving to a city is beneficial. PART I METHODOLOGY 1 THE APPROACH

f I 'his study is an attempt to analyse the impact of increasing urbanisation 1- upon a particular minority group. Its setting therefore is an urban environment. The flow of people from the country to the city has been gathering momentum ever since the industrial revolution. Industrialisation set in process a change in man’s way of life. The rate of change may vary from one place to the next, but its occurrence is now virtually world­ wide. Although at various times and in various places attempts have been made to curb the increasing rate of urbanisation, yet it has continued with the apparent inevitability of the advance of the Triffids. No island or desert can now isolate man from the urban growth. ‘It has boiled up and swelled, and far from being arrested, it is being amplified as time goes on’ (Beaujcu-Garnicr, 1966:199). Urbanisation has become so widespread a phenomenon in the present century that not only arc studies being published on the topic in almost every country of the world, but analyses and bibliographies of the literature relating to urbanisation have appeared; for example, Beijcr (1963) and Olsson (1965). Indeed, a whole new methodology for the study of urban migration has developed during the last decade, led by such writers as Hägerstrand (1957). Some studies have been made of rural depopulation and urban migration in Australia; for example, Scott (1957), Sheppard (1964), Johnston (1967), and Hugo (1971). Some Australians, such as Moore (1966), have looked at the theoretical principles of internal migrations and the applicability of various models to the study of urban movements in Australia. Little work has been done, however, amongst particular IO METHODOLOGY ethnic or cultural groups who arc participating in this general population movement, although studies of both Aboriginal and immigrant com­ munities refer to various social consequences of urbanisation. A useful bibliography of such studies can be found in Ancich ct al. (1969). Recent work on urban Aborigines can be found in Beasley (1970), Lickiss (1971 c), and Smith and Biddle (forthcoming). Specific studies of the impact of urbanisation upon particular ethnic groups have, however, been made in other parts of the world. Examples can be found in works such as Hauser (1961), Southall (1961), Metgc (1964) , Kuper (1965), Hunter (1965), Breese (1969), or Kuper and Smith (1969). Studies of the movement of the American negro from the rural south to the urban north have led to the establishment of valuable theoretical work by such people as Rose (1967) and Morrill (1965) . For many years Australian Aborigines were isolated from the lines of movement to urban centres and their consequent social changes. They lived in secluded reserves or separate communities away from the general stream of Australian economic and urban development, but since World War II the magnetic attraction of growing cities has been felt even in the isolated areas of outback Australia. Aborigines have now become a part of the rising tide of migration to the cities. Urbanisation demands that all migrants make some adjustments, but quite obviously, the amount of change which any one individual must make varies greatly from one place to another and from one group oi people to another and from one individual person to another. In the more advanced countries, although urban migration may involve large numbers, it may not demand very radical changes in the individual’s way of life. People in western countries may live in rural areas in a manner not very different from that of their city counterparts. In the less advanced countries the move to a city may involve radical changes in a person’s whole way of life, and this is equally true for the underprivileged groups within an advanced country. Thus when Aborigines move into an Australian city they are forced to undergo changes that are much greater than those imposed upon other rural Australians who move to an urban area. In the first place an Aboriginal must become more mobile, not just physically, but socially and economically. ‘Urbanism as a way of life encourages mobility, and could not be possible without increasing mobility. This is not limited to the moving of people from place to place; it also means mobility from one kind of work to another and the move­ ment of people from one social class to another. Mobility-connected THE APPROACH II social changes may also give rise to social problems, yet mobility is essential to urbanism’ (Anderson, 1960:23). Not only does urbanisation mean a movement of people from the country to the city; it also involves movement within the city. This is particularly true for Aborigines. It is not possible for them to set up make­ shift homes and camp on the fringes of the city as they have been able to do on the edges of so many country towns. To become established in one place in the city an individual must have money. Aborigines coming from the country rarely have much in the form of assets or cash. They cannot therefore purchase a house. For both economic and social reasons they often cannot find permanent rental accommodation. Newcomers tend to stay with relatives who have been in the city a little longer and have managed to find some kind of accommodation. Because of problems of overcrowding, complaints from landlords and neighbours, and the constant difficulty of making regular payments of rent, the newcomers may be forced to move from one set of relatives to another, or from one kind of temporary accommodation to another. Thus the city tends to increase their mobility. Furthermore, some Aborigines come to the city ‘just for a visit’. The visit may last a couple of days or several months, depending upon the hospitality of relatives and the financial position of the visitors. Some Aborigines will visit the city for increasing periods until they eventually take up permanent residence. In this way they give themselves more time to adjust to the sweeping social changes involved in adapting to an urban way of life. Others leave the missions or reserves or stations and live for a while in the smaller towns, before finally moving to the city. Such adjustment processes are not uncommon. ‘The whole problem of the adjustment of the countryman in the city is probably simplified, or is not experienced in all its harshness, if the countryman does not go direct to the city, but uses a smaller industrial town as a half-way house’ (Bcijer, 1963:34). The city encourages mobility not only in the physical sense but also in a variety of economic and social ways. There is an increase in job mobility. On the reserves, in country towns, or on farms or stations, there arc very few choices of occupation available. It is difficult to get a job in the first place. It is often impossible to change jobs. The rural community does not have the range of occupational opportunities which the city offers. With their lack of capital, education, and social acceptance, Aborigines, if they manage to get a job at all, can virtually become only farm labourers if they arc males, or domestics if they are females. The city offers far more scope, 12 METHODOLOGY far more variety of employment and far more opportunity to change from one type of employment to another. Indeed, it seems that some Aborigines, when they first come to the city, change jobs frequently simply because the opportunity to change is so novel. The city presents an economic structure which is new to the immigrant Aboriginal. There is a greater reliance upon money in the urban environ­ ment. In fact, the very working basis of a city demands a money economy. On the reserves and in rural communities Aborigines can obtain goods by barter, by gambling, by credit or by reciprocal kinship demands. Such facets of economic organisation are viable only in a small community where all people know one another and where all are in close contact. Barter is not a usual means of exchange in the city. Gambling may still occur, but where people are more mobile there is less guarantee that the loser will pay. In the city, Aborigines are seldom in close enough contact with their relatives to be able to depend upon them in times of economic adversity to the extent that was possible in the rural community. Credit from stores on the basis of future social service payments is less freely available in the city where they arc not known or have not been perma­ nent residents. The greater social mobility of the city affects the Aborigines immedi­ ately. The metropolis overrides people’s backgrounds and family histories. In the small rural community individuals find it difficult to break away from their family patterns, whereas in the city new social interchanges are possible and individuals can more readily change their social status. Aborigines who make good in the city can obtain social acceptance from white neighbours and acquaintances in a way that would be impossible in the more rigidly stratified social structure of the rural community. Since the urban environment is socially mobile, class structures arc not static. This is so because, as technologies, skills, and incomes change, social groupings are continuously redefined. Such social fluidity in the city is very attractive to Aborigines. They have been accustomed to an inferior status in rural areas; indeed, they have usually been at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. In the city, such structures arc not so rigidly defined or adhered to. Thus Aborigines who wish to improve their social status in the community must move to the city to do so. Then, too, the city offers mobility amongst educational opportunities of different types. Both the extent and the variety of education available in the rural area are limited. This is equally true for adults wishing to increase their vocational skills and for children at school. Since employ­ ment possibilities and income-earning levels arc strongly affected by THE APPROACH 13 educational achievement, the city dweller has a much greater opportunity to achieve economic and employment mobility because he can benefit from greater educational opportunities. Thus, urbanisation is increasing mobility in various ways and inevitably, therefore, it also changes people’s culture. ‘Urbanisation has always been associated with the weakening of traditional social structures’ (Rose, 1967:112). It breaks cultural ties and limits traditional practices and beliefs and changes people’s concepts of life. For Aborigines, as much as for any other group across the world, urbanisation has demanded drastic cultural changes. Traditional Aboriginal society was determined by a more static and much smaller community than that to be found in any Australian city. All of the Aboriginal’s concepts of life and of self, his beliefs and his codes of behaviour, as well as his whole economic structure, were vastly different from those of the western European’s culture, which dominates Australian cities today. While for all people the city tends to break past traditional tics, for the Aboriginal, the enforced change has often been catastrophic. The city demands small as well as large-scale changes. It tends to change families as well as communities and cultures. In the city, people are treated as individuals rather than as members of a particular family or clan or kinship group. ‘Urbanism tends to “individuate” people . . . The individual and not the family is the unit in the labour market and before the law’ (Anderson, 1960:23). This process of individualisation can be a painful one to persons who have been nurtured in the security of a tightly-knit kinship structure. This is equally true for Aborigines from detribalised areas and for those from traditional communities because the kinship structure, albeit in an altered form, has remained with Aboriginal society through all kinds of pressures since European settle­ ment. But in the city there is a tendency to treat Aborigines primarily as individuals and only secondarily as members of a family group. One other major sociological attribute of urbanisation seems directly applicable to the Aboriginal. This is the city’s role as a centre of change; as the meeting point of different ideas and the ground from which new forces spring, the forces of change, indeed the forces of social revolution. Many studies have been made of the role of the city in instituting change by bringing persons of different backgrounds into contact with each other. Major social changes have emanated from cities since cities first began. Murphy (1962) discusses the different ways in which they act as centres of change in different cultures. In rural areas, Aborigines lived within the bonds of their small and 14 METHODOLOGY limited communities. Since European times, changes have come from without. New ideas have been foisted upon them; rarely has the stimulus for the growth of new ideas arisen from within the Aboriginal community. Aborigines have accepted change from without at the expense of their own ideas and initiatives. The forces at work in the urban community are very different. Here they meet Aborigines from many different areas and mix with people from different kinship groups. Accompanying this increase in social mobility has come the growth of new ideas. Aborigines are forming their own clubs and groups in the city in a way that was never possible within the limited social structure of the rural community; within the city’s new social structure these new ideas are forming. Aborigines in the city arc developing fresh initiative, new sources of power. In fact, within the city, forces of change and revolution of significance for the whole Aboriginal community are now taking place. Increasing urbanisation is thus bringing many changes to the Australian Aborigines. At the beginning of this project it seemed important that these changes should be studied, but how were they to be examined? How were they to be studied so that quantification was possible and a predictive analysis made feasible? The community at large offered a great amount of generalised opinion. The 1960s, for example, saw a rapid increase in the amount of attention given to Aboriginal questions in the press; Aboriginal policy was discussed frequently in most of the parlia­ ments of the Australian states. It seemed that the time had come for a quantitative study in a field that was receiving so much subjective com­ ment. Mitchell (1967) summarises very well some of the difficulties involved in making such a study.

DATA COLLECTION

The study was limited to one city, Adelaide, so that statistical material could be acquired and treated in depth. Adelaide, for the purpose of this study, extended beyond the area defined officially as metropolitan Adelaide by the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics for the 1961 census or even the redefined area of 1966. The boundary used for this study is that of the Adelaide Statistical Division. This was adopted because of the Aboriginal concept of what constitutes the city of Adelaide: those who had moved into urban areas such as Gawlcr, Port Noarlunga, and Rcynella thought of themselves as city dwellers. Just as the Aboriginal concept of what constitutes ‘the city’ was THE APPROACH 15 allowed to delimit the areal boundary of the study, so the Aboriginal definition of what constitutes ‘an Aboriginal’ was used to determine who was to be selected. Aborigines consider that there are two kinds of Aboriginal people: those who are so dark that they cannot avoid being known as Aboriginal, and those who, although quite fair, arc still in contact with their kinsfolk and with members of the Aboriginal community. Thus, while at first glance it may seem difficult to determine who is an Aboriginal or how much European ancestry a person must have before he becomes a ‘white man’, it docs not really present a dilemma if the Aborigines’ own definition is used. This has had a particular bearing on those persons in category six, mentioned in the Introduction, who, although quite fair in appearance, have been included in the numbers counted in this study. The survey included, as far as it is possible to tell, all of the Aborigines, so defined, who lived in Adelaide for more than six consecutive months during the thrcc-and-a-half year period from 1 July 1962 to 1 January 1966. Any Aboriginal who came to the city during this time, but re­ mained for less than six months at any one time, was classed as a visitor and excluded from this study. A common recording date, 1 January 1966, in the life of each Aboriginal, was set in order to make the data comparable. No Aborigines who moved into Adelaide after that date, or children born after it, are included. Having thus defined ‘Adelaide Aborigines’, we had then to decide which of these people should be selected for study. Random sampling, whether based on individuals or one of the group selection methods such as multi-stage sampling, seemed the first logical approach to use. Sampling is an invaluable tool if statistical data are being sought and the results are to be applied to the wider group. The first question asked, therefore, was how the Adelaide Aboriginal population could be statisti­ cally sampled. It was recognised that to draw a valid random sample by any of the usual means, a total population has to be known. The total Aboriginal population of Adelaide was not known. Not even an estimated figure of the population had been made, let alone a list of individual members. Random sampling was therefore impossible. Although sampling has been used in studies of other groups of people in Adelaide, for example Gibson (1967), or Martin (1967), it has not been possible to sample any Aboriginal groups. There is an Aliens Registration Index from which samples can be drawn for migrant studies, but there arc no listings of Aborigines. i6 METHODOLOGY

Until the Referendum of 1967, Aborigines were officially excluded from the persons to be enumerated at any census. In practice they were counted in various ways but definitions were not clear cut and little information was made available. A bulletin was published after the 1966 census concerning those who described themselves ‘as being 50 per cent or more Aboriginal or simply as “Aboriginal” ’. No information was published for those who recorded themselves as persons of less than 50 per cent Aboriginal ancestry. There was thus no adequate census material available for this study of Adelaide Aborigines, which began well before the 1966 census. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that Aborigines in Adelaide, and probably in other cities also, were underenumerated at the 1966 census and presumably at previous counts. One Aboriginal in Adelaide said at the time of the 1966 census that, although he knew he was a mixture of at least Aboriginal, Chinese, and British ancestry, he listed himself as British because this was the easiest thing to do. One earlier study of Aborigines in Adelaide (J. Inglis, 1961) had been made by a social anthropologist, using a common anthropological tech­ nique of establishing rapport with the most communicative individuals and then obtaining data from them. Such a method yields valuable material about the society, but the information cannot be quantified and generalisations about the total population cannot be made on the basis of such a biased sample. Because there was no universe from which to draw an unbiased sample, there was no alternative but to attempt to establish and then study the total population of Aborigines in Adelaide. This would not have been possible before the advent of the computer, because of the difficulty of collating the large amount of data amassed when enume­ rating a whole population. The first aim, therefore, was to establish an accurate figure of the numbers of Aborigines resident in Adelaide. The second was to find out as much information about each person as was relevant to the study and could be entered on schedules for computer processing. To begin with, all Aborigines already known personally were inter­ viewed. The idea was to interest them in the project and to enlist their co-operation in finding other Aborigines. This approach was successful. These known Aborigines introduced the interviewers to other Aborigines who, in turn, introduced us to others and gradually a larger and larger Adelaide Aboriginal population emerged. The strength and vitality of the family ties amongst many of the Aboriginal groups and the intelli- THE APPROACH 17 gcncc of the chief informants made the enumeration far simpler than was originally expected. Although there arc several large kinship groups in the city, within each of which all individuals are known, there are also many Aborigines who have come to the city from the far north or from other states and do not belong to any of the local kinship groups. The enumeration of these proved to be more difficult. The Aborigines themselves were the main suppliers of information, but a variety of other sources was also tapped to produce the final list as well as to check data obtained from informants in the field. All documents which might possibly refer to Aborigines had to be searched and checked. The first contact, of course, was the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the state government body then responsible for Aboriginal welfare. It is now no longer a separate department, but merged with the Department of Social Welfare, and has voluminous files organised on a family basis. Furthermore, it keeps records at each of the Aboriginal reserves. The Registers of Births, Deaths, and Marriages at Point McLeay and Point Pearce were especially valuable since details have been kept more or less continuously since 1880 at Point Pearce and from 1859 at Point McLeay. These various documents and files contained a great deal of information concerning many South Australian Aborigines and were invaluable for checking personal details, once the field work had established a list of Aborigines resident in Adelaide. These records, however, covered only such Aborigines as those who had lived on a government reserve or had been in touch with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. It was known from field work that there were many Aborigines in Adelaide who had never been in touch with this department at all. In addition to this state Aboriginal authority, there is also in Adelaide a Commonwealth department whose duties relate to Aboriginal welfare. This is a branch of the Northern Territory Administration and is located in the offices of the Department of the Interior in Adelaide. It caters for Aborigines who have come from the Northern Territory to Adelaide and deals primarily with those who have been brought south by the Commonwealth Government for either education or health reasons. It has no contact with the many Aborigines who have come without government assistance to Adelaide from the Northern Territory. It seemed likely that there were several other organisations which were in contact with some Aborigines. These arc the various authorities and non-statutory bodies which deal with welfare, education, employ­ ment, sickness and crime. Accordingly, each body, whether government 18 METHODOLOGY or private, which works in any of these fields in Adelaide, was contacted. The Department of Social Welfare, at the time of this study quite separate from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, is the official state agency which caters for neglected and juvenile children under the age of eighteen years and for adult persons requiring welfare assistance. It also arranges for both the fostering and adoption of neglected or unwanted children. It has many Aboriginal clients, some of whom arc also in contact with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Access to the records of Aborigines held by this department provided both valuable data for checking against other recorded information and new names for the list of Adelaide Aborigines. The children’s files gave data concerning not only the particular child, but also his whole family. There are, furthermore, a wide range of voluntary and non-statutory welfare agencies, from church social welfare departments and family welfare bureaus, to specific groups such as the Prisoners’ Aid Society. These agencies, some forty in all, were contacted for help in locating those Aborigines who sought welfare assistance only through the voluntary associations and not through any of the government agencies. In addition, there are several hostels, children’s homes and boarding houses for Aborigines which arc run by such groups as the Aborigines’ Advancement League, the United Aborigines’ Mission, and the Salvation Army. At the time of this study there were thirteen such privately sponsored centres of accommodation for Aborigines in Adelaide. A visit to each of these, along with a study of their client records, where these were available, added further names to our total population. Because school attendance is compulsory for all children between the ages of six and fifteen years inclusive, it seemed likely that other Aborigines might be located by seeking the assistance of the education authorities in this state. Through the co-operation of the Director-General of Education and the various independent educational bodies, a survey was made of all schools in the metropolitan area. Aborigines were located in 109 schools. Teachers assisted us by supplying details of students’ personal histories as well as their academic performances. This survey located children, and through them whole families, who had not been discovered cither through interviews with Aborigines or through the various welfare bodies. The next step was to attempt to locate the individual adult who might be working in Adelaide but was not related to any of the kinship groups in the city. Accordingly, the major employers in Adelaide, numbering 186 in all, both private and governmental, were contacted. Again new names were added to our ever-growing list of identifiable Aborigines. THE APPROACH 19

It was known that many Aborigines come to the city to obtain special medical assistance which is not available in country areas. In some instances, when one member of a family is admitted to a city hospital the whole family moves to the city. To identify such Aborigines and their families, co-operation was sought from the medical superintendents of the three major general hospitals in Adelaide, the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, as well as the two main psychiatric hospitals, Glenside and Hillcrest. Private hospitals, of which there are a great number, were not included because, after preliminary investigations, it was found that it is rare for an Aboriginal to attend a private hospital. Access to medical files at the five public hospitals, however, provided a great deal of valuable personal data, and the files of the psychiatric hospitals in particular gave information concerning not only the patient but also his whole family. A number of specialised medical centres, both government and private, was also approached because it was known that Aborigines were referred to these either by a hospital or a welfare body. Such places include Minda Home for mentally retarded persons, Townsend House for the blind, Ashford House for cerebral palsied children, and Warrawee Convalescent Home for children from the far north. Eleven such medical centres were treating Aboriginal patients or outpatients at the time of this study. The Prisons Department with its associated welfare organisation, the Adult Probation Service, deals with all offenders over the age of seventeen years. Many country and Northern Territory Aborigines are sent to Adelaide in custody. It was therefore expected that prison and probation files would add other individuals’ names to the list, as well as giving a considerable amount of personal information about committed Aborigines. Many other sources, such as football clubs, were also tapped. Certain Aborigines have become well known for their sporting ability and several different sporting bodies were able to assist by listing Aborigines previously unrecorded in our files. In this way an ever-growing list of names and a considerable volume of personal information were built up. Because much of this information was private in nature, safeguards had to be adopted from the outset of the study to ensure absolute confidentiality of the respondents’ data. It was important to see that no individual could be recognised, either during the programming or from the final results. Therefore, the material was entered on to schedules and then this information was coded. No one’s name appeared on the computer cards, which carried code numbers, not names. 20 METHODOLOGY

The same care was exercised in interviewing. Although the existence of several Aborigines in Adelaide was first established from a study of records, no one was contacted through the identification of them in such a way. The only Aborigines visited were those introduced to the inter­ viewers by other Aborigines. This meant that several of the Aborigines in this survey were not personally interviewed. Although we lacked introductions, and were thus unable to interview this group, we collected sufficient data to analyse their situations, as most of these people appeared in the records of more than one department and sufficient cross-checking was possible to validate their details. In essence, therefore, the study used two quite different methods of data collection. On the one hand, we applied the social anthropologist’s method of moving into a community and establishing rapport with as many individuals as possible; on the other, we practised the demogra­ pher’s method, whereby all available recorded data were sought out. The information obtained by the two methods was then interrelated and cross-checked. This combination proved to be a successful—albeit time- consuming—way of compiling, as closely as possible, a total population. Even when informants were very co-operative and had a good grasp of the purpose of the survey, recorded files were still very helpful. Many Aborigines do not think in quantitative terms and therefore find it difficult to establish the actual ages of relatives or the years spent in a particular house or job. The files thus provided the statistical detail to fill out the general information given by the informants. On the other hand, many recorded files, such as those held at hospitals, do not distinguish Aborigines in any way. The names of the Aborigines had to be obtained first from the informants in the field before personal data could be extracted from the files. By means of this somewhat laborious process, involving studies of documents, records, and personal interviews, it was possible to arrive at a fairly reliable estimate of the total number of Aborigines who had lived for a period of not less than six consecutive months in Adelaide between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1966. The figure arrived at was 2039 and we were able to complete most of the required information for 1917 of them. We do not claim that the results are entirely accurate, for there are far too many subjective factors at work in such a study. However, the analysis made in the following chapters should be seen as a reasonable summary of the situation in Adelaide in the early 1960s and as a guide to possible future trends. No greater precision than that can be expected. THE APPROACH 21

DATA RECORDING

For the purposes of quantification it is essential that all data are collected and recorded in the same manner. The geographer and sociologist use questionnaires to ensure uniformity of questioning. It is not, however, wise to use questionnaires when interviewing Aborigines in the city. They have met too often with officialdom, in the form of police or welfare officers, to trust anyone who asks direct personal questions and enters the answers on a prepared sheet of paper. For this reason schedules, rather than questionnaires, were used. With experience, it was found that information could be obtained, memorised, and recorded after each interview. In any case, schedules were found to be the best means of documenting information obtained from records, and of cross-checking the two sources of material. The planning of the schedules took some time. So varied were the Aboriginal people in Adelaide, and so different were their backgrounds and their responses to the urban environment, that the method of recording information had to be both comprehensive and flexible. Since the analysis was to be carried out by computer, it was essential that the schedules contained no anomalies or possibilities for double punching in any one section. Field trials with experimental schedules and punching tests were carried out before the final schedules were printed and put into operation. The computer is a very demanding master for someone who is collecting social data from mobile people. It requires objective data. For computer analysis, therefore, there must be a very careful and thorough collection of field data. No allowance can be made by the computer for the kind of gaps one tends to have in a study of such people. Recorded results must be thoroughly checked and all gaps filled in, or clearly recorded as unavailable information. The program written for this study had a number of checks inserted to ensure the internal consistency of recorded data. For example, if a woman’s schedule stated that she had six children, hut in the details of her children only five were accounted for, then the card would be rejected because of inconsistent evidence. Separate schedules were prepared for each individual and the various sections marked according to a prescribed code. Each schedule was given a number which was coded on a family system, so that although each person was detailed individually he was linked by code to other members of his family. For example, by glancing at a person’s identifying number one could tell whether an individual was a grandmother and head of a 22 METHODOLOGY household, or a third son of a second daughter of a particular household head. By such a system complete details were obtained for all individuals, so that a small child was not forgotten, nor an individual adult, who had no kinsfolk in the city, omitted. Yet at the same time the family unit was recorded and the person’s place in the family was established. The coding followed the mother’s surname, because the Aboriginal mother or grandmother is sometimes the head of the household in the city. Besides this, a high proportion of the recorded Aborigines had European fathers who were not, of course, enumerated in this survey of Aborigines. Where both parents were Aboriginal, then all members of that family were cross-referenced on a paternal system in addition to their maternally determined identifying number. The Aborigines in Adelaide were also coded on a kinship basis larger than the nuclear or extended family structure coded in the identifying number. Adelaide Aborigines see themselves as belonging to a larger group, the people from the area where they were born. They refer to themselves as ‘Point McLeay people’ or ‘Point Pearce people’ or by whichever area they have come from. There are nine main groups thus delineated by them. People who have come from Point McLeay, either the reserve itself or the neighbourhood or nearby towns, see themselves as being related to all the people from this area. They consider that they are quite different from the Aborigines from all other areas. Thus one old lady, who had lived in Adelaide for fifty years, referred to all the people from Point McLeay as ‘my relations’, even though she had never met some of them. It was thus convenient to group Aborigines on the basis of these conceptualised groups. Until quite recently, Aborigines lived in rather isolated communities in the country and strong group ties evolved. Now, in the city, these ties are breaking down and Aborigines are marrying outside their own group. It was therefore sometimes difficult to allocate children born in Adelaide to a particular group. If both parents came from one area, then the children feel they belong to that group also, but if the parents have come from different areas, then the children do not really feel that they belong to any of the established groups. For this reason all the children born in Adelaide have been placed in a category separate from those self-designated by the Aborigines. The following chapters present an analysis of the results obtained by these methods. Owing to the length of time since the data were collected, the analysis might be thought of more as a historical study, in some THE APPROACEI 23 respects, than as an evaluation of the present situation. Certain changes will have taken place in the intervening period; some older Aborigines may have died, some teenagers have left school and taken employment, others are now married and have children, and so on. But while the statistical material will have altered, it seems likely that the basic influences exerted upon Aborigines moving into Adelaide and the situations in which they find themselves will remain the same for some time to come. PART II THE SETTING 2 THE STUDY LOCATION

n p i e location of this study is the city of Adelaide. Only Aborigines A actually living in this city are included in the statistical analysis of later chapters. Nevertheless, this project has had to take account of the city’s hinterland, which embraces all of the areas from which Aborigines have so lately moved from country to city. These people still have very strong ties with the rural communities from which they originated. They keep in frequent contact with relatives who have remained in the country and they are still strongly influenced by social forces beyond the city. It is their rural past, still operating in the present, which conditions their responses to life in the city. The factors affecting their lives comprise both urban and rural elements. Aborigines are moving into Australian cities, such as Adelaide, for much the same set of reasons that have led other rural dwellers to migrate to urban areas. Over the last decade or so, they have been caught up by the economic and social forces which have been causing a steady de­ population of the Australian countryside. The major cities of Australia have grown rapidly since World War II and, inevitably, Aborigines have been influenced by this expansion. Earlier, when living on their reserves in the country, Aborigines were more isolated than were many other rural workers. The reserves offered a certain economic independence, albeit at almost a subsistence level, as well as social isolation. Persons living on reserves were provided with the bare necessities of life. During and after World War II, employment opportunities developed outside the reserves, and it was only then that Aborigines began to move out into the general community in significant 28 THE SETTING

Figure 1. The study area, shown by the Adelaide Statistical Division. The ranges, indicated by shading, have limited the spread o f the metropolitan area.

•G aw ler

A / ” !

Port Adelaide

ADELAIDE

__ Adelaide Statistical Division Metropolitan Area • Reynella ---- 1966 Census ---- 1961 Census •Port Noarlunga

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

MILES Location of Study Area THE STUDY LOCATION 29

numbers. At the same time, government policy moved to cut out the provision of rations in an attempt to force Aborigines to leave the reserves. Because the reserves afforded, until recently, a kind of protection, both economic and social, Aborigines were affected much later than other rural workers by the pull of the cities. Their migration from the country began after the exodus of rural Australians had been under way for some time. Perhaps the comparative recency of their migration is the reason why their movement has scarcely been recognised. In spite of the fact that considerable numbers of Aborigines are now moving and settling in cities, most Australians seem to continue thinking of them only as residents of the far outback. Government policy has also been slow to adjust to the facts: a radical change in the location and way of life of its welfare department clients. That Aborigines are no longer merely members of a remote minority group, quite isolated from the lives of other Australians, is one socially significant result of the growth of our cities. One cannot appreciate the growth of public interest in Aborigines, nor the resurgence of Aboriginal racial identity, without an awareness of the role played by urbanisation in Australia. For geographic and historic reasons, Australia has always been a land of a few dominant cities. The decline of rural industries and the growth of secondary industries over the last quarter of a century has led to an even greater measure of dominance by the few major cities. Indeed, the commanding role of the capital city of each state is an outstanding feature of Australian society. The states of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia contain more than one-half of their whole populations in their respective capitals. In Australia as a whole, the tendency is for population to be concentrated in the greatest numbers in the capital cities. Adelaide exemplifies this situation, for more of South Australia’s population is concentrated in its capital than is that of any other state in Australia. The census of 1966 showed that Adelaide contained 66-67 per cent of South Australia’s population. This centralising tendency has steadily continued since the 1921 census. At that time, Adelaide accounted for only 5T57 per cent of the state’s population (South Australian Year Book, 1968:94). The actual population of metropolitan Adelaide had grown from 255,375 persons recorded at the 1921 Common­ wealth census to 727,916 persons recorded at the 1966 Commonwealth census. By June 1969, the South Australian office of the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics estimated the population of metro- 30 THE SETTING

Figure 2. The growth oj Adelaide. The metropolitan area has extended as shown by these maps oj the Adelaide Statistical Division for 1880,1939, and 1965. THE STUDY LOCATION 31 politan Adelaide to be 751,600. Thus both the actual and the relative growths of Adelaide have been quite considerable over the last half a century. This growth can be seen quite clearly in Figure 2. The material for these maps was obtained from the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962:30, 31) and the Report on the Metropolitan Adelaide Transportation Study (1968:16). The latter report also gives the projected growth of Adelaide until 1986. The maps show the spread of the city. The nature of this development has largely determined the distribution of Aborigines (in Adelaide) and this topic will be discussed, with further reference to these maps, in Chapter 6. Beyond Adelaide, the only centres which developed a significant range of secondary and tertiary facilities were those with particular locational advantages as well as natural resources. Only four cities can be placed in this category, Whyalla (30,500), Mount Gambier (17,650), Port Pirie (13,850), and Port Augusta (11,400). (These figures were those estimated for June 1970 by the South Australian office of the Common­ wealth Bureau of Census and Statistics.) Most of the towns in the state are little more than local service centres. Even Whyalla, the largest city outside of Adelaide—and possessing particular advantages as a port with iron mines in its immediate hinterland—contained only 2 -03 per cent of South Australia’s population at the 1966 census, compared with x^delaide’s 66-67. The nature of this concentration has been discussed by McKnight (1967), and the problems involved in decentralisation by Hefford (1965). Smailes (1969a, 1969b) has shown the extent of the influence of the Adelaide metropolitan area on the state of South Australia as a whole. There are three main reasons why the population of South Australia has become increasingly concentrated in Adelaide. Firstly, certain geo­ graphical features, particularly those of aridity and soil infertility, have prevented close settlement in most rural areas. Secondly, the increasing mechanisation of agriculture, especially in the post-war years, led to a decline in the availability of rural employment. Thirdly, the rapid increase in European immigration after W orld W ar II contributed to the growth of the population of the city, because the majority of migrants who came to South Australia took up residence in Adelaide. South Australia is the driest state of a rather dry continent. Just over four-fifths of the state has an annual average of less than 10 inches of rainfall. Only 1 per cent of the state has an average of more than 25 inches annually (South Australian Year Book, 1968:4). Intensive agriculture is 32 THE SETTING therefore limited in scope. In fact, large areas of the state are virtually unoccupied. Furthermore, soils in many areas are infertile. This factor, coupled with that of low rainfall, has limited agricultural development to the southern coastal areas. Even in some areas with adequate rainfall, such as the Upper South East, settlement was handicapped by soil deficiencies. Several of these areas were not opened up until technological advances in the 1940s and 1950s made possible the artificial addition of trace elements to certain soils. Only in a very few areas of the state have fertile soils and adequate rainfall—or alternatively, water for irrigation, as in the Upper Murray—combined to make possible close agricultural settlement. In the main, the absence of these two essential factors has prevented the practice of intensive agriculture and the development of close rural settlement. Where such settlement is lacking, it is not possible for large rural centres to become established, unless special circumstances prevail, such as the occurrence of minerals. These environmental factors, in setting the pattern of white settlement in South Australia, have been important in determining the balance between extermination and preservation of the state’s Aborigines. Aridity, by limiting white settlement to the southern portion of the state, enabled some groups of Aborigines to remain isolated from European contact. In the northern and western sectors of the state, where Europeans penetrated only in small numbers, Aborigines were not decimated by closer settlement, as were the majority of their race in the southern areas. In the south, the only Aborigines who survived were those who were protected on reserves. A few small areas were set aside in the south when settlement deprived Aborigines of their hunting areas. The remainder of their people were placed thereon and segregated from the community at large. Their descendants still exist in these isolated pockets. The desert country, however, has been the means of preserving many full-blood Aborigines. Some of these still live, to a certain extent, a traditionally oriented way of life. Their fortunes have been very different from those of their counterparts in the south. Therefore these environ­ mental factors may be said to have determined not only which groups of Aborigines were to survive, but also to what extent their culture was to be preserved. The indented nature of tire coastline is another environmental factor which influenced the pattern of white settlement and therefore the fortunes of the Aborigines. By placing economic limitations upon the development of transport systems, it has encouraged centralisation. Because of the shape of the coastline, Eyre Peninsula was practically THE STUDY LOCATION 33 isolated from the eastern parts of the state before the growth of air transport. Indeed, people living on the West Coast, as this peninsula is usually called, refer to Adelaide and its environs as ‘the mainland’ (Boeree, 1959,1960). This term surely mirrors the degree of isolation felt by people who are certainly not living on an island. Such isolation has discouraged industrial growth, because of the increased costs it has imposed on the transportation of goods. In turn, this factor of isolation has affected the fortunes of Aborigines. Some remote areas on Eyre Peninsula, particularly in the west, afforded a certain amount of protection to Aborigines. Whilst their counterparts in similar climatic areas, but closer to Adelaide, were being wiped out, several families of Aborigines survived on Eyre Peninsula. The process of the centralisation of South Australia’s population, industries, and services in Adelaide has been reinforced by the rather unique relationship that this centre has had with the Northern Territory. Lines of communication were developed in a north-south direction and until 1911, the Northern Territory was administered by South Australia. After the official responsibility for this territory was handed over to the Commonwealth Government, South Australia still continued to provide many of the Northern Territory’s essential services, for instance, facilities and staff in fields such as health and education. For this reason Adelaide has remained the functional capital of the Northern Territory in certain respects. These historical associations have meant that Northern Territory Aborigines seeking better economic conditions have, like their southern counterparts, migrated to Adelaide. This movement from the Territory to Adelaide may fall off as Darwin develops, and will probably decrease significantly if Darwin continues to grow at its present rate. However, at the time of this study (1962-66), Aborigines from the Northern Territory formed one of the largest groups of recent arrivals in Adelaide. By contrast, almost none had come from any of the other states of Australia. In the last quarter of a century, or so, the process of rural depopulation has revealed similar features throughout Australia. Increasing mechanisa­ tion has led to a decrease in the numbers of farm labourers and therefore of the numbers of persons required in service centres throughout the country. This decrease in employment opportunities in the rural areas has coincided with industrial growth in the cities. Thus migration from country to city has been inevitable. A brief discussion of some aspects of rural depopulation in South Australia can be found in Williams (1969a). Contrary to popular belief, Australia is now primarily a land of city 34 THE SETTING dwellers. Industrial and mining developments have replaced to some extent the agricultural and pastoral production which, earlier, were Australia’s basic industries. By the early 1950s Aborigines, too, had started to respond to the changing economic forces which were operating throughout Australia. They also began to leave the rural areas. At first just a few persons moved away from reserves to camp on the fringes of country towns. Some moved into towns. Others drifted to the cities. Gradually the movement gathered momentum, until, by the 1960s, the level of rural depopulation amongst groups of the more sophisticated Aborigines began to parallel that of the general community. The arrival of immigrants from Europe and the United Kingdom has also been important, in affecting both the growth of cities and the migration of Aborigines into these cities. The majority of these new settlers preferred to establish themselves in the capitals and larger urban centres. Australia’s immigration policy added to the influx into the capital cities and reinforced the centralising forces already at work in each state. There were a few exceptions, such as the city of Whyalla, which has a predominantly migrant population. The Australian immigration policy also directly affected the move­ ments of Aboriginal people. In particular, the regular arrival of new migrants in the cities influenced Aborigines living on reserves. They had always been aware of their position as socially and economically dis­ advantaged people by comparison with the general population of Australia. They had come to accept their inferior status as inevitable. They hardly entertained the idea that they could perhaps live like city dwellers, with material possessions, jobs, and all kinds of opportunities. When they saw migrants, who often could speak little English, becoming economically absorbed into the cities, they felt their own economic disadvantages even more keenly. One common form of comment, heard frequently on Aboriginal reserves in South Australia during the 1950s, was, ‘If new Australians can get jobs and houses in the city, why can’t old Australians?’ It ran like a persistent refrain. This attitude engendered further dissatisfaction and encouraged movement away from the reserves and camps. Thus the Australian government’s policy of assisted migration from overseas indirectly influenced the internal migration of Aborigines. In this chapter we have tried to identify the key forces influencing Aborigines to migrate. Of all these forces, geographic, historic and economic, demographic, or political, the three which emerge as out­ standingly important are centralisation, rural depopulation, and European THE STUDY LOCATION 35

immigration. They have interwoven to produce the present movement of Aborigines to Adelaide. An increasing rate of migration of Aborigines, from rural to urban areas, is to be expected throughout Australia in the future. The particularly centralised nature of South Australia and the functional relationship of its capital to the Northern Territory make Adelaide an ideal city in which to study the social changes which Aborigines must undergo, as they move from a rural to an urban environment. That is exactly what this study attempts to do in the following chapters. BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL 3 AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

'T h e history of the Aboriginal people of South Australia over the last X one and a half centuries followed a very different course from that which developed for the European settlers. The newcomers gradually achieved a degree of prosperity; the fortunes of the original inhabitants very swiftly declined. There are three broadly distinguishable eras in the history of relations between Aborigines and Europeans in South Australia. The first early phase was characterised by overt conflict. When the Aborigines realised that the new settlers intended to take their land and everything they owned, they retaliated by every means available to them. This period was succeeded by one in which Aborigines were more isolated from Euro­ peans. They were placed on missions and reserves where they had less social contact with other Australians. The third phase, which is the subject of this book, is the most significant historical fact of the last ten to twenty years. It is the period of the re-entry of the Aborigines into the general life of the community. Whether direct contact between Aborigines and other Australians will again lead to a period of overt conflict is one of the most important issues in Australia today. The following is a summary of the major historical factors that have influenced the present situation. Several studies have been made in recent years of the history of conflict between Aborigines and Europeans in various parts of South Australia. Gibbs (1959, 1960), Hassel (1966) and Walsh (1966) discuss the early period. Burnard (1961) deals with con­ ditions at the beginning of the twentieth century and Milich (1967) with BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 37 the 1930s. Authors such as Tindale (1941), Berndt and Berndt (1951), Gale (1964, 1969a), and Rowley (1970) give general outlines of the history of conflict. Particular groups of Aboriginal people in situations of cultural conflict have also been studied by Bury (1964), Inglis (1964), Dunn (1968), Ostapchuk (1969), and Fitzgerald (1971). Early land policy for Aborigines is referred to in S.A.P.D., 1966, No. 8:1006-12 and in Oldham (1917). One basic reason for the severity of the initial clash was that, except for fragmentary references in the reports made by early explorers, the Aborigines of Australia were almost unknown to Europeans before the main wave of settlement took place in the early nineteenth century. The culture of the Australian Aborigines had diverged for many thousands of years along paths very different from those of most of the other peoples of the world. In essence, the traditional socio-economic system of the Aborigines was that of a nomadic and hunting people who had neither agriculture, herds, nor monetary economy. They had evolved a philosophy and economy which had established a balance between population and food resources. Their life had had very little impetus for change in pre- European days. Except for occasional visitors from Southeast Asia to the northern coastal areas, Aboriginal culture evolved in isolation from the rest of the world. By the time that Europeans came into contact with them, Aborigines had developed a highly complex social structure and culture, but one in which political organisation, in the European sense, was very simple. No element of the Aborigines’ cultural life, nor their relationship to their land, was properly understood by the European newcomers. Early explorers and travellers, in their descriptions of the inhabitants of the country, concentrated upon the exotic appearance and strange customs of the Aborigines. They described them, in fact, as being primitive and savage. One contemporary writer said, ‘The Aborigines of New Holland have generally, and I believe justly, been ranked as the lowest step in the scale of humanity’ (Bennett, 1843:59). In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the fallacious view was widely held that Aborigines were living in the same stone age nomadic culture, out of which Europeans had become ‘civilised’ and Aborigines had not, and that therefore Aborigines must necessarily have inferior intellectual ability. The wide acceptance of this incorrect hypothesis did much to prevent the growth of mutually satisfactory relationships between the two peoples. 38 THE SETTING

CONFLICT

As in many other parts of the world, the indigenous people of South Australia experienced their first cultural shock in their meetings with traders, sealers, whalers, and escaped convicts before the official settlers arrived. Often the former were brutal men. Whalers and sealers were based on Kangaroo Island from 1803. These men took Aboriginal women from Tasmania and South Australia to live there with them. Slave trading (Plomely, 1966) and fighting (Moore, 1923) were common. Through such savage contacts Aborigines were first introduced to European culture on some parts of the coast of South Australia. One contemporary observer, Sir John Jeffcott, the colony’s first judge, made the following statement about these early European contacts which Aborigines had experienced in various parts of Australia.

The system hitherto adopted in the immediate neighbourhood of this Province, towards the native population, is one at which humanity shudders. . . . It is a melancholy fact, which admits of no disguise, and which cannot be too deeply deplored, that the native tribes of Australia have been hitherto exposed to injustice and cruelty in their intercourse with Europeans. Squatters, runaway convicts and deserters employed in the fisheries, have long infested the coast of New Holland, and have dealt with the Aborigines, as if they regarded them not as members of the human family, but as inferior animals created for their use (S.A.G.C.R., 3 June, 1837:5).

The actual course of settlement in South Australia was different in some ways from that in the other states. There were men, inspired by the liberal movement at home, who were determined to prevent, in the new colony, such acts of cruelty towards Aborigines as those which were already evident on Kangaroo Island and prevalent in the other states. South Australia, called ‘one of the doctrinaire colonies’ (Barnard, 1962:200), was in essence a Crown colony superimposed upon a land development company’s venture. The ideas on systematic colonisation, expressed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield and others, received much favour with those who were concerned with colonial administration, because they appeared to afford a way to overcome economic distress in England and, at the same time, promote the orderly development of new lands. Furthermore, there were in England at that time social reformers and humanitarian idealists who saw, in the new colony, opportunities for the growth of a liberal and free society. Pike (1957) discusses these various attitudes and ideas that influenced the settlement of South Australia. The colonisers brought with them two conflicting aims for the new colony. BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 39

The first was to promote the commercial success of the land venture for the settlers. The second was to establish race relations with the Aborigines which would be based upon humane treatment and equality. The South Australian Foundation Act of 1834 deals with the first aim and the Proclamation, read by Governor Hindmarsh on his arrival in the colony in 1836, states the second. However, the fact that these two aims were, in practice, incompatible, became evident very early in the colony’s history. In general, the administrators of the Colonial Office took a humanitarian and theoretical view of the rights of Aborigines. They believed in the principle that prior occupancy of the land gave Aborigines the right of ownership. This concept is stated quite clearly in the instructions given to Governor Gawler in 1838 by the Colonization Commissioners.

You will see that no lands which the natives may possess in occupation or enjoyment be offered for sale until previously ceded by the natives to the Commissioners and which cession you are hereby authorized to accept. You will furnish the Protector of the Aborigines with evidence of the faithful fulfillment of the bargains or treaties which you may effect with the Aborigines for the cession of lands, and you will take care that the Aborigines are not disturbed in the enjoyment of the lands over which they may possess proprietary rights, and are not disposed to make a voluntary transfer (S.A.A., Acc. 680:155).

The practical element in this humanitarian approach must not be over­ looked. It was considered that a docile population of native inhabitants might be useful to the settlement. They must therefore be encouraged, by a friendly approach, to mix with and serve the interests of the colonists. In short, they were to become assimilated. This policy was never really put into practice because it was quite opposite to the views held by the majority of the settlers, who wished to assure their future prosperity in the new colony. Indeed, for many settlers, particularly those who had pastoral interests, the official policy of conciliation was a dead letter from the very beginning. Aborigines, in their turn, realising that white men and their herds were depriving them of their lands, retaliated with bitter attacks upon the lives and property of the invaders. As a result of many such hostile encounters, it appeared to the settlers that, far from the colony’s needing the help of the Aboriginal people, it would really be better off without them. This was indeed the pragmatic view taken by the large majority of settlers, who conceived of Aborigines simply as competitors for the land, who would have to be removed by any means available. Some settlers used murder. Others used more 40 THE SETTING humane methods. They advocated the establishment of missions. What­ ever the method, however, the Aborigines suffered severely in this unequal struggle for their territory. Those who survived lost not only their land but with it their whole social structure. Numerous examples of the conflict between settlers and Aborigines can be found in accounts written during the nineteenth century, such as those of Eyre (1845), Angas (1847), Bull (1878), and Stow (1883). Newspapers of the time reported many instances of the brutality shown towards Aborigines, either purposely or unwittingly, by the settlers. Amongst the latter there were people—unfortunately too numerous— upon whom neither justice nor humanity imposed any restraints in their contacts with the Aboriginal race. No part of South Australia is free from stories of cruelty towards Aborigines, although the degree of conflict varied from place to place and from settler to settler. Poison and armed forays were used to destroy Aborigines who disputed with settlers for the land or killed stock. Some settlers became well known as Aboriginal killers. Self-defence was often the excuse for inhumanity when clashes with the interests of settlers occurred. The inequality of the struggle was heightened by their quite different attitudes. The Aborigines, although ‘originally a high spirited and militant people’ (Stanncr, 1968:47), had never conceived that the remorse­ less extermination of opponents could be the aim of warfare. They were therefore not equipped to realise that this indeed was the intention of their enemies. On the other hand, the attitude of the settlers was often quite different. In a materialistic and impersonal way they simply conceived of Aborigines as being inconvenient impediments to settlement. Manning Clark, in discussing the treatment of Aborigines in early New South Wales, describes such an attitude: ‘No one contemplated the extinction of the aborigine with remorse, guilt or regret; nor did anyone testify to a common humanity, let alone to any sense that they too were made in the divine image’ (1962:168). So unequal was the struggle between Aborigines and Europeans in the southern part of the state that the Aborigines became almost extinct. In addition to direct attacks, two other factors led to their decline. The loss of their land meant also the loss of food resources. This lead to poorer nutrition which probably predisposed them to infection. Their long isolation from the rest of the world meant that they had no immunity to the numerous diseases which Europeans brought with them. Some highly infectious diseases such as smallpox (Cleland, 1928) were intro­ duced from New South Wales, and had decimated many tribes in South BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 41

Australia even before the colonists arrived. So conspicuous were the effects of these onslaughts that one contemporary observer made the following comment only thirty years after the colony was founded. It is now quite an unusual thing to see half a dozen natives together in Adelaide, where before they used to be so numerous. And from all the centres of population they have similarly disappeared, forcing upon the mind the melancholy reflection, that in the course of a few years at most, the very existence of the original possessors of the soil will be amongst the traditions of the past (Forster, 1866:432). It may have escaped notice in the colony at the time that a wide gap existed between a benevolent and egalitarian theory towards Aborigines and its application in practice. It is evident, however, at this distance of time that the discrepancy was real, if implicit, from the very beginning. The conflict between theory and practice, which took place in so many fields, was always to the disadvantage of the Aborigines. The dichotomy is evident in the administration of justice at that time. The terms of the proclamation gave Aborigines all the rights and privileges of British subjects before the law. Sir John Jeffcott was even more emphatic. In his address to the jury in 1837, already partly quoted in another context, he stated: ‘I will go further, and say that any aggression upon the natives, or any infringement upon their rights, shall be visited with greater severity of punishment than would be in similar offences committed upon white men’ (S.A.G.C.R., 3 June, 1837:5). Few, if any, attempts appear to have been made to put this precept into practice. British lawyers and magistrates of the early colonial days had had little experience of contact with other races. Nor did the British legal system deal with practical situations of cultural conflict. Indeed, the report of a Select Committee some years later, in 1860, stated that: ‘It is proved in evidence that the strict application of British criminal law to the Aborigines of the Colony is not in accordance with the principles of equity and justice’ (S.A.P.P., 1860, No. 165:2). As we shall see in a later chapter, it is exactly the same situation which has been given deep consideration by some Australian judges at the present time. In the early days of the colony, however, in spite of Jeffcott’s strictures, judges and magistrates appear to have been frequently more solicitous of giving ‘justice’ to settlers than to Aboriginal British subjects. There arc numerous examples in South Australian history of the failure to give justice to Aborigines. Each case illustrates the opposition of interests between the two races. Gibbs (1960) discusses many instances. Minchin (1964:212) also describes a case which illustrates this conflict, and the failure of the British legal system in such a situation. A somewhat 4 2 THE SETTING grisly document, published in 1874, illustrates the results of the application of British justice to the Aborigines. It is a list of the executions carried out after the foundation of the Colony. According to this list, ten white persons had been hanged. Only one of these had suffered this punishment for the murder of an Aboriginal, in spite of the fact that numerous Aborigines had been murdered. Twenty-one Aborigines, however, had been executed, by law, for the killing of white persons (S.A.P.P., 1874, No. 22:1). Just as the application of British law to the Aborigines did not result injustice, so the humanitarian ideals, though frequently reiterated, failed to assume any substance in practice. A significant acknowledgment of the problems of race relationships was the official direction that the third Protector, Matthew Moorhouse, appointed in 1839, should have a special allocation of funds for his work. This, as laid down in an instruction to Governor Grey in August 1842, was to be 15 per cent of the gross proceeds of the sale of land, which constituted the sole revenue of the state. This surprisingly large portion of the revenue, considering the other pressing needs of the colony, shows the seriousness of the problem and is, in its way, a tribute to the genuine­ ness of the motives of the colonial administrators. Although it became impractical to set aside 15 per cent of land sale proceeds, at no time since has the Aboriginal budget been considered so important. Another admission of the difficulties that faced the policy of assimila­ tion is contained in ordinances issued during the first eight years of the state’s life. W e shall refer in more detail to this legislation in the following chapter. However, the fact that two of these early ordinances referred to problems associated with miscegenation, destitution of children, and drunkenness, shows that administrators had to face, even at that early stage, the same situations which are still problems for legislators today. Certainly in the colony itself, administrative practice fell far short of the ideals expressed at home. However, in the early period, before South Australia became independent in 1856, certain endeavours were made by the Colonial Office of the British government to check the land hunger of the settlers and to provide funds for the social welfare of Aborigines. The ideals of this early period had an important influence on the future of Aboriginal affairs in South Australia, although at the time they failed to prevent decimation of the people in the southern settled areas. Nevertheless, these nineteenth century humanitarian attitudes set the stage for the introduction of radical legal changes which gave South Australia the name of innovator and leader in Aboriginal affairs during the 1960s. In South Australia Aborigines have always been citizens who have had BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 43 voting rights and who have suffered few of the prohibitions which have applied to Aborigines in some other parts of Australia, although in practice they were seldom given the opportunity to exercise such rights. The early recognition that indigenous people did have some proprietary right to the land they occupied, made possible the setting aside of reserves and areas especially for Aboriginal use. In the first twenty-four years some forty-two reserves were established. Some of these passed later into the hands of white settlers, but other reserves provided havens wherein Aborigines could be separated from the disastrous effects of contact with white society. The liberal attitude on which this land policy was based made the subsequent recognition of land rights, a century later, easier to accomplish. Thus early expressions of liberalism, although they achieved comparatively little practical effect at the time, had some influence upon the legislative changes which were to come in the next century. However, as a contrast to the prevailing complacent apathy of most settlers, Christian missionary zeal was active amongst some of the colonists in these early years. Attempts to educate Aborigines and to give them food and shelter were made by several church bodies. Great reliance was placed upon the propagation of the Christian faith amongst the Aborigines as a means of bringing them into the desired conformity of thought and action with the Europeans. Missionary attempts were therefore encouraged by the government and many of the colonists. Six missions to Aborigines were established in the southern part of the state in the early years of settlement. These were Native Location, Adelaide, established in 1837; Encounter Bay, 1839; Port Lincoln, 1842; Walker- ville, a suburb of Adelaide, 1844; Poonindie, 1850; and Point McLeay, 1859. Only Point McLeay still exists as an Aboriginal reserve. There, some of the descendants of the original people live as a small community. The other stations were all abandoned long before the turn of the century. The practice of issuing food and blankets to Aborigines was established very early in the state’s history. Indeed, the major work of the early protectors was the issue of these ‘rations’. Ration depots were established in increasing numbers as settlement moved further away from Adelaide and thus deprived more and more Aborigines of their traditional means of acquiring food. A Select Committee of 1860 reported that twelve ration stations were in operation. After the colony gained self-government (1856), little regard was given to Aborigines. This was partly because the following period was one of profound discouragement at the negative results of all measures so far taken for native welfare. Another factor was that the interests of settlers, 44 THE SETTING especially pastoralists, were strongly represented in the state parliament. Buxton, in referring to the year 1864, shortly after the colony became independent, noted this (1966:4). Lastly, when the financial support of the colonial administration was withdrawn, upon independence, the state’s budget was extremely limited. After 1856, then, in the newly independent state of South Australia, Aborigines could expect no restraints to be imposed upon the land hunger of settlers. Only in parts of the arid interior, where the environment restricted settlement, were the Aborigines protected from the rapid usurpation of their lands and the heavy rate of mortality which then ensued.

SEPARATION

By 1860 few instances of overt conflict continued, except in the northern, unsettled areas of the state. By the time a Select Committee had been appointed in 1860 to report on the condition of Aborigines, most Aborigines had been ‘pacified’ as European settlement had pushed into nearly all of the potentially arable land. This Select Committee virtually pronounced that all past measures to bring justice had failed, yet it offered scant hope for the future. From that time onwards the government took little responsibility for Aborigines. The provision of welfare was left very largely to the missions. The second phase of race relations, that of segregation of the Aborigines, had already appeared before 1860, although at first the isolated missions were seen as ‘training centres’ and the men went outside to work. Gradually policy changed from the hopeful promotion of assimilation to the pessimistic practice of segration. Aborigines then largely disappeared from the main streams of social and political thought. While missions could not generally be maintained in areas of closer settlement, their establishment still continued in the remoter areas. Thus Kopperamanna and Killalpaninna, two separate German missions to the west of Lake Eyre, were opened in 1866. These stations were later abandoned. Point Pearce, established in 1868, and Koonibba in 1901, are still functioning as Aboriginal communities. All missionary foundations had then, as they have now, a twofold purpose. Besides their aim of bringing Christianity to Aborigines, the missions tried to avert their physical destruction as a people. This object was attained by protecting them from white persons, in encounters with whom Aborigines usually suffered severely. Isolation of the Aborigines from white contacts was the method used by missionaries in order to protect and educate them. BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 4$

The missions appeared to be the main benefactors of Aborigines during the period between 1856 and the first Aborigines Act of 1911 yet, in fact, they too showed a hostile attitude towards Aboriginal culture. In the interests of the propagation of the gospel, missionaries insisted that Aborigines must abandon not only their aesthetic and cultural heritage, but much of their social structure as well. A later chapter will describe the destructive social effect of this process upon the Aboriginal communities. The chief contribution of the government in this middle period was the dispensing o f‘rations’ to Aborigines, at various centres. The establish­ ment of such depots encouraged Aborigines to congregate in small groups in the vicinity of these centres and away from Europeans. The practice thus induced segregation, at the same time as it attempted to reconcile the humanitarian and economic attitudes of the settlers. A report on ration stations by one observer in 1887 is an unwitting testimony to the increase of destitution amongst the Aborigines.

The protection of the aborigines is provided for by the State. A special department watches over their welfare and interests, consisting of a protector, who has the disbursement of the annual vote, Pound sterling 5,104, and the control and supervision (assisted by a sub-protector in the Far North), of the depots (about fifty in number), for the distribution of rations, clothing and medical comforts (Scott, 1887:21).

Nevertheless, few in the late nineteenth century observed what was really happening to the Aborigines. For those of them who had not been wiped out in the early years of settlement this period of isolation was really a time of adjustment. The tribal people in the north had been forewarned by tales of atrocities in the south. Indeed, certain instances occurred in their own country, even though it was very sparsely settled, to confirm such tales. Therefore they hid from newcomers and avoided white men’s food, for fear of poison. Diseases penetrated more slowly with reduced contact and the people were able to develop some im­ munity. The infertile and arid nature of their country helped to shield them from rapid penetration by advancing primary industries. As a consequence, the northern people did not die out. Many groups, protected by their isolation, have remained a virile people who have, moreover, kept much of their traditional life and culture. Only now, at this present time, are they being faced by drastic contact with white culture. During this period of adjustment, the remnants of the southern Aborigines, isolated on reserves, gradually developed new attitudes towards Europeans. The inequality of the first, physical contest had reduced Aborigines to a state of hopeless frustration but, during the 4 6 THE SETTING period of their isolation, the southern Aborigines found again their will to survive. This expressed itself in the various ways by which they came to terms with their environment. A few Aborigines became totally assimilated into European society. Those who were forced to remain on reserves created for themselves a new social structure in response to their changed environment. This will be discussed in Chapter 9. Gradually, during these years of contact with whites, Aborigines developed a consciousness of their own separate identity and developed their own particular attitudes towards Europeans. This took place whether, as in the case of the northern Aborigines, a harsh terrain isolated them from Europeans, or whether, as in the southern reserves, they had been physically separated into segregated communities. In either case a a strong group consciousness developed along with an increasing with­ drawal from European society, and indeed in many cases a passive resistance to it. Aborigines realised that to adopt Western cultural forms meant renunciation of their Aboriginal ties, whether they were traditionally oriented people or those who lived in the new social groups which had grown up on the southern reserves. For some, integration into European society has always had a compelling fascination. Nevertheless, in most cases Aborigines have found it hard to face the individualistic approach which this demands: it goes right against the strong group feelings engendered by both their past and present culture. Usually integration is rejected in favour of withdrawal into the Aboriginal group. In the European community there was some slight realisation, but no real understanding, of these social forces within the Aboriginal community during the early years of the twentieth century. Contrary to forecasts of the previous years, Aborigines had not completely died out. Those on the missions, in fact, were surviving very well. Partly owing to a revival of the humanitarian conscience of the nineteenth century, but primarily actuated by expediency, a Royal Commission was appointed in 1913. As a result, the South Australian government assumed control in 1914 of two of the remaining missions, Point McLeay and Point Pearce, but left Koonibba, in the far west, in the charge of the Lutheran Church. By the middle of the 1920s there was a resurgence of missionary interest and this was encouraged by the Government. Several mission groups went into different areas of Aboriginal settlement, as can be seen from the following list. Oodnadatta was opened in 1924; Swan Reach, 1925; Quorn, 1927; Nepabunna, 1930; Ooldea, 1933; Umeewarra, 1937; Ernabella, 1937; Finniss Springs, 1939; Gerard, 1945; and Yalata, 1952. BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTFI AUSTRALIA 47

Figure 3. Aiission and government stations, showing major Aboriginal missions established since 1836. Some oj those still operating are now controlled by the state.

)■ ADELAIDE

Centres operating at present

now closed

These missions faced problems similar to those which had overwhelmed many of the earlier stations. Five of the ten missions listed above have already been forced to close, and two of the remaining five have been taken over by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Gale (1967:22) gives a summary of some of the main missionary establishments. Past and present mission centres are shown in Figure 3. 48 THE SETTING

RESURGENCE

During the 1950s the relationship between the general community and the Aborigines began to change. It became evident that they were not dying out. They were, in fact, increasing in numbers, and at a greater rate than the Europeans (Gale, 1969b). With their numerical increase Aborigines developed a new consciousness of identity. Realising that they could become a force in the Australian community, some Aborigines began to criticise the authoritarian conditions which governed their lives. In recent years, Aboriginal protests in various forms have grown in volume and become widespread throughout Australia. This growth in the Aboriginal concept of his separate identity has influenced certain sections of the Australian community. To a large extent the general administrative reactions to Aboriginal revitalisation have been very similar to the attitudes and approaches which were evident in the early years of the colony. Once again more reserves have been set aside. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs manned stations at Amata, in the far northwest, in 1961; at Davenport, on the outskirts of Port Augusta, in 1963; and at Indulkana, in the far north, in 1967. It also took over the mission stations of Gerard, on the Upper Murray, in 1961; and Koonibba, on the west coast, in 1963. The 1960s have thus seen much of the same kind of feverish activity, in the opening of reserves and the manning of protected stations that was evident during the first few years of the settlement of South Australia and later in the 1920s and 1930s. Certainly, many non-Aborigines appear to be just as prejudiced towards Aborigines and just as ignorant of the social forces involved as were many of the early settlers. Such attitudes were brought out clearly in the evidence given to the Select Committee appointed to consider the Aboriginal Lands Trust Bill in 1966. Indeed, much of the opinion expressed at this Select Committee was not so very different from that expressed in evidence to the Select Committee of 1860, just over a century before. In both cases it was clear that members of the general community held, and still hold, opposing views concerning Aborigines. Although in some ways neither government policies nor community attitudes appear to be very different from those apparent a century ago, certain changes have occurred in recent years which must lead to a definite alteration in the relationships of Aborigines and non-Aborigines. The resurgence of the Aboriginal population, due to higher birth and lower death rates, has caused increasing migration to the cities, which in BACKGROUND TO ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 49 turn has triggered many social changes for Aborigines. The past picture, compounded of hopelessness and abject dependence, and so typical of many reserves, is no longer the inevitable prospect for young Aborigines. For them, urbanisation means social change. The cities offer more frequent and more normal contact between Aborigines and Europeans than has occurred anywhere in the state at any one time. Aborigines are migrating to the city as individuals or families, and not in large racial blocs. This gives opportunity, in employment and other fields, for contacts between persons of different races on a person-to-person basis. It is already evident that some fallacies in European attitudes are being dispelled. One Aboriginal said that the city, ‘gives us the chance to educate the white man to see that we are not as stupid as he thinks’. In the cities, Aborigines have come out of their segregation into new­ found freedoms. In fact, the major difference between the outlook at the end of the 1860s and that of the 1960s can be seen in the growth of independence and protest amongst some of the urban Aborigines. In­ evitably, such changes are reflected in the progress of legislation, which is discussed in the following chapter. LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES 4 IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

f 1 'his chapter traces the history of the interaction between Aboriginal A and European cultures from a different viewpoint. The previous chapter gave an account of the conflicts between the two cultures and discussed the forces which produced the Aboriginal communities of today. This one deals with the legal controls which the Europeans imposed on the indigenous people, and attempts to show how South Australian legislation progressively deprived Aborigines of their land and converted them into a depressed minority. Aboriginal legislation was solely the responsibility of each state until the referendum of 1967, which empowered the Commonwealth govern­ ment to legislate for Aborigines. Two types of state legislation have critically affected Aborigines—the various land acts which control the ownership and use of land, and a body of social legislation which deals with Aborigines as a special group in the community.

LAND LEGISLATION

Colonisation in South Australia was based upon a land development venture. Because of this, early land use and the conditions of occupation were more closely regulated and controlled by law than in other parts of Australia. This element of control was to have indirect benefits for some Aborigines but, by and large, every system of making land available to European settlers dispossessed the original inhabitants. The main outlines of land policy and legislation in South Australia illustrate the process whereby Aborigines became a landless people. LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 51

The first legislation relating to South Australian land was contained in the Foundation Act of 1834, which established the colony. It dealt with the sale of land in the new province to British subjects, and described the territories therein as ‘unoccupied lands’. Under the terms of this Act, therefore, the Aborigines had no legal existence. It could be supposed, therefore, that they had the right neither to own nor to occupy any part of South Australia. This attitude was criticised by humanitarians and idealists in England. The effects of the criticisms arc reflected in a letter of instruction to the Governor of South Australia sent by the Colonization Commissioners in May of 1838 (S.A.A., 1838, No. 23). Part of this letter was quoted in the previous chapter. Early land legislation in the colony did not, how­ ever, support the prevailing liberal attitude in England. A later letter from the Commissioners to the Governor, in September of 1838 [S.A.A., 1838, No. 52), sounded a different note. It merely reiterated the terms of section six of the Foundation Act of 1834, which had declared that: ‘All the land of the Province (excepting only portions which may be reserved for roads and footpaths) to be public lands open to purchase by British subjects.’ Thus, contrary instructions were given even within the same year. One recognised, the other ignored, any Aboriginal rights to their land. Certainly there appears to have been no attempt to establish whether the Aborigines possessed any ‘proprietary rights’ to their land. It is significant, too, that, in a case recently before the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, the judge’s decision (in 1971) rested upon the inability of a group of Yirrkala Aborigines to establish, under Australian law, their actual ownership of what they claimed to be their traditional lands. The history of agricultural and pastoral development and the spread of settlement in South Australia have been dealt with by various authors. Williams (1966, 1969b) discusses the opening up of the country in relation to subsequent settlement. Meinig (1963) gives an account of the agricultural expansion into the marginal areas of South Australia. Oldham (1917) reviews some ways in which lands were allocated during the early period in South Australia, and the progress of the land surveys. Buxton (1966) gives a detailed description of South Australian land legislation from 1869 to 1885. Roberts (1924) generally reviews land settlement in Australia, and discusses the historical importance of some early land acts. For the first six years of the life of the colony the lands of South Australia, that is to say the lands of the Aborigines, were available for purchase only. Theoretically, there was nothing in the laws to debar an 52 THE SETTING

Aboriginal from owning land. However, even had bargains or treaties been entered into with the Aborigines, it is unlikely that the latter would have comprehended the issue at stake, which was the substitution of individual ownership for corporate land use. Land ownership, by individuals, had never been part of their traditions. The use of land for agriculture by settlers utterly denied to Aborigines all their former food resources. Charles Sturt, the Assistant Commissioner of Lands in 1840, pointed out in vigorous terms how little the original instructions to safeguard the rights of Aborigines in their lands had been heeded (S.AG.C..R., 22 July, 1840:7). Sturt recommended that the Protector of Aborigines should be empowered to withdraw from potential sale lands sufficient in area for the needs of the original inhabi­ tants. Such depositions appear not to have taken place. That they did not may have been due to a misconception, wilful or otherwise, as to the needs of Aborigines. The idea held at the time was that blocks of land were required whereon Aborigines could learn farming, and become agri­ cultural proprietors. Few people realised that Aborigines who lived in their traditional way needed a much larger extent of territory to gain their livelihood by hunting and foodgathering than could be provided by small farming blocks. This was not to be the first occasion upon which there had been confusion between the real and the supposed needs of Aborigines. A little later, however, under the terms of the Waste Lands Act passed in the British Parliament in 1842, the Governor was given the power to set aside land for ‘the Use or Benefit of the aboriginal Inhabitants of the Country’ (5 and 6 Victoria C36 of 1842 sec. 3). A number of different interpretations could be given to this general provision in the Act. An allotted area could remain as Crown land, for occupation by Aborigines, or else it could be sold or leased in order to augment the state fund for Aboriginal welfare. In later years, land allotted for Aborigines was used in both these ways. However, this Act (1842) really took with one hand what it appeared to give Aborigines with the other. Firstly, all land not already surveyed, and thus alienated for settlement, was declared to be waste and un­ occupied land and therefore to come under the jurisdiction of the Crown. Consequently, the Aborigines who lived on traditional grounds at that time beyond the edge of settlement, thereby lost the legal entitlement to lands which they had occupied since time immemorial. It meant that they had been formally dispossessed by statute. Furthermore, formal and long­ term leasehold tenures, previously unavailable to settlers, were now legal LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 53 under the terms of this Act. It therefore encouraged the encroachment of settlement into the more distant areas where Aborigines still remained. After 1842, however, small areas of Crown land began to be set aside for Aborigines, especially after 1846, when a fairly systematic and detailed application of the 1842 Act began to be adopted. The method was to allot certain sections in two classes of survey district for the use of Aborigines (Oldham, 1917:62). This appears to have been the beginning of the practice whereby, as surveys proceeded, certain sections in the counties and hundreds were set aside for this purpose. Many such reserves, because of their small size, were useless to Aborigines and were later sold or leased to Europeans (Gale, 1964:154,155). A similar practice was carried on by the South Australian legislature under the provisions of a later Waste Lands Act, passed in 1857, after the colony had become independent of the control of the British Colonial Office. Various Aboriginal reserves continued to be set aside as a result of this and subsequent Crown lands acts. Whenever land in a newly surveyed district was offered for sale, a token area was usually set aside for the use of Aborigines. By the time that the Royal Commission of 1913-15 had been appointed, some ninety-seven reserves had been established, although only a small proportion of these actually had Aborigines living on them. Although only a few such reserves were of any practical value to the Aborigines, the separation of such areas is evidence of the philanthropic if impractical attitude towards Aborigines held by the authorities from the beginning of the colony’s existence. Whereas, when land was offered by the government for purchase by settlers, no mention in the transaction was made of the rights of Aborigines to these lands, which were once their traditional territories, the earliest form of leasehold did indeed give specific rights to the Aborigines who lived on the area to be leased. All settlement in South Australia outside the more closely settled agricultural areas took place under this early form of leasehold, which was known as pastoral lease. The conditions of this lease imposed considerable control over the lessee by his landlord, the government. Furthermore, it was and still is, the only form of land tenure in which Aborigines have legal rights in the territory occupied by the lessee. The influence of Sturt can probably be seen in the conditions of leasehold set out in the earliest pastoral leases issued after 1840. The following reservations occur in such leases . . AND ALSO reserved to Aboriginal Inhabitants of the said State and their dependants the full and free right of access into upon over and from the said land except such 54 THE SETTING parts as improvements have been erected upon and in and to the springs and surface waters thereon and to make and erect wurlies and other native dwellings and to take and use for food, birds and animals ferae naturae as if this lease had not been made’. This statement remains at the present time as part of clause 1 in leases granted under the terms of the present Pastoral Act, 1936-1969. Thus, as settlement spread, land legislation affected the Aborigines in two ways. Firstly, if settlers bought freehold titles to land in survey districts, a certain number of small sections of Crown Land were set aside for Aborigines. If, on the other hand, pastoral leases were granted, Aborigines retained certain rights of occupation and of use. The land, however, remained the property of the Crown. Various land acts were passed after the colony gained independence. Some instituted new forms of land tenure. They continued to contain a clause empowering the governor to set aside land for Aborigines. Some of these acts arc listed in Appendix I. The comparative prominence of land acts in early South Australian legislation is a reflection of the spread of settlement during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Further, during the latter period land legislation showed a decrease in the previous emphasis towards encouraging the frecholding of land, with which went an increasing tendency towards the classification and control of lands. The explanation for this new approach will be referred to later in this chapter. Even the actual wording of the land legislation of this period shows how far the process of acquiring the Aborigines’ land had gone. Except for the clause relating to the governor’s powers, mentioned above, Aborigines are hardly even mentioned in later land acts. However, a clause in a Crown Land Act of 1877 stated, with unconscious irony, that land might be leased to Aborigines (Crown Lands Consolidation Act, 1877, No. 86, Part I, clause 11). Although the later Aborigines Act of 1911 also contained some provisions for making small areas of land available to Aborigines (Aborigines Act, 1911, sec. 18), such land was to be leased and remained the property of the Crown. But neither this nor any of the earlier attempts were successful in providing land for Aborigines. Such areas as were set aside were often of little use to the Aborigines and were later resumed. In no instance did the Aborigines actually obtain titles to such sections. The activities of missions to the Aborigines during the latter part of the nineteenth century have been referred to in the previous chapter. In the southern areas of the state they became the centres for the vestigial LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 55 groups of Aborigines who had lost all rights to use of the land in these areas. Therefore, lacking the means of subsistence, they had become dependent upon the rest of the community. The process, under the land policy of creating reserves, closely complemented the activities of mis­ sions. Thus, the report of the Select Committee of 1860 served to empha­ sise the usefulness of missions which operated on reserves of Crown Land leased to them. Likewise, a Royal Commission in 1899, appointed to inquire into outrages against Aborigines (in particular against females) saw, as a particular need, their future protection from whites. Reserves appeared to afford the best means of providing such protection. The practical usefulness to Europeans of keeping Aborigines in isolation was not overlooked either. The Aborigines Act of 1911 can be seen as the culmination of the land policy which had established reserves. This Act and its consequences will be discussed in somewhat more detail later in this chapter. It is sufficient to say here that it confirmed the current practice, already carried out by the missions, of segregating Aborigines into reserves which were owned by the Crown and not by the Aborigines themselves. As a landless group in the new European community, whose economy was largely based upon the use of land, Aborigines, who lived on the reserves and missions in the southern areas, became isolated and dominated groups of people deprived of the normal freedom enjoyed by individuals in the rest of the population. However, in other parts of the state, where European settlement had a different character, Aborigines did not suffer so severely. In the remoter and arid areas Aborigines had been able to maintain their numbers in relative strength as well as keeping a good deal of their traditional life. Their tenacity in maintaining their lives and traditions amidst so much destruction elsewhere was referred to in the previous chapter. They owed their survival perhaps primarily to the isolation from Europeans afforded to them by a climate and terrain where settlement was difficult and sparse. But indirectly, also, official policies on land use helped them, by regulating the kind of land use which was permitted in such areas. During the nineteenth century much hardship had been experienced as a result of the rapid outward movement of settlement into the semi- arid and arid areas of the state. Much land had become eroded and its fertility destroyed by cropping and over-grazing. Eventually it was realised that climatic factors placed severe limitations upon the type of primary production that could be successfully undertaken in many parts of South Australia. Classification of land became important and super- 56 THE SETTING vision ofland use was instituted. After the passing of a Crown Lands Act in 1886, the disposal of Crown land on leasehold tenures virtually super­ seded sale. Because of the new practice of classifying land according to its productivity, the policy was adopted whereby land in certain low-rainfall areas could not be allotted except for pastoral leasehold. The lessee of such a lease was at that time, and still is, under the control of the Lands Depart­ ment. The present statutory body (1971) which has charge of the administration of pastoral leases is the Pastoral Board. In general, the aims of control are to prevent substantial alteration of the natural environment. Further, it gives certain rights to Aborigines who live in the area held under lease. Land which is available for pastoral leasehold only comprises a large part of South Australia; indeed, at present it amounts to 52 per cent of the whole area of South Australia. A map showing the present-day extent of pastoral leasehold is contained in a ‘Report of the Department of Lands’ (.S.A.P.P., 1966, No. 10:72). This map also shows that just over 30 per cent of the state is unoccupied, primarily because of its unproductive nature. The largest Aboiiginal reserves arc situated either in vacant land or in land which can be held only under pastoral lease. One of these indeed is very large: it occupies 27,620 square miles in the northwestern corner of South Australia. These reserves are important to Aborigines. So too are pastoral leases, even if held by non-Aborigines, because under their terms Aborigines have the right to maintain to some extent their traditional life if they so wish and can therefore retain a certain amount of social cohesion. Moreover, the conditions of leasehold result in less damage to the natural environment than under any other conditions of land tenure. It has been partly through the protection afforded by such leases, as well as the setting aside of larger Aboriginal reserves, that some Aborigines were able to retain some traditional culture even up to the present time. Further, in addition to leaving the environment relatively undisturbed, pastoral industries at least in the past usually provided a type of employment for Aborigines, especially for males, such that they could retain many of their local and family ties. Thus the impact of the cultural shock, which Aborigines experience in nearly all other contacts with the European eco­ nomic system, are, in this type of environment, to some extent reduced. Nevertheless, in spite of certain rights of occupation in a few areas, the overall picture of all legislation which dealt with Aborigines in relation to the land is that it increasingly dispossessed them. LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 57

Eventually the Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 attempted to make a new approach. The concepts involved in this legislation and the difficulties of instituting changes in land ownership can be seen in the parliamentary debates (S.A.P.D., 1965, 1966) and in the minutes of the Select Com­ mittee appointed to investigate the question (S.A.P.P., 1966, No. 98). The Aboriginal Lands Trust Act is the first since the foundation of the state to deal specifically with the land ownership rights of Aborigines. The 1966 Act made it legally possible for the Aboriginal Lands Trust to take over ownership of any lands reserved for Aborigines. The legal implications of this Act have been summarised by Mitchell (1969:16): ‘The Act therefore supplements the provision of reserves for the use of Aborigines, and enables the alienation of lands to the Aboriginal Lands Trust, and by that Trust. Thus if the Government thinks fit, the way is open for recognition in South Australia of some rights by Aborigines to Crown Land.’ Theoretically it is possible that an Aboriginal reserve and certain other Crown lands too may eventually pass out of the hands of the government. Politically speaking, this Act was a simple gesture to recognise the land rights of Aborigines. Its provisions are wide and far-reaching. Its practical application, however, is far from simple. Indeed, it seems full of apparently insoluble problems. The economic returns of most of the Aboriginal reserves do not warrant the costs of assuming control of these lands. For this reason the Trust moved slowly in its first three years of existence. The total area of the former Aboriginal reserves over which the Aboriginal Lands Trust had gained control by 1969 amounted to 3338 acres. Many of these reserves were small areas of land scattered throughout various districts of the state. At the end of 1969 a full-time manager was appointed to develop these holdings and in 1970 the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs gave a grant for the Trust to employ a firm of manage­ ment consultants to investigate the economic desirability of assuming control of further lands.

SOCIAL LEGISLATION

It appears that at various times the policy actuating social legislation for Aborigines has been prompted by one or other of two radically opposed viewpoints. The first of these regards the protection of Aborigines as all- important. This attitude arose, originally, from the fact that, in the northern half of the state, unsophisticated Aborigines who were exposed to sporadic contact with whites needed to be protected from them. The 58 THE SETTING historical reality of the abuses practised on Aborigines has been responsible for the evolution of a highly protective attitude towards them. Their need for protection has been one of the main problems with which legislation has had to deal. Legislators have chiefly looked to the segrega­ tion and insulation of the Aboriginal communities as instruments of protection. The second attitude, completely opposed to the first, regards assimilation of Aborigines into the European community as possible and desirable. This theory states that assimilation must be supported by social measures in order to achieve its end. Hasluck (1965) discusses these two different attitudes towards Aboriginal legislation in Australia. Social legislation for Aborigines in South Australia, although enacted relatively infrequently, has been inspired by these two opposite approaches. Each time a change is made in the law, a radical change of outlook appears to have inspired the new law. In fact, there has merely been a swing from one approach to the other. There appears, in the past, to have been no mainstream of thought guiding legislation for Aborigines. Further confusion results because of a force which affects the administration of Aboriginal legislation. That is, when the administration faces successive practical situations and adapts itself to changed conditions, its adjustments appear to reflect a change in policy, yet the act has actually remained unaltered. The process of modification can continue like this for many years, with the result that actual administration may, in spirit, depart considerably from the strict interpretation of the act under which it works. Anomalies arising in this way have confused Aborigines, not to mention administrators, for many years. Constitutional changes often reflect or may even crystallise and codify changes in the administration that have taken place since a previous law was passed. This has been true of South Australian Aboriginal legislation. Thus legislative changes which have appeared drastic have merely been catching up with the numerous practical adjustments in policy which have occurred in the intervening years. Indeed, confusion, vacillation, and uncertainty appeared to affect all Aboriginal policy, because few people really understood the nature of the situation. Just as, in the early days, there was a prevalent misconception about their relationship to land, so was there a complete lack of under­ standing as to whether Aborigines could, or even wanted to, adapt themselves to the life and ways of the new community. Legislators, beset by disappointment and perplexity because of the obstinate social problems associated with Aborigines, felt that the only thing they could do was to follow the example of practical people who LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 59 at the time appeared to have had a certain amount of success in ‘civilising’ Aborigines. Legislation therefore tended to follow the example of practice. To some extent this has been the theme of all Aboriginal policy until very recently. The history of Aboriginal social legislation will illustrate these points. As we have seen in Chapter 3, the official policy at the time of colonisation was, in the main, one of benevolent laissez faire towards Aborigines. The appointment of a Protector was the only means of assistance to be provided to aid the putative process of automatic assimila­ tion. Thereafter, for a generation to come, there was very little formal legislation. However, it was acknowledged gradually that a policy of laissez Jaire had failed to produce integration of the two peoples, or the elimination of racial problems. As early as 1837, Governor Hindmarsh had found it necessary to issue a proclamation which forbade the dispensing of alcohol to Aborigines (S'. A A, Despatches from Adelaide 1837-40, P.R.O. Ref. Co. 13, Vol. 6:60). This Ordinance was the beginning of the statutory prohibition of alcohol for Aborigines, which remained in force until the 1960s. Moreover, there were legal difficulties about the validity of depositions from Aboriginal witnesses, notwithstanding their status as British subjects. This situation had to be rectified by an ordinance which stated that a court could take evidence ‘without an oath and without any formality’ from an Aboriginal (Ordinance, 1848, No. 3, sec. 2). Most of the provisions of the Ordinance of 1848 remain incorporated in the Evidence Act 1929-1968. Reference has already been made to the Aborigines’ fund which the Governor in 1842 was instructed to appropriate from general revenue. This he was enabled to do under the provisions of the Waste Lands Act of 1842, the first act which made funds available in South Australia either for public purposes, or for the Aborigines. However large the Aboriginal budget, there were always plenty of demands made upon it. For one thing, the results of miscegenation began to be a problem very early in the colony’s life, as an Ordinance of 1844 reveals. The preamble to this Ordinance reads

Whereas it frequently happens that half-caste and orphaned children of the Aborigines are left destitute and without proper means of support and it is expedient to provide for the protection maintenance and upbringing of such as well as of other children of the Aborigines whose parents or near kindred may be willing in that behalf (Ordinance, 1844, No. 12, preamble). 6o THE SETTING

It may have been the ideal of eventual racial assimilation that caused the authorities in the early colonial period to allow free contact between European settlers and Aboriginal women. Certainly the difficulties in controlling these associations may well have deterred them from making any attempt. However, the Ordinance just quoted is evidence of very early public disquiet at the results. Under the provisions of this early Ordinance, the Protector of Aborigines could become the ‘legal guardian of every half-caste and other unprotected Aboriginal child, whose parents are dead or unknown’ (sec. 5). If, however, the parent or parents were known, the Ordinance required that the consent of at least one parent be given in such a case. Both this Ordinance and the Waste Lands Act of 1842, together with the subsequent instructions to the Governor relevant to the latter Act, show that the laissez Jaire policy towards Aborigines had failed in its aim of assimilating them into the European community. In fact, less than ten years after the foundation of the colony, many Aborigines had become dependent upon the state’s welfare services, because they owed their existence to the distribution of government rations. This dependence was a pattern which has persisted. Those who drafted the Ordinance of 1844 appeared to regard the need for its enact­ ment with some resignation; it was a necessary but as was then thought, temporary expedient. They would have been less sanguine had they foreseen that, over a hundred years later, Aborigines in South Australia still need a disproportionately large amount of welfare care supplied from government funds. This situation, in its present-day setting, will be dis­ cussed in later chapters. The Ordinance of 1844 was virtually the last effort made to legislate for Aborigines until the next century. Although two Parliamentary Committees sat, one in 1860 (S.A.P.P., 1860, No. 65) and the other in 1899 (S.A.P.P., 1899, Nos. 77, 77A), the greater part of Aboriginal welfare work after 1857 was carried out by Christian missionary bodies. Various missionary groups leased areas of Crown land and attracted Aborigines to them. Here the diminishing groups of Aborigines found the protection, food, and medical care necessary for their survival. It was, in fact, the survival of Aborigines in such areas which greatly influenced the policy of the first Aborigines Act, which was passed in 1911. We have already referred to this Act in connection with the policy of creating reserves, but its main social significance was that it showed the changed attitude of the community towards Aborigines. The heavy mortality rate amongst Aborigines in the past, and the abuses against them which had been revealed in evidence to the 1899 inquiry, had shown LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 6l that Aborigines in a white society had special problems. Consequently, the 1911 Act officially discarded the previous, and optimistic, attitude of laissez jaire towards Aborigines and replaced it with a highly protective attitude. Legislators followed the example of the Christian missions in insisting upon the importance of segregating Aborigines into com­ munities away from Europeans. The practical results of the missions’ method had been encouraging. It had apparently enabled Aborigines to survive; it had also prevented them from being an irritant to white settlers. The contemporary situation, whereby Aborigines were isolated in the precincts of the Christian missions, appeared at the time to be workable and useful. It was therefore natural that it should have become codified and perpetuated by the 1911 Aborigines Act. Indeed the idea of the maintenance of Aborigines on reserves lay at the very core of this Act, the effect of which was to set Aborigines apart as a separate group in the community and, in contrast to the earlier attitudes of laissez faire, to legislate for them in a rigid and paternalistic way. Its objects, as set out in the preamble, stated that it was ‘An Act to make provision for the better Protection and Control of the Aboriginal and Half-Caste Inhabitants of the State of South Australia’. Provision was made for this in a comprehensive way. Firstly, the definition of persons to whom the Act should apply included as well as full-blood Aborigines a very broad category of persons of Aboriginal descent. An ‘Aboriginals Department’ was set up and was ‘charged with the duty of controlling and promoting the welfare of the aboriginals’ (sec. 5). At the head of the department stood a ‘Chief Protector of Aboriginals’, who under the Act, became ‘the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and every half-caste child, notwithstanding that any such child attains the age of twenty-one years’ (sec. 10). The Act imposed greater control over such children than had the 1844 Ordinance, which had required the consent of at least one parent of an Aboriginal child before guardianship could be assumed by the Chief Protector. The Chief Protector had considerable powers over the person of an Aboriginal. He could cause any Aboriginal to be moved to a reserve or Aboriginal institution (secs. 17-21) and he could assume control of the property of any Aboriginal (sec. 35). There were penalties to be imposed upon people who unlawfully entered a reserve (sec. 20), or who caused an Aboriginal to leave one (sec. 21). The Act imposed strict segregation upon nearly all Aborigines. However, certain categories of persons of Aboriginal descent were exempted Irom liability to be moved to a reserve (sec. 19). The paternalistic tenor of the 1911 Act was carried over into the 6 2 THE SETTING

Aborigines (Training of Children) Act of 1923, which gave the Chief Protector the power to commit children of Aborigines to special children’s homes and provided for such children to become State wards (secs. 6 and 7). The two Acts were consolidated into one in 1934 and further amend­ ments were incorporated in 1939, when it became the Aborigines Act 1934-1939. In the 1939 amendment the Chief Protector was replaced by a board, known as the Aborigines Protection Board. This body assumed many of the powers given to the Chief Protector by the 1911 Act. Its duties were those o f‘controlling and promoting the welfare of aborigines’ (sec. 5). The definition of ‘aboriginal’ (that is those to whom the Act should apply) was extended to include all those persons who were ‘descended from the original inhabitants of Australia’ (sec. 4(b)). Three amendments in the 1939 Act carried particular implications of paternalistic control and aroused considerable resentment amongst Aborigines. One of these was the insertion of section 11a, which stated that an individual Aboriginal could be exempted from the operation of the Act in such cases wherein the board considered that the Aboriginal ‘by reason of his character and standard of intelligence and development should be exempted from the provisions’. Power to determine this was vested in the board. An appeal could be made to a special magistrate should such exemption not be granted to an Aboriginal who applied for it. Although some Aborigines availed themselves of this provision in the Act, others regarded it as invidious because of its emphasis upon the authority of the board. The extended definition of ‘aboriginal’ contained in section 4 was greatly resented. It brought many assimilated and sophisticated persons of part-Aboriginal descent technically within the scope of the Act. One of the most irksome restrictions thereby imposed was the application of the Licensing Act of 1932, which prohibited them from consuming or possessing alcohol. Another cause of indignation to Aborigines was section 34a, which made it an offence for a male not of Aboriginal origin to associate with a female who had any Aboriginal ancestry. Although it had been designed initially to protect unsophisticated Aboriginal females from unscrupulous Europeans, changed conditions had made nonsense of this provision long before it was removed from the list of police offences in 1958. World War II diverted interest from domestic legislation. Indeed, the 1911 Act, with its amendments, remained in force until 1962. It was then replaced by the Aboriginal Affairs Act, 1962, which had a far more liberal outlook than that of the earlier legislation. Over the years, how­ ever, many changes in the actual application of the provisions in the 1911- LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 63

1939 Act had already foreshadowed a different policy. This trend towards modification had been strengthened by economic and social changes which had occurred within the Aboriginal communities during and after W orld W ar II, so that, in effect, the 1962 Act crystallised into formal legislation the administrative changes which had taken place in the fifty years preceeding its passage, in much the same way that the 1911 Act had done for its preceding era. Thus, far from initiating new policies, each Act had actually merely accepted existing practices and built them into new legislation. Just as the Aborigines Act of 1911, by its meticulous and paternalistic regulation of the lives of Aborigines, had reversed the previous official policy of laissez faire towards them, so the 1962 Aborigines Act reversed the previous policy of segregation. Nevertheless, for several years before the latter Act was passed, certain administrative practices had seemed to suggest that the aim of strictly segregating Aborigines was being modified. Two measures which had been carried out for some time will illustrate the implicit trend towards assimilation as an ideal: orphan or destitute Aboriginal children had been placed in European foster homes since 1956; and in 1954 the first welfare officer had been appointed to the staff of the Aborigines Department. This appointment demonstrated a belief that if measures were taken towards fostering Aboriginal welfare, they would lessen the social disparity between the two races. These two actions foreshadowed the return of a policy of assimilation. The aim of the 1962 Aborigines Act was assimilation. Once more Aborigines were to be encouraged to become part of the total com­ munity, and discriminatory legislation abandoned. The only restrictions to be imposed upon any people of Aboriginal descent were for the benefit of unsophisticated people who had not been in constant contact with whites. The introduction of this Act was the outcome of many Common­ wealth and state conferences on Aboriginal policy. Certain factors in the post-war period had promoted interest in the Aboriginal section of the Australian population. One was, that they were patently not a ‘dying race’. Fears that they would eventually become extinct had been very widely held in the latter part of last century and in the early decades of the present one. However, the fact of the rapidly increasing population of mixed-blood people on the reserves, plus the likelihood that the numbers of full-blood Aborigines in the remoter areas were also increas­ ing, had dispelled that fear. The second factor also became evident during the war years but 64 THE SETTING especially in the labour-hungry 1950s. Aborigines were beginning to leave the overpopulated reserves and adjoining country districts, and of their own volition they were taking their places in the labour forces of cities, on equal terms with Europeans. Therefore, and with good reason, they were regarded by administrative authorities as a new force in the Australian community. The South Australian Minister of Aboriginal Affairs described the intention of the 1962 Act in these terms: ‘The purpose of the Government in the new Aboriginal Affairs Act was to abolish all restrictions and restraints on Aborigines as citizens except for some primitive full-blood people in certain areas. The Act provides the machinery for rendering special assistance to Aborigines during their developmental years and to promote their assimilation’ (Pearson, 1963:5). The idea of assimilation seemed to be a new concept, simply because it had not been expressed for over one hundred years, but if we turn back to Governor Hindmarsh’s proclamation we find that it is there, although stated in different terms. The policy of assimilation gained credibility during the 1950s because European migrants were being assimilated into all Australian com­ munities. The new Act was assented to in November 1962 and came into force on 28 February of the following year. In place of the legally powerful Aborigines Protection Board there was substituted an advisory board called the ‘Aboriginal Affairs Board’. A ‘Department of Aboriginal Affairs’, under a Director, replaced the ‘Aboriginals Department’. The Aboriginal Affairs Board was charged ‘with the duty of advising the minister on the operation of this Act and on measures for promoting the welfare of Aborigines and persons of Aboriginal blood’ (sec. 13). This Act was widely commended for its new emphasis and direction; for having a positive policy instead of a system of aimless control. In general, it made available the help that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs could give to all persons of Aboriginal descent, if they desired to receive it. It removed nearly all restrictions upon the use of alcohol by persons of Aboriginal origin and freed them from the necessity of living in communities on reserves. The implications of this legislation are discussed by Spalding (1963) and Shearer (1966). The Act provided that, by proclamation of the Governor, specified areas could be freed from the sections of the Licensing Act which applied to Aborigines (sec. 173, 173). There is now no person or board who can become the legal guardian of Aboriginal children. The curatorship of the property of Aborigines can be undertaken by the Minister, but only with the consent of the Aboriginal LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 65 concerned. The 1962 Act thus attempted to give Aborigines protection, if required, but tried to free them from enforced control. However, certain elements of control and regulation still continued. The Act made a distinction between ‘Aborigines’ and ‘persons of Aboriginal blood’ (sec. 4). The ghost of the exemption system so disliked in the 1939 Act remained in a disguised form in section 17 of the 1962 Act. The Aboriginal Affairs Board was required under the Act to compile and maintain a register of Aborigines. This register was to be reviewed periodically and the names of persons ‘capable of accepting the full responsibilities of citizenship’ were to be removed. An applicant whose name the board refused to remove from its register had the right of appeal to a special magistrate. As in earlier acts, the existing reserves were to be retained, and others could be added by proclamation. There were provisions for the control and administration of Aboriginal reserves (secs. 20, 23), and for supervision of health, employment, and relief (secs. 25, 26, 28). In practice, the operation of the Act still came under criticism because Aborigines felt that their independence was overshadowed by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Aborigines were not compelled to use the resources of this Department, nor to live on reserves under its charge. When such people did so, however, they found that the controls under which they lived were unduly restrictive. In such a situation, in which departmental officers could so greatly influence an Aboriginal’s life, many Aborigines felt that they were being unnecessarily dominated. Concern is expressed, by the Aborigines themselves, that a department with such powers becomes paternalistic in attitude and that this encourages a dependent spirit amongst Aborigines who use it. Section 15 of the 1962 Act gave the Minister wide discretionary powers over relief, education, the care of children, financial assistance, and general supervision. The scope of the Department’s activities resulted in the duplication of many of the functions of the Department of Social Welfare. By definition, the welfare provisions of the 1962 Act included all persons of Aboriginal descent, and thus the Department of Aboriginal Affairs was set up as a second social welfare department. The 1962 Act was a prelude to a burst of legislative activity in South Australia which centred round Aborigines. Because of the vigour of the legislative program in Aboriginal affairs which followed this Act, South Australia was looked upon as a leader in the field by the end of the 1960s. It was a position that South Australia, along with Victoria, had held during the previous century in adopting a liberal attitude towards the 66 THE SETTING

Aborigines. This egalitarian attitude had undergone some distortions over more than a century and had inevitably suffered at the hands of prag­ matism. However, the 1962 legislation re-affirmed the earlier liberal attitude. Two new Acts set new goals. One dealt with land ownership, the other with social equality. Both of these outstripped contemporary administrative policies. Another expression of the concern of legislators to promote Aboriginal welfare was the setting up of two select committees which sat in the latter part of the 1960s. One, studying the Aboriginal Lands Trust Bill (S.A.P.P., 1966, No. 98), has already been mentioned. The other dealt with the Welfare of Aboriginal Children (S.A.P.P., 1969, No. 71) but also made a broad study of Aboriginal social conditions beyond its limited terms of reference. A new clement is beginning to appear in Aboriginal policy. It is that of consultation with Aborigines in an effort to gauge their viewpoint and learn their ideas on their own future. It is not easy even for Aborigines themselves to decide what these shall be. They do not speak with a united voice, partly because as yet their contact with the general community has been too short for definite ideas, and leaders to state them, to have developed. However, in 1969, prompted largely by the interim results of this present study, and at the direction of the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, the Public Service Board, assisted by the author, conducted a survey of Aboriginal opinion. The results evidenced considerable dissatisfaction with the present welfare structure. As a consequence of this survey the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and that of Social Welfare were amalgamated by Cabinet in April 1970. Widespread legislative and administrative changes are expected to result. A new impetus in law-making appeared during the latter part of the 1960s. Legislation began to take the initiative in changing and moulding social welfare practice towards Aborigines. It did not seek, as earlier legislation had done, merely to codify what was already a fait accompli. One should place the Aboriginal Lands Trust Act, 1966, and the Prohibi­ tion of Discrimination Act, 1966, in this context in order to appreciate their significance. They attempted to encourage changes in policy rather than merely following what was already operating in practice. Other trends also became apparent in South Australian legislation in this period. One was the recognition that many Aborigines desired to be seen as a separate and distinctive people. It was realised that such people could be proud of their own cultural heritage, which need not necessarily be totally submerged by European culture. In order to achieve LEGISLATION FOR ABORIGINES IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 67 acknowledgment of this identity, the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in 1965 said that ‘integration’ should be offered to Aborigines as an alternative to ‘assimilation’, if they so wished. In practice, the actual social difference between the two policies might be difficult to distinguish but, in theory, ‘integration’ implies a recognition of Aboriginal identity and retention of some elements of traditional culture and customs, whereas ‘assimilation’ could mean the total replacement of these by acquired European traits. Prior to the referendum in 1967, Aboriginal welfare was solely the responsibility of each state. The Commonwealth was debarred by the Australian constitution from making laws relating to Aborigines. As Sawer pointed out, the founders of the Constitution ‘paid no attention at all to the position of the Australian Aboriginal race, and the only two references to Aborigines in the Constitution are highly negative in character’ (Sawer, 1966:17). He was referring to part of section 51 which stated that the Commonwealth Parliament had power to make laws for ‘the people of any race, other than the aboriginal race’. The other negative reference occurred in section 127, and reads: ‘In reckoning the numbers of the people of the Commonwealth, or of a State or other part of the Commonwealth, aboriginal natives shall not be counted.’ There was an historical practical reason, at the time when the Con­ stitution was formulated, for the exclusion of Aborigines from the census. At the turn of the century it was firmly believed that the Aborigines were rapidly dying out. There were also difficult problems involved in gathering information in order to enumerate them at any census. This was especially true of those who were still partly nomadic. Furthermore, the states, upon the enactment of Federation, were due to pay a per capita levy to the Commonwealth. They thus had no desire to increase their dues by including Aborigines who might live within their borders. The states, however, have made estimates of the numbers of Aborigines and these figures have appeared in Commonwealth year books. In spite of such negative attitudes, the Commonwealth has been able to exert an influence in several ways on the states’ policies dealing with Aborigines. This has taken place more especially in recent years. Firstly, many conferences between state and Commonwealth ministers of Aboriginal affairs have been held. These meetings have published reports and recommendations on Aboriginal policy, which influenced the South Australian legislation in 1962. Secondly, certain acts of Commonwealth legislation have applied to the Aborigines of South Australia, along with the rest of the state’s population. Aborigines in South Australia have 68 THE SETTING always been eligible to vote at state elections and hence they are also eligible to be placed on Commonwealth rolls. Commonwealth social services have been available to all Aborigines in South Australia since 1961. However, there is no recognition, in either South Australia or other states, of Aboriginal marriage laws (Mitchell, 1969). The increasing powers of the Commonwealth in the fields of legislation and finance caused considerable agitation for the Commonwealth to supersede the powers of the states, and to be empowered to legislate directly for Aborigines. A national referendum on Commonwealth powers was held in 1944, in which was included a question on the latter issue. This was defeated. A referendum to repeal the negative features of the references to Aborigines in the Federal Constitution (namely para­ graph 26 of section 51, and section 127), was held in 1967, and was passed by a large majority. Aborigines will now be included in any future enumeration for the Commonwealth census and the Commonwealth has power to legislate on their behalf. It is as yet too early to assess the results of these amendments to the Constitution. Aborigines have shown their adaptability to change in two significant ways. One is that, contrary to earlier opinions, the race has not only survived but is rapidly mounting in numbers. The other major feat of adjustment is that its members have moved into the general community, to take their place on equal terms alongside other Australians. It would be appropriate under these circumstances to recognise and use the energy and adaptability of the Aborigines and, by providing appropriate means of consultation, change the old pattern of law-making/or Aborigines into legislation by and with Aborigines. PART III THE URBAN SITUATION THE PATTERN OF 5 URBAN MIGRATION

} I Tree factors in the urban migration of Aborigines will be discussed JL in this chapter: when they come, whence they come, and why they come to the city. In many ways the Aboriginal migrants present a picture similar to that of other Australians who have migrated to the cities, but in other ways the pattern of Aboriginal rural depopulation is different. It is different in timing. The Aboriginal movement to the cities is a much more recent phenomenon than the exodus of other rural dwellers. It is also different in a spatial sense. Aborigines have come from certain particular areas, whereas other rural migrants have come indiscriminately from almost every country centre. Moreover, the Aboriginal migration has different causal factors from those of other rural depopulation movements in Australia. The two graphs (Figures 4 and 7) in this chapter illustrate the time factor in the migration of Aborigines to Adelaide. It is essential that there be some assessment of the element of timing in this migration in order that we may understand the nature of the social changes which have resulted. There is, however, no easy way to obtain an accurate picture of this time factor. Had census data been available, it would have been a relatively simple matter to plot the numbers of Aborigines in Adelaide enumerated at each census. Nor would this have been difficult if the state department responsible for Aborigines had kept statistical records of population either in Adelaide or in the various country centres, but no reliable figures were available from either source. It was therefore necessary to extrapolate population movements from each individual’s interview schedule. The date was recorded at which each 7 2 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 4. Aboriginal migration to Adelaide, 1950-65. Curve A shows the years in which Aborigines counted in this survey first migrated to Adelaide. Curve B represents the number o f Aborigines, both migrants and those born in Adelaide, who were living in the city in any year between 1950 and 1965 and still resident in 1966.

1800 A Migrant population B Total population

1 5 0 0

1200

1962 1964 Year

Aboriginal first arrived in Adelaide, not for a visit, but to take up permanent residence. According to the terms of reference for this study, ‘permanent residence’ meant that a person had spent at least six consecutive months in Adelaide. Using this data, it was possible to draw a graph to show the date at which each Aboriginal recorded in the survey arrived in Adelaide. The dates of birth of those born in the city were then added. By combining the arrival dates of newcomers with the birth dates of Aborigines born in Adelaide it was possible to plot the population in any one year. This does not, however, give a total picture; it records only those who were living in Adelaide during the period of time covered by the survey and still resident there on 1 January 1966. THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 73

Undoubtedly there were many Aborigines who moved to Adelaide at some time during the two decades covered by this graph, who lived in the city for a while, and then left. If they had not been resident in the city for at least six consecutive months during the period of this study, or were not still there at the beginning of 1966, they would not appear in Figures 4 and 7. In the total study of Aborigines resident in Adelaide for more than six consecutive months over the three-and-a-half year period from 1 July 1962 to 1 January 1966, there were in all 2039 Aborigines, though only 1719 appear on the graphs shown in Figures 4 and 7. There are three reasons why these 320 persons have been omitted. Several died during the three and a half years. The death-rate in the city is high, because serious illness is a significant reason for Aboriginal migration to Adelaide. Others left the city. Several went to other states. For some it was not possible to determine the actual year in which they first came to live in Adelaide. If reliable data were not obtainable for any person, such a person was omitted from the totals used for these graphs. Thus the graphs in Figures 4 and 7 include only those Aborigines who were still resident in Adelaide at the beginning of 1966 and whose arrival or birth dates could be verified. The graphs, therefore, do not give a total picture; they merely show the general trends. This they do quite clearly. The graph in Figure 4 shows the number of Aborigines, recorded in the survey, who were resident in Adelaide between 1 January 1950 and 1 January 1966, but it does not show the total number of Aborigines resident in Adelaide in these years. It also distinguishes between those who migrated to the city and those who were born in the city. The gap between the line showing the total population and that showing the numbers of migrants therefore represents those who were born in the city. Fdad census material or any other kind of statistical information been available for these years it would no doubt have shown that more Aborigines were living in Adelaide at any one time than this graph suggests. Some Aborigines would have come to the city and would have died or left prior to the beginning of this survey. Figure 4 can be used only as an indication and not as a graph of total population, since it counts only those who came to the city, or were born there, during or prior to this survey, and remained in the city at least until 1 January 1966. Figure 4 thus shows the minimum number of Aborigines who must have been living in Adelaide at any one time between 1 January 1950 and 1 January 1966. It is evident that the Aboriginal population of Adelaide is increasing because of the increasing rate of both migration and the birth of children 74 THE URBAN SITUATION to Aborigines in the city. Aborigines have been moving into the city at an accelerating rate since the early 1950s. Although it is inevitable that numbers born in the city will increase as the total population rises, the steady inflow of migrants from rural areas is still the most significant factor in the overall growth of the urban population. In 1965 the rural migrants accounted for four-fifths of the urban population increase, but this proportion may not be so high in the future, when the relatively large numbers of young people in the city will have reached child-bearing age. Pyramids which show the age structure of Aborigines in Adelaide are illustrated in Chapter 8. From these the future birth-rates can be estimated. In time, the natural increase may surpass the increase due to migration from rural areas, but this is not likely for the present. Until 1954 there was only a very slow, almost imperceptible increase in the urban Aboriginal population. The population mainly comprised Aborigines who had come to Adelaide during World War II and had remained afterwards, but in 1954 a definite change took place. In that year the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in South Australia, known at the time as the Aborigines Protection Board, appointed its first welfare officer and adopted a policy of assimilation. It was the beginning, in this state, of an Australia-wide movement to move Aborigines away from the overcrowded and isolated reserves and bring them into the general Australian community. In other words, to assimilate them. Referring again to Figure 4, it will be noticed that there is a further steepening of the graph from 1962 onwards. Associated with the Aboriginal Affairs Act, 1962, came an increasing official awareness of the growing numbers of Aborigines in the urban areas. The Department began to modify its traditional role of acting exclusively on behalf of Aborigines in rural areas. It started to assist Aborigines who wished to move to the city. Departmental activity in this field has increased ever since. In 1964 the Department of Aboriginal Affairs began to acquire special houses for Aborigines in Adelaide. It also encouraged Aborigines to obtain houses through the South Australian Housing Trust. For these reasons the rate of assisted migration has increased in this decade. Migration has a snowballing effect. When one member of a family moves to the city, it becomes much easier for a second and third member to move. In the Aboriginal social structure, wherein kinship plays such an important role, the presence of relatives in the city becomes a major reason for migrating. Indeed, over the past decade a chain migration has developed, in many ways not so very different from that studied by Price (1963) amongst Southern European migrants to Australia. THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 75

Aborigines come to the city from many different areas and for many different reasons. In order to understand some of the basic factors in this movement, it is necessary to subdivide the population into regional groups. The Aboriginal population in Adelaide is not a united whole. Indeed, inter-group conflicts are quite pronounced at certain times. City Aborigines see themselves as belonging to definite groups, each of which has derived from a particular area and from a particular kin group. These group and kin relationships remain quite dominant in the city environment because Aborigines have come recently to the city, or their parents have come to the city, from one or other of these areas. They live in the city but they ‘belong’, socially and culturally, somewhere else. It is their own sense of ‘belonging’ which makes it possible to group them into various regional associations. On the whole, a reserve or mission forms the nodal centre of any one region. Formerly, Aborigines lived almost entirely on these isolated stations. But, for many years now, there has been a steady outward movement from such centres. Aborigines took employment on the pastoral stations and farms, as well as in the country towns, in the vicinity of their reserves. Their first moves were only for a short time and over a short distance, so that they could easily return to the security of the reserve whenever they encountered any hostility or discrimination in the general community. The people from Point McLeay, for example, moved to Tailcm Bend and Meningic. These towns gave them independence from the controlled life on the reserve, but kept them close enough to their relatives should social or economic assistance be required. Such outward migration from the reserves predated, by many years, the movement to Adelaide. The nearby area surrounding a reserve thus became an extension of a person’s territory. Since territory is based on the presence of kinsfolk, home was any place where one’s relatives lived. For this reason, the five regions south of Port Augusta and shown on the map in Figure 5, depict not just the small areas owned by the Crown as Aboriginal reserves, but all of the areas over which particular groups of Aborigines have kinship ties. Actually, Figure 5 adopts the geographically subjective regions conceived by Aborigines in Adelaide, the majority of whom are ‘south­ erners’. They sec the state to the south of Port Augusta as containing five distinct regions, but picture only one amorphous region to the north. All those who come from Port Augusta and farther north, they call ‘northerners’. The ‘northerners’ in Adelaide accept this label because they are too 76 THE URBAN SITUATION few in number to have cohesion as one group, or to form themselves into sub-groups. However, in Port Augusta and beyond, these ‘northerners’ divide themselves into several district groups; they are ‘Marree people’, ‘Flinders P.anges people’, or ‘Oodnadatta people’ and so on. The larger groups from the areas in and around Point Pearce and Point McLeay, and the people from the West Coast, form quite distinct kinship groups in fact, as well as in the way in which they think of themselves. Any one person can trace relationship to almost any other person from within one of these areas. The other southern regional groups arc smaller. There are strong kinship ties amongst those who come from the South East and the Upper Murray. Yet in Adelaide these people are too few in number at the present time to form definite kin-based patterns of social interaction. Nevertheless, it is evident that the steady arrival of new persons from these areas is leading to the development of more kin- associated groups in the city. The people from the northern part of the state and from the Northern Territory have come from widely different areas and varied backgrounds. They have no sense of kinship with the exception of the small groups which have come from the same reserve. Those who have been brought up in the same children’s home, such as Colebrook Home or Saint Francis House, have developed a certain institutionally based brotherhood as a substitute for the kinship bonds they so clearly miss. No Aborigines live in the area in the eastern part of the state, between the Upper Murray region and the South East. It contains no Aboriginal reserves. Aboriginal people who once may have resided in the Murray Mallee either died out soon after European settlement, or moved to reserves on the River Murray. Today, there are no Aborigines who recognise this as a home region. Therefore it is virtually non-existent for the purpose of this study. Similarly, the settled areas around Adelaide and the farming regions north of the city, which comprise the central part of the state, are not considered as home-territory by any of the groups of Aborigines living today. The Aboriginal inhabitants of these localities had died out quite early in the colony’s history. Because no Aboriginal group, descended from them, is alive today in the central part of the state, it has not been possible to draw a definite boundary between the northern area and this central region. The concept of group identity has been taken into account in this study and most of the data is analysed on the basis of such grouping. It matters very much to an Aboriginal where he has come from because that defines THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 77 his concept of self. An Aboriginal tends to see himself primarily as a member of a kin group, and only secondarily as an Aboriginal. White Australians fail to recognise these differences and tend to stereotype members of different kin groups as simply, Aborigines. White Australians expect various Aboriginal groups to co-operate, as if there could be no barriers between them; are they not all Aborigines? But for an Aboriginal, where he has come from and who his relatives are must first be established before much social interchange can take place. In fact, its nature and extent will be determined by these social factors. Later sections in this book will show that the groups vary considerably in their reaction to urban life and that different forces are at work in different groups. Aborigines have come to Adelaide from many different places and many different levels of sophistication. They exhibit a wide variation in their adaptations to the urban situation. The city is a much stronger magnet to people who are Europeanised and have had more or less frequent contact with an urban environment than it is to traditionally oriented people. The variation in the attractive force of Adelaide for the different groups can be seen in Figure 5. The additional statistics required for the compilation of Figure 5 were obtained from the count of rural Aborigines made by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 1966. The total numbers in any region were esti­ mated by adding the population of the area counted by the Departmental census and the numbers of persons in Adelaide who had come from that area. In Figure 5 the populations of each area are shown by means of proportional circles. The relative numbers who were living in Adelaide at the time of this survey are indicated by the black shading. This is a rather crude method of obtaining a picture of differential movements to the city from each of the regions. Obviously, it does not account for the movement of people from one rural area to another. When this has happened, the persons are shown in the area in which they were living in 1966 and not the area from which they originated. The map is therefore not an accurate guide to the size of kin groupings. However, it does give a reasonable indication of the relative numbers in each area and the proportion of Aborigines in each region who have migrated to Adelaide. The inadequacy of the map is revealed in respect to the South East. For other areas it is a fairly accurate guide to the migrant proportion of the population of each area. The South East has special features which this form of diagram cannot show. In spite of the impression gained from Figure 5, well over half of the Aborigines who were born in the South East had moved to Adelaide 78 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 5. Proportion of city migrants from each regional group. The black area o f each circle represents the proportion oj the population oj that regional group which had migrated to Adelaide by 1966.

iPOINT TEARCE

by 1966. Those living in the South East in 1966 were quite new arrivals. They were people who had been resettled in this area by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs only in recent years. They had come from the reserves, chiefly Point Pearce and Point McLeay, and were living in the South East as the result of the government’s assimilation policy, adopted in the last decade. In an earlier study (Gale, 1964) it was shown that there THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 79 were no Aborigines living in Mount Gambier in 1957 but according to the Departmental count of 1966, there were seventy-four resident in this city alone. The South East has developed economically during recent years. Instead of being depopulated, like most other rural parts of South Australia, its population has increased. The migration of Aborigines to it from other parts of the state is merely part of the overall in-migration to this area. However, the map gives an accurate picture of the situation in the northern half of the state, where over half of South Australia’s Aboriginal population lives today. There has been very little movement from the north to other southern areas beyond Port Augusta. It is evident that only a small proportion of these people has moved to Adelaide. Small country towns, such as Oodnadatta or Marree, attract Aborigines from the outback reserves and stations. In these towns, alcohol and a limited range of European goods are available to Aborigines. At their level of sophistication, this is adequate attraction and, indeed demands of them a more rapid cultural adjustment than many are able to make. Aborigines who are still tribally oriented and are ill-at-ease in a European environ­ ment are attracted to the smallest country towns like Oodnadatta. For them, life in the city would be impossible. The magnetic attraction of urban life depends not only upon the size of the town, but also upon the degree of sophistication of Aboriginal persons. There is a correlation between the education and sophistication of an Aboriginal and the size of the central place which will satisfy his demands. Indeed, it seems that the sociological element is as important as the economic factors defined by the central place theorists. The most sophisticated peoples are attracted to the largest centres, such as Adelaide, and the least sophisticated to the smallest centres like Oodnadatta. There is a range between these two extremes. Among northern towns, Port Augusta is the largest centre to which people are attracted. It exerts a strong pull and its Aboriginal population has grown rapidly over the last decade. These are people who are midway, as it were, on the scale of sophistication. This summary indicates why only a few Aborigines from the northern part of the state have migrated to Adelaide. They have been isolated from frequent association with Europeans. Their education in a western social system has been either non-existent or very incomplete. Consequently, they are not yet attracted to the larger cities. The majority of the northern people now living in Adelaide are those who have been brought south involuntarily. These include children who have been placed in 8o THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 6. Proportion from each area in Adelaide population. Each bar represents the percentage numbers oj Aborigines from each of the regional groups making up the Adelaide Aboriginal population.

children’s homes or foster homes, and persons brought to the city for medical treatment, or for detention in a reformatory or prison. In the southern part of the state, three areas, which are centred on three reserves, contain the majority of the Aboriginal population. These people were segregated many years ago on the reserves of Koonibba, Point Pearce, and Point McLeay. They did not die out as did unprotected Aborigines in other parts of the state. Gradually they increased in num­ bers, and then they moved from the reserves; first into surrounding areas and later, further afield. THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 8l

The Koonibba people, for instance, have settled in many different parts of the West Coast. Interestingly, a smaller proportion of these people has migrated to Adelaide than has come from either Point McLeay or Point Pearce. Almost half of the people originally from Point McLeay have come to the city and just over one-third of the Point Pearce people had moved to Adelaide by 1966. Similarly, just over one-third of the Upper Murray Aborigines were living in Adelaide at the time of this study, but this number represents far fewer people, in total. Since a large percentage of the people from the Point McLeay and Point Pearce areas have moved to Adelaide, it is not surprising to find that they form the two largest groups of rural Aboriginal migrants in the city. Figure 6 shows the relative numbers who had come to Adelaide from each area by January 1966. Those born in the city arc excluded from this diagram. It is evident that, at the time of the study, the people from the Point McLeay group formed the largest collection of Aboriginal people in the city. They accounted for one-quarter of the Aborigines in Adelaide. If we add the number of children born to Point McLeay people in the city, then we find that this group makes up one-third of the total Aboriginal population in the urban area. The second largest group of people belonged to the Point Pearce social structure. They accounted for 21 per cent of the city’s Aboriginal population. If their children, who were born in the city, are included in this group, then we can say that just over one-quarter of the Aborigines in Adelaide felt that they belonged to the Point Pearce kinship pattern. Before this study began, it was expected (from data held) that persons from these two areas would form the main groups of Aborigines in Adelaide. It was not expected that Aborigines from the Northern Terri­ tory would form almost as high a percentage of the total as the people from either of these two southern reserves. It was therefore surprising to find that nearly 20 per cent of the Aborigines who had moved into Adelaide had come from the Northern Territory. Thus they accounted for only 1 per cent less of the incoming people than those of Point Pearce origin. Again, if we include children born in Adelaide, then people of Northern Territory origin made up one-quarter of the total population in 1966. By contrast, very few Aborigines have come to Adelaide from any other state. The main interstate migration has been in a southerly stream from the Northern Territory. There has been little east-west movement across state borders into Adelaide, because other states provide large urban 82 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 7. Migration by regional grouping, 1950-65. Numbers of migrants to Adelaide counted in the survey from each rural area according to their year of arrival.

Point Pearce

/ Northern Territory

West Coast

.. Northern S.A. Upper Murray

South East

Other States

Year centres which attract Aborigines; but the Northern Territory has few large towns and neither of its two main centres provides the range of goods and services available in Adelaide. The relative proportions of people from the other areas can be seen quite clearly in Figure 6; no further explanation is required. Figure 7 adds the detail of the places of origin of these groups to the timing of the migration pattern, which was graphed in Figure 4. In Figure 7 the migrants are shown according to the regional groupings used for Figures 5 and 6. By the end of 1965 the groups had achieved the relative sizes shown in Figure 6. If the time of arrival of each person for whom accurate dates were available is graphed, it becomes evident that there has not been a uniform pattern of movement to the city from each area. During World War II and in the early post-war years, before the Department of Aboriginal Affairs developed any positive policy, the THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 83

majority of Aborigines came to the city under church or private sponsor­ ship. Then, in the early 1950s, the Northern Territory adopted a policy of assimilation. Through the impetus of this policy, some Aboriginal children were moved away from reserves and brought to capital cities in other states. Adelaide received a reasonably high proportion of such children from the Northern Territory. More details about the actual process by which these persons were transferred to South Australia will be found in Chapter 10. It can be seen that, until 1954, only a few Aborigines had moved to Adelaide and that these had come in earlier years, chiefly from the northern part of the state and from the Northern Territory. After 1954 the rate of migration from the Northern Territory accelerated quite rapidly. Until 1960, Aborigines of Territory origin actually formed the largest numbers in Adelaide. The graph showing the inflow of people from the Northern Territory is virtually a straight line after 1954. This suggests that there has been a steady movement of Aborigines south to Adelaide since the Department of Welfare in Darwin first initiated this movement in 1955. There were very few Aborigines from Point Pearce or Point McLeay in the city before 1950. During the decade, 1950-9, Aborigines began to move away from these reserves and to settle in Adelaide. At first the people from Point Pearce appeared to lead in this outward migration from the reserves but, by the end of the decade, Point McLeay was being depopulated at a greater rate. Aborigines left Point McLeay in increasing numbers during the 1960s; some of them went to Adelaide. The move­ ment away from Point Pearce has been relatively slower. Although these two reserves were of similar size in the early 1950s, by 1966 there were still 344 Aborigines resident at the Point Pearce reserve, but only 162 living at Point McLeay. The reasons for this disparity are not clear. But it appears that the Point McLeay people have been more strongly affected by a chain reaction of migration along kinship lines than have the Point Pearce people. For the other groups, their resettlement in Adelaide commenced later. This is, no doubt, the main reason why they had not reached such high numbers by the time of this study. However, it can be seen that, after 1962, the relative rate of arrival of people from the West Coast was as great as that of the Point McLeay people. If this trend continues, it may be expected that within another decade the West Coast people will form just as large a group in the city, as those from Point McLeay, because the West Coast people, like the Point McLeay people, place much value 84 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 8. Pattern of migration. Bars showing the major regional groups to move into Adelaide are subdivided according to the length o f time Aborigines have taken from the time they left their home territory to their arrival in the city.

40 More than one year in transit □ Up to one year in transit

B l Direct to Adelaide £ >* 0 ) - _0) .E o I! - u £ £ £ £ z £ £ u Z «/> on their genealogical connectedness and its accompanying loyalties and obligations. The effect of chain migration is likely to be as influential with them as it has been for the Point McLeay people. Figure 8 illustrates that, comparing one group with another, there have been differences in the time lag between people’s departure from a reserve or mission and their arrival in Adelaide. From some regions migration has been direct and therefore immediate, while from others it has taken place more gradually, perhaps over a period of a year or even longer because there have been intermediate stops on the way. It has happened frequently that Aboriginal individuals or families leaving reserves have moved first into adjacent country towns or local centres during the transition period. Field observations suggest that Aborigines brought up on the old reserves, such as Point Pearce and Point McLeay, possess very little self-confidence. Their lives have been so completely ruled by authority that they are often unable to make decisions for THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 85 themselves. It was not therefore surprising to find that, when welfare officers first introduced attempts to move people away from these reserves, the people were afraid to move ‘outside’. To them the world of the white man appeared hostile. Only within the reserve did they feel secure. The Aborigines from reserves with a long history of paternalistic rule were less able to migrate straight to Adelaide than those from church mission stations, which had suffered a shorter period of damaging paternalism. Furthermore, persons from these long-established reserves had a strong attachment to the place and its people. They did not wish to move so far away that frequent visits would be impossible. Indeed the bars in Figure 8 show that only one-half of the Aborigines from Point Pearce and Point McLeay went directly to the city from the reserves. The others moved out first into small nearby country towns and lived there for varying periods of time before they could acquire sufficient courage ‘to give the city a go’. On the other hand, those who came from mission stations in the north of South Australia or the Northern Territory were more likely to migrate direct to the city. Figure 8 shows that very few of the Northern Territory people who were born on a mission or reserve went first to a small country town before coming to Adelaide. The Northern Territory situation, however, is rather different. It possesses few small country towns to which Aborigines could move. In any case, the majority of the people from the Northern Territory were brought south by the administration and had no choice of location. Similarly, the majority of the Aborigines from the northern part of the state, included in Figure 8, were brought to Adelaide as children, but few adults have come voluntarily from the north to Adelaide. The adults have moved into country towns such as Oodnadatta, Copley, Marree, or Port Augusta. It may yet be several years before these people take the next step of migrating to Adelaide. The only Aborigines who had any choice in whether they would move first to a country town, or directly to Adelaide, were those from Point McLeay, Point Pearce, and Koonibba, the mission centre for the West Coast. It is clear that Koonibba people from the former Lutheran mission showed less diffidence about moving directly to the city than did the Aborigines from the older government reserves. Even so, many Koonibba people moved first to various centres on the West Coast before they came to Adelaide. Neither the South East nor the Upper Murray has been included in Figure 8. There has never been a government station or a mission in the South East. People from this area are thus excluded from a diagram 86 THE URBAN SITUATION dealing only with those born on a reserve or mission. Gerard, in the Upper Murray, has been a government station since 1961. Previously this was a United Aborigines Mission, but it was established only after World War II. Thus Aboriginal people in the area, who are now over twenty-five years of age, could not have been born on a mission or a reserve, because none existed in this area at that time. Although there are some children who have come to the city direct from Gerard, the situation of the majority of the adults is not comparable with the circumstances of people in other areas, and these adults have therefore been excluded. W e have looked thus far at the temporal and spatial elements in the urban migration pattern of Aborigines. Let us now examine some of the reasons for this migration. The remaining three figures (9, 10, and 11) in this chapter illustrate the various factors which caused Aborigines to move to Adelaide up to the beginning of 1966. Nine categories are used in the assessment of the causes. These are examined, in the order enumerated here, in Chapters 9 to 14 (Part IV of the book). It is clear from Figure 9 that kinship plays a major role in Aboriginal migration. Of the total number who had come to Adelaide (1632 persons, as opposed to those born in the city, 407 persons), nearly 30 per cent were assisted in some way by relatives. In some cases the assistance amounted to little more than moral support in taking what to them was probably the most significant decision ever made. The majority also received some economic support, if only in the form of free accom­ modation until they could ‘get on their feet’. These, of course, were all voluntary migrants who came largely unassisted by any government body. Aboriginal kinship in the urban environment is discussed more fully in a later chapter. A second category was established for those who came voluntarily, but for whose migration no definite reason could be established. Some, from both Point Pearce and Point McLeay, undoubtedly came because they had relatives in the city. Many were young people who were attracted by city life. They went to live in boarding houses or rented flats and it was not possible to assign with certainty a kinship factor to their movement. Others stated quite definitely that they had come to the city to start a new life. The attraction of urban life was evidently a reason for their moving. For several, we were unable to obtain sufficient data to assign them a particular reason. A smaller number, some 11 per cent, came to the city in search of employment. Some came of their own initiative; others were strongly encouraged or actually sponsored by government agencies. Others were THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 87

Figure 9. Reasons for migration. This circle is subdivided by the proportionate numbers in this survey who gave one oj these Jactors as their prime reason for migrating to Adelaide.

□ Relatives

□ Children for placement

□ No particular reason

Health

Employment

Committed children

H Offenders

mEducation

Sport

assisted to come to Adelaide for educational reasons, because no secondary education was available on any of the reserves. Welfare officers have at times encouraged some young people to come to Adelaide for this purpose. Therefore it could be said that, of the 1632 Aborigines who came to Adelaide during the course of this study, voluntary migrants made up 58 per cent of the total. The remainder were virtually forced to come for either medical or legal reasons. The largest number of involuntary arrivals were children. Those shown in the diagrams in Figures 9 and 10, under the caption of ‘children for placement’, are all children brought to the city by government or voluntary agencies for placement in a foster home, a children’s home, or some kind of children’s institution other than those set aside for commit­ ted children. Such children accounted for 13 per cent of the total number of Aborigines in Adelaide at the time of this study. Prior to legislative changes in the state’s welfare arrangements, described in Chapter 10, many Aborigines were taken from their parents and reared by various non-Aboriginal groups, although no court orders 88 THE URBAN SITUATION had authorised these arrangements. After 1962, however, it became necessary for a court order to be obtained before children could be forcibly removed from their parents. Most of those shown in the dia­ grams as committed children came to Adelaide after 1962. But even after this date many came without legal action because their parents or parent (frequently they were illegitimate children) wished them to have the better opportunities that the city was thought to provide. It is therefore reasonable to combine these two categories ‘children for placement’ and ‘committed children’, since they both apply to children taken from their parents and placed in the care of non-Aborigines. If these categories are combined, such children comprise 21 per cent of the migrants coming to Adelaide. A second major group of people who came to the city without option were those who came for medical reasons. The centralised nature of South Australian services means that there are few specialist medical facilities available in country areas. Furthermore, such services are limited in the Northern Territory, so that any patients who require special treatment or long-term therapy must be sent to Adelaide. Some 12 per cent or 199 persons in the survey had come to Adelaide purely for medical treatment and had remained in the city for at least six consecutive months. Several required long-term treatment in a mental hospital. Others required regular outpatient treatment as a result of such illnesses as poliomyelitis. Some came to the city for hospitalisation but, on dis­ charge, decided to stay in the city. Others were sent south to be placed in one or other of the special units which care for deaf, blind, or retarded people. Criminal behaviour is the only other significant factor in the enforced movement of people to Adelaide. Country gaols do not on the whole cater for long-term prisoners. Adults accused of serious crimes are usually brought to Adelaide for trial and then committed to Yatala, the maximum- security prison. Many Aborigines were in gaol at the time of this survey and had been there for more than six months. Some prisoners, when released, prefer to remain in Adelaide. Moreover, because there arc no reformatories in the country areas for juvenile offenders, all persons under the age of eighteen years who are convicted for any reason are sent to Adelaide, unless released on bond. There is only one other minor category listed; sport. It concerns only a few individuals but they have been separated because they represent a special category and do not fit into any of the other classes. Ten young male Aborigines, included in this study, were brought to Adelaide by THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 89

Figure 10. Reasons for migration by region. The reasons for migration vary from one regional group to another as these divided circles show.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

NORTHERN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

POUT AUGUS

□ Relatives □ Children for placement )POIN T ( f f p , u No particular reason (PEARCE j J / ” \ V'uPPER j (■aoelaidT* w u r r a y i Health ■ >

various sporting bodies. The clubs provided these young people with employment and accommodation. Some football clubs, in particular, have established the habit of visiting Aboriginal areas in the Northern Territory to seek out potentially good players. Although such a practice affects only a few Aborigines, this process, leading to urban migration, is rather different from that arranged by welfare organisations or medical services. The next figure in this chapter analyses the variations in the reasons for migration, comparing one region with another. Circles of equal size have been drawn for each region on the map in Figure 10. These have not been constructed proportionally as in Figure 5, because relative differences can be judged more easily if the circles are given the same value. It can be seen that the kinship factor dominates the urban movement of Aborigines in the southern part of the state. Relatives play the main role in attracting Aborigines to the city from all of the southern areas. The presence of kinsfolk in the city has been responsible for the move­ ment to Adelaide of between one-third and one-half of the southern people. Gradually, with the widening of communication channels, a changed welfare policy, and the outward movement from reserves, Adelaide has come within the ‘beat’ of Aborigines from all of the southern areas. (‘Beat’ is a term first used by Dr J. Beckett to describe an area in New South Wales over which a certain group of Aborigines moved: ‘Each Aboriginal has a beat, an area which is defined by the situation of kinsfolk who will give him hospitality, within which he can travel as much or as little as he pleases, and where he is most likely to find his wife’—Beckett, 1965:20.) Such a concept of areal use can be applied not only to the seasonal or spasmodic movement of Aborigines but also to their migra­ tion to a permanent home. Not only do Aborigines move within certain spatial bounds set by the presence of kinsfolk, but the urban centres in which they can settle permanently are also determined by the presence of kinsfolk, as can be seen from this study. Kinship plays a much less important role in attracting Aborigines to Adelaide from the northern areas or from the Northern Territory. Adelaide is still out of their beat. Aborigines from these more distant areas have been brought to the city under special circumstances. Their loneliness and isolation from other Aborigines in Adelaide are the inevitable results of non-voluntary migration. Other references to the social situation of Northern Territory people will be found in Chapter 9. One-third of the people from the northern half of South Australia THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 91 were brought to the city as children for placement, either in foster homes or in special children’s institutions, such as Colebrook Home. Children who were legally charged as ‘neglected’ and placed in the custody of the Social Welfare Department, accounted for a further 15 per cent of northern Aborigines brought to Adelaide. Thus children who were removed from their parents, to be reared in Adelaide, accounted for nearly one half of the Aborigines in Adelaide from northern South Australia. The centralised nature of health services in South Australia is the reason for the relatively high numbers of Aborigines who came from either the northern part of South Australia, or from the Northern Territory, for medical treatment in Adelaide. The deficiency in rural medical services is shown by the fact that nearly one-quarter of the Aborigines from these two areas were forced to come to Adelaide for medical reasons and to remain there for more than six consecutive months. The numbers who came for shorter visits are much larger. The greater opportunities for employment in the city have attracted significantly large numbers of persons from the two older reserves, where virtually no work is available. The role of employment has also been important in attracting young Aborigines from the South East. These young people consider that it is easier to obtain work in Adelaide than in their home towns of Kingston or Bordertown, not only because there is more work available in the city, but also because there potential employers are less colour-conscious than in rural centres. This is an expression of the fact, often observed by researchers (e.g. Gale, 1959), that when there are more workers than there are jobs available, white persons are given preference. The only other obvious regional difference in the reasons why people have come to Adelaide from rural areas can be seen in the relative numbers who have been sent by legal processes because they have committed offences. Such offenders form a large proportion of the migrants from Point McLeay. This area has produced relatively more people who have been sent to Adelaide because of anti-social behaviour than has any other. The last figure in this chapter, Figure 11, attempts to correlate the ages at which Aborigines come to the city, with their reasons for coming. This diagram has not been drawn from the numerical total of the Aboriginal population in Adelaide. An age pyramid based on this total can be found in Chapter 8. As with Figures 9 and 10, this diagram, Figure 11, includes only the migrants, and therefore excludes the 407 Aborigines counted in the survey who were born in Adelaide. The 9 2 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 11. Reasons jor migration by age. The major reasons given for migrating to Adelaide differ from one age group to another.

Relatives

Welfare

Health

Employment

Age Group diagram is not meant to give a picture of the age structure of the Aboriginal population in Adelaide. The bars representing each age group are given equal value. Figure 11 thus shows the variations in the reasons for urban migration, comparing one major age group with the next, but it does not give any idea of the size of any particular age group. To construct Figure 11, the Aboriginal population of Adelaide has been divided into fifteen-year age groups. The numbers in each age group have been given a value of one hundred and the various reasons within each group have been given percentage values. The causes of migration have been grouped into fewer categories than those used in earlier diagrams and two groups have been excluded. There are 1454 persons represented in Figure 11. Those who came to the city for no particular reason have been excluded. The small group of ten males who were brought in by sporting bodies has also been ex­ cluded. To clarify the major differences between one age group and THE PATTERN OF URBAN MIGRATION 93

another, only five main categories have been used. The category listed as ‘relatives’ contains the same number of individuals as that shown in this category in earlier diagrams. The class termed ‘welfare’ includes children and young people who have been brought to the city for educational purposes as well as those brought for placement. In fact, children brought to the city for educa­ tional purposes are almost always placed in some kind of children’s home or hostel, or in a foster home. In some cases it was not easy to establish whether the need for a home or the request for further education actually constituted the prime cause of their transfer to Adelaide. It seemed logical, therefore, to combine these two elements in this more simplified diagram. The categories of ‘health’ and ‘employment’ stand separately, as in earlier diagrams. The grouping listed as ‘law’ includes adults brought to gaol, juveniles who have been sent to a reform school, and neglected or state children who have been charged and placed under the care of the Department of Social Welfare. These groups have been placed together, as their con­ stituents are all involuntary migrants whose movements have been dictated by legal action. Whether children are taken from their parents by legal action or the so-called voluntary process of welfare bodies, is merely a technical differentiation. It arose historically; it is not a socio­ logically valid distinction. Nevertheless, for the purposes of Figure 11, which shows the varying compulsions at work in the migration process, it seems valid to separate children committed by court action from those brought to Adelaide by church and social welfare agencies. Kinship ties are the dominant force for children under school leaving age. They come to the city either with relatives or to stay with relatives. It is therefore not surprising that more than half of the children under fifteen years of age arc classified in this way. For young people, the search for accommodation and education is the most significant cause of their movement to the city. Large numbers of young people have been brought to Adelaide to be fostered, boarded or accommodated in hostels. This action has been initiated by welfare officers in each of the social welfare departments, in the belief that young Aborigines have a better chance in the city. It is, of course, the most obvious example of the practical application of the policy of assimilation in recent years. Young people also depend heavily on the presence of kinsfolk in the city. The majority of those who have come entirely of their own volition have come because they have relatives in the city. The greater opportunity for employment in Adelaide figures heavily 94 THE URBAN SITUATION in this group’s movement to the city. Ill-health, on the other hand, occurs less frequently amongst persons under thirty than in those above that age. Thus medical reasons for migration to Adelaide were given by relatively fewer young people than by those in the older age groups. For those over sixty, ill-health has been the major cause of movement to the city. This chapter has shown that a definite pattern of increasing urban migration has developed over the last two decades. There are variations in the reasons held by people from one area to another, and between the ages at which people have come. But there is no doubt about the rate of increase. By the beginning of 1966, one-quarter of South Australia’s Aboriginal population was living in Adelaide. This contrasts with the findings of a population study made in 1957 (Gale, 1964) which showed that less than one-sixteenth of the state’s Aboriginal population was then living in Adelaide. How long this accelerating rate of urban migration will continue one cannot be sure, but it seems likely that Aborigines will continue to move away from rural areas in the southern part of the state until, like the white community, their total numbers show a preponderance of urban to rural dwellers. This feature of rural depopulation is equally inevitable in the northern part of the state, but, because of the sociological differences between the northern and southern areas, it will probably take much longer to become established on the same scale. DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES 6 IN ADELAIDE

f V 1he reasons which actuate the voluntary or involuntary migration of 1. Aborigines to the city influence their distribution in Adelaide. The locations of certain institutions determine the addresses of many in­ voluntary migrants. Some of the reasons which bring Aborigines to Adelaide, such as kinship, the search for employment, or the need for a foster home, also play a part in determining the distribution of those people in the city. These factors, however, appear secondary to their main need to find an area where rents arc cheap. Low-rental housing is the prime need of most voluntary migrants. Since low-rental houses are scattered throughout many suburbs in Adelaide, it is not surprising that Aborigines are scattered. This is the reason that there are no Aboriginal ghettos in Adelaide at the present time. The same situation has been observed by Jones in Melbourne (1969:85, 86). However, if the migration into the city continues during the 1970s at the same rate as that which developed during the 1960s, and if kinship factors continue to exert a similar attractive force, then it is likely that the concentrations of Aborigines in certain areas will, in the future, become relatively high. From a locational point of view, there are two distinct groups of Aborigines in Adelaide; those who live in institutions, and those who live in private homes. Persons who had no private address but resided solely in institutions at the time of this study, are excluded from the following analysis of the distribution of Aborigines in the city. They are omitted because in discussing the areas in which people choose to live it is logical to limit the study of these locational decisions to those which were made 96 THE URBAN SITUATION voluntarily. This chapter therefore discusses mainly the Aborigines who were living in private homes at the time of this study. Figures 13 to 16 represent 1528 persons. The remaining 389 Aborigines (1917 minus 1528), for whom complete details were available, were those who were living in some kind of institution. They were Aborigines who had been sent directly from the country to a children’s home, or to a medical or a detention centre. If released they returned to the country. The group excluded from Figures 13 to 16, however, does not account for all of those who were admitted to a medical, corrective, or other type of institution during the three and a half years of this study, but only those who were residing in an institution for all or most of the study period and had no private address in the city. Certainly, many more than the 389 persons excluded from Figures 13 to 16 spent a portion of the study time in some kind of institution, but those included in these diagrams had an address in Adelaide, and either before or after admission to an institution, they were resident at that address. Children who were brought to the city for fostering or adoption are included in the following distributional diagrams. This may seem a rather arbitrary decision since such children could scarcely be said to have exercised any freedom of choice in the determination of their location. But they are included because they are scattered through the community and are not residcntially isolated from the community as are persons living in institutions. Actually, a high proportion of Aborigines in Adelaide has spent time in some kind of institution and these persons are discussed in more detail in later chapters. A wide range of institutions in Adelaide had Aboriginal inmates at the time of this survey. Indeed, it was surprising to discover that nearly all of the major corrective institutions and long-term medical ones, as well as the majority of the children’s homes, had some Aboriginal residents. Figure 12 shows the location of all the institutions which had Aboriginal inmates at the time of this survey. Those familiar with Adelaide will realise that this is virtually a map of medical, corrective, and children’s institutions in Adelaide. Thus the remainder of this chapter deals with the distribution of Aboriginal persons who registered a private address in Adelaide at the time of this study. Aborigines, on the whole, have a low income earning capacity and nearly all must rent their homes. Moreover, they must rent the cheapest houses available. The fact that low rents are to be found in two types of suburb has limited their distribution to two kinds of area. Firstly, there are the areas of older houses, constructed mainly before the turn of the DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 97

Figure 12. Residential institutions (medical, penal, and other) containing Aborigines at the time oj this survey.

Penol — gaols and reformatories

Hospitals — long and short term — and medical centres

Hostels, boarding schools, childrens homes

MILES 98 THE URBAN SITUATION century. These occur in the inner suburbs of the city proper and around Port Adelaide. These two groups of old houses, many of them in varying states of disrepair, arc separated by several miles of more recently established housing areas. Industrial expansion has gradually encroached upon them. Factories have acquired many of the houses for future expansion and have let them out on a temporary basis in the meantime. There are also private entrepreneurs who buy houses in declining areas and rent them or re-sell them to new arrivals in the city. In the inner suburbs, to the west and east of the city square, many of these older, and often larger, houses have been acquired by Greek and Italian migrants. Indeed, in the older suburbs there is a close parallel between the distribution of Aborigines and that of Southern European migrants, although of course the Southern Europeans considerably out­ weigh the Aborigines in actual numbers. Both groups have arrived in Adelaide with little capital. Both tend to have large families which include relatives outside the immediate nuclear family. For these two reasons both groups seek large houses in low-rental areas. The landlords are less discriminatory in these older, declining residential areas. One landlord who owned several houses in the inner western suburbs said that he ‘would rather have a black family that pays its rent than a white one that doesn’t’. Indeed, often it is against the interests of landlords to discriminate, because multiple Aboriginal and Southern European families living in the one house can be charged a higher total rent than other Australians who tend to live in single families. There is less social pressure to dissuade a landlord from renting accommodation to an Aboriginal family in a declining inner suburb, where the neighbours are likely to be of Southern European origin, than there is in the newer suburbs where the neighbours are likely to be white Australians. The second type of low-rental accommodation available to Aborigines is that provided by the South Australian Housing Trust. This organisation will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter. It has had a consider­ able influence upon the distribution of Aborigines because of the relatively low rentals available to its tenants. For historical reasons, as we shall see later, the housing estates of the Trust have become established mainly in scattered areas to the south, west, and north of the city. The fact that these housing estates are widely dispersed is another reason why the distribution of Aborigines is also scattered. It is notable that migrants of Southern European origin are not found so frequently in Housing Trust areas, as in older, inner suburbs. The Housing Trust does not encourage multiple-family rental, nor indeed does it build houses suitable for DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 99

Aboriginal families, many of which have at least some additional relatives living with them. Although the Housing Trust does not allow extra visitors to take up permanent residence with a tenant, the tenancy officers of the Trust often allow a certain amount of latitude in this respect. Very large Aboriginal families, however, renowned for their hospitality to relatives are forced to rent houses from private landlords. Although the housing density of Aboriginal families is considerable in both Housing Trust and privately-leased houses, the greatest concentration of large families occurs in the larger, older houses of the inner suburbs. Indeed, because the Trust’s houses are suitable neither to the size of Aboriginal families nor to their social involvement with relatives, the larger, older houses are preferred by many Aboriginal families. These houses, leased from private landlords, are let at a higher rental than those available from the Trust. Usually there must be more than one bread winner in a family before a large house of reasonable standard can be leased. The inner suburbs do provide such houses and therefore many multiple families live in these suburbs. Only houses of extremely sub­ standard value in areas of blight are cheaper than Trust homes. Certainly, several Aboriginal families live in such substandard accommodation. Plate 5 shows a typical cottage in an Adelaide area of blight. Although such conditions may appear unsatisfactory to non-Aborigines in Adelaide, they are often superior to the accommodation many Aborigines have been accustomed to in rural areas, as Plates 2 and 4 suggest. Thus the locations of these two different kinds of relatively low rental housing have been determined historically. Figure 2 depicted the urban growth of Adelaide in three stages. By comparing the distribution of Aborigines shown in Figure 13 with the development of Adelaide given in Figure 2, it can be seen that Aborigines are living primarily in types of houses which belong in the two eras before 1880 and after 1939. In Figure 13, the distribution of Aborigines in Adelaide is represented by graduated spheres. The regular increase in the size of these spheres is evident from the scale drawn on the map. At the time of this survey, no household contained more than twenty-two permanent residents and thus the circles grade from values of one to twenty-two. It can be seen that although Aborigines are distributed throughout metropolitan Adelaide, there are three main areas in which they can be found in the greatest numbers. There arc really three main focal centres. The first is the city itself, and the surrounding inner suburbs within a short distance of the city centre. Aborigines in these inner suburbs are living in old houses. The second main group is centred on Port Adelaide. 1 0 0 THE URBAN SITUATION

s A. DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 101

I 102 THE URBAN SITUATION

Some Aborigines live in old houses within Port Adelaide itself. Others are in Housing Trust areas at Angle Park and Taperoo. The third group can be found in the satellite cities of Elizabeth and Salisbury. The largest concentration of Aborigines is found in the first of these main areas, that is, the city and its inner suburbs. Here are to be found Adelaide’s oldest houses. These inner suburbs have the rather familiar characteristic of being now decayed but once desirable residential areas with highly variable housing. Some of the houses are large and well-built, but have declined from their former attractiveness. Amongst the large houses are many streets of small cottages, mostly old-fashioned, cramped, inconvenient, and in bad repair. In such areas the Aboriginal may find himself as the tenant of a large house owned by an Italian or Greek migrant who has bought the property with the object of letting it either to other members of his own family, or to other European migrants with large families. Norwood and Kent Town are typical inner suburbs, where ex-mansions, mean cottages, and factories are dotted higgledy- piggledy throughout the area. They are close to the city, being indeed on the parkland fringe, which is true of other inner suburbs such as Mile End and Thebarton, to the west. The inner suburbs west of the city centre contained the largest concen­ tration of Aborigines in Adelaide in 1966. In the suburbs of Mile End, Thebarton, Bowden, Brompton, and Hindmarsh are to be found some of Adelaide’s oldest and cheapest rental houses. Many of them have been condemned and are ready for demolition. Much of this area was classified as blight by the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962). Industry has extended quite rapidly into it over the last twenty years (Smailes, 1967). In these localities there are several Aborigines who are renting houses, on a short-term basis, from business firms who intend to demolish the houses and extend their premises in the near future. Some Aboriginal families quite literally have factories in their back yards. In 1966 there were 209 Aborigines living in rental houses in the western group of inner suburbs. This number includes only those identified as Aboriginal in the terms of this study and who had lived in Adelaide for more than six consecutive months. Additional visitors, usually relatives from the country, could be met on almost any visit to an Aboriginal household in this area, but are not included in this figure of 209 persons, nor in any of the following figures. These 209 Aborigines were living in forty-two separate households. Two houses each contained eighteen individuals and one had twenty-one residents. Although the largest concentration of Aborigines appeared in the DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 103 western inner suburbs, actually, in comparison with other suburbs, all of the inner suburbs had a relatively high number of Aboriginal residents. There were, in all, 542 Aborigines who lived in private households within a radius of three miles from the General Post Office, at the centre of the city. In the area to the east of the city, in the suburbs of Kent Town, Norwood, and Stepney, 116 Aborigines were living in twenty-one households in 1966. One four-roomed house contained fourteen residents. At this time this represented the highest density that had occurred in these eastern suburbs. Thus, a total of 325 Aborigines at this time were living in two separate groups of inner suburbs, one to the west and the other to the east of the city. Within the city square, in the so-called East End and West End of the city, fifty-eight Aborigines were living at the time of this study. It is estimated that more Aborigines lived within the city square at an earlier date than the time of this study. Several Aborigines who were interviewed in Trust homes had come from an earlier address in either the West End or the East End. The housing available in the city is very old and much of it has been condemned. Demolition has proceeded rapidly in recent years and houses once rented by Aborigines and others have been replaced by offices and blocks of flats. The former residents of these areas have moved out of the city, mainly to the new housing estates. The remaining 159 Aborigines, who make up the total of 542 Aborigines within three miles of the General Post Office, are fairly scattered in their distribution. There are no other concentrations in any one suburb, but a few families live in each of the remaining inner suburbs to the north and northeast of the city, including North Adelaide, and also to the south, southeast, and southwest. These figures mean that approxi­ mately one-third of the Aborigines (542 out of 1528) who lived in private households were congregated in the city and inner suburbs. All of these people had obtained their houses privately and were not assisted by any government agency. The second significant concentration of Aborigines shows a similar pattern of circular distribution, centred on Port Adelaide. Because of the coastline, the area of housing forms a rather truncated circle. In much the same way as that observed near the city centre, Aborigines have tended to congregate in the areas lying within close proximity to the port and its adjacent service centre. The 'Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962) classified five areas of blight in Adelaide. Their location can be seen in Figure 16. 104 THE URBAN SITUATION

It will be observed that there are two groups of blight. One, divided into three sectors, is focused in and around the city, and the other, divided into two sectors, straddles Port Adelaide. These areas of blight coincide with the greatest concentrations of Aborigines. Figure 13 shows that Port Adelaide repeats the Adelaide city pattern of a central business district surrounded by older and sometimes blighted residential areas. Port Adelaide too, has old residential sections which are interspersed with encroaching industry. Port Adelaide has, as it were, its own inner suburbs whose function is at present changing from residential to industrial. It is not therefore surprising that many Aborigines are to be found in the vicinity of Port Adelaide. Thus Port Adelaide has some features in common with the city of Adelaide. But it also has some dissimilarities in the matter of housing. Port Adelaide is located upstream on the Port River. Industry and housing have grown up on the higher land, but both to the south and the north there were, until recently, quite extensive areas of flats and tidal swamps liable to flooding. In 1960 these sections were still classified as rural areas (‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’, 1962:73). In 1959 the Greater Port Adelaide Development Plan was announced. Since then reclamation has been taking place and new houses as well as new factories have been built. Furthermore, the area along Le Fevre Peninsula between Port Adelaide and the Outer Harbor formerly contained much undeveloped land. It was high ground, unlike that on the eastern side of the river. There had long been a residential area along the sea front, and there were industrial areas associated with the wharves on the eastern edge of the peninsula. But there were fairly extensive sections along the centre of the peninsula and at its northern end which were virtually unused. This area and also a large section of unused land to the northeast of Port Adelaide, have been developed into extensive housing estates by the Housing Trust. Thus Aborigines are attacted to housing areas in the vicinity of Port Adelaide because here can be found both kinds of lower rental housing, the very old houses and the new Housing Trust estates. Referring again to Figure 13 it can be seen that, within a radius of four miles of the centre of Port Adelaide, there were 395 Aborigines living in 1966. This radius is longer than that of an area which would include the bulk of the Aboriginal population around the centre of Adelaide, but any line encircling the port would be necessarily elongated by the coastline. The distance from the centre of Port Adelaide is therefore longer to the north and the northeast than is so for Adelaide, but is considerably less DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 105

to the west and southwest. All of the people within this four-mile radius see Port Adelaide as their service centre. These 395 Aborigines focused upon Port Adelaide can be divided into three groups, separated in each case by industrial and commercial areas. The largest group, 200 in all, was living on Le Fevre Peninsula at the time of this survey. More recent field work has suggested that the Aboriginal population of this area has grown considerably since 1966. At that time the population was more or less equally divided between people who lived in old, blighted housing in suburbs such as Ethelton and Semaphore, and those in the Housing Trust estate at Taperoo. This peninsula thus provides both types of the cheapest rental housing in close proximity to each other. The area has an added attraction for Aborigines because the heavy industries and the wharves provide the main employment opportunities for unskilled labour in Adelaide. There were forty-five separate households of Aborigines on Le Fevre Peninsula in 1966. This was actually a higher number of households containing Aborigines than that found in the inner western suburbs of the city, but was owing to the fact that fourteen of these households were actually white households in which one Aboriginal person lived, either as a foster child or as a boarder. There were therefore thirty-one all- Aboriginal households in which 186 Aborigines lived. Two households consisted of twenty persons each. The area adjacent to Port Adelaide on the eastern side is also a region of old, poor class housing classified as blight. There were seventy-nine Aborigines living in fourteen households in the suburbs of Rosewater, Pennington, and Alberton in 1966. Seven of these households each contained only one Aboriginal, who was living with a non-Aboriginal family. The remaining seven households contained seventy-one Aborigines. The third sector of the Aboriginal population associated with this Port Adelaide complex is the quite extensive housing estate between Ferryden Park and Angle Park. This area was the site for the establishment of the emergency post-war housing which in time was replaced by permanent dwellings. It is the major Housing Trust area into which Aborigines have moved. It abuts a large industrial area. An example of the double-unit houses occupied by Aborigines in 1966 is shown in Plate 6. The close proximity of industrial and housing areas is evident. In this area the majority of Aborigines have been granted houses direct from the Housing Trust without any intermediary action on the part of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, although some of the units shown io6 THE URBAN SITUATION in the photograph were bought by this Department for rental to Aborigines. In 1966 there were 188 Aborigines living in this Housing Trust area, in twenty-seven households. Five individual Aborigines were living with white people. Thus there were 183 Aborigines living in twenty-two houses. Considering the fact that these are very small houses, this repre­ sents a certain degree of congestion. In fact, the overcrowding in some Housing Trust areas is as great as in some of the inner suburbs, which reveal multiple-family rental of older houses. The two main functional centres of Aborigines in Adelaide are reflected by the location of the two social centres for Aborigines that have arisen in the Adelaide area. The Council for Aboriginal Women has a centre in Pirie Street, in the city, while the Aborigines Progress Associa­ tion has at various times attempted to run a social club at Port Adelaide. Certain hotels in each place, such as the Carrington Hotel in Adelaide, and the Globe Hotel at Port Adelaide, act as unofficial social centres. Characteristically enough, the former hotel is situated in the southeastern area of the city, which formerly held a greater concentration of Aborigines than it does now. Only one other sector of the metropolitan area of Adelaide has any groupings of Aborigines. This third focus of Aboriginal residence occurs in the satellite towns of Salisbury and Elizabeth. Salisbury is an old township. It was once the service centre for a farming community, but, after World W ar II, Adelaide’s metropolitan area spread north, until Salisbury virtually became, at least for commuting purposes, a part of Adelaide. Elizabeth, immediately adjacent to Salisbury, was a planned satellite town established in 1955. By 1966 the Housing Trust had built 10,000 houses in this new township. Salisbury and Elizabeth both grew until they met on their peripheries to become one virtually continuous housing area. Industrial and commercial ventures have been encouraged to develop in this satellite centre, but it has also become a city from which people commute daily to Adelaide. The rapid expansion of housing development at Elizabeth has given many Aborigines an opportunity to obtain relatively cheap rental housing. Elizabeth has a high concentration of English migrants. Since they provide the main source of foster homes for Aboriginal children, it also follows that there arc many fostered Aborigines living in Elizabeth (Gale, 1968). There are a few older houses in Salisbury which offer inexpensive housing to Aborigines, but the majority of the Aborigines in this satellite DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 107 region live in the Trust homes in Elizabeth itself. Some of the houses built by the Trust at Elizabeth have been acquired by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs specifically for Aborigines. In 1966 there were 156 Aborigines living in the Salisbury-Elizabeth area. Of this number, thirty- seven were living in foster homes or boarding with non-Aboriginal families. The remaining 119 were residing in fifteen separate households. Although one household contained sixteen individuals, by and large the degree of overcrowding in Elizabeth was considerably less than that in the other parts of Adelaide already discussed. It is observable that to some degree, low-income housing affects the placement of fostered children, since those who are attracted by the slight economic advantage to be gained by rearing a foster child are likely to be Irom amongst the low income groups. There are no heavy concentrations of Aborigines in Adelaide. Despite some crowding in individual houses, none of these three centres could be called a ghetto. The numbers in each case are far too small, and the actual locations of households are scattered. Very rarely are two Aboriginal households found side by side. The remainder of Adelaide’s Aboriginal population is scattered through many suburbs in many different directions, the location always coinciding with the presence of cheap rental housing. Old houses and Housing Trust rental houses occur in small pockets through much of the northern, northeastern, western, southern, and southwestern suburbs of Adelaide. It will be obvious from Figure 13 that Aborigines are scattered through the southwestern and northeastern suburbs. Some are living in nuclear families in Trust homes or older houses. Others are children who have been adopted by, or fostered with, white Australians. Few Aborigines live in the outer eastern and southeastern suburbs, in the council areas of Burnside and Mitcham. The majority of persons in these housing areas are in the middle and upper socio-economic classes. There are relatively few houses available at low rentals in these suburbs. The only Aborigines in the eastern or southeastern suburbs are fostered or adopted children who live in white households. Thus Aborigines are to be found primarily in areas of changing function. Some live in old housing, in suburbs which are in the process of changing from residential into industrial or commercial centres. Others are to be found in areas which have recently been turned into housing estates from their former use as pasture or cereal farms, market gardens, vineyards, or almond groves. They seldom live in any of the established middle or upper class suburbs. io8 THE URBAN SITUATION

This then is the overall pattern of Aboriginal distribution. It is obviously controlled by the availability of rental houses at relatively low rates. Let us now look at the extent to which kinship factors influence the actual location of families within these given economic limits. Is there an accidental scattering of families determined only by the availability of cheap housing, or is there a definite influence of kinship upon this distri­ bution? To answer this question it is necessary to group the Aborigines in Adelaide on a kinship basis. For the purpose of this study, as was explained in a previous chapter, the Aborigines in Adelaide have been classified in nine categories according to their region of origin. These categories are used in Figure 14. However, for the sake of cartographic clarity, the three smaller groups from the Upper Murray, the South East, and from other states have been combined. It was necessary to group the suburbs of Adelaide in some way in order to show the proportionate distribution of the various Aboriginal groups. In the first stage the local government areas, readily identifiable on maps of the Adelaide Statistical Division, were used to do this. These local government areas were then grouped into five categories. The city of Adelaide formed the centre, with the other local government areas classed into northern, eastern, southern, and western sectors. The last four of these groupings were then subdivided into broad categories for the purpose of constructing the map in Figure 14. To the north and south of the city three subdivisions were used. The urban sprawl has steadily spread out to the north and south, where it is unhindered by topographical limitations. Thus the local government areas to the north and south were subdivided into inner, outer, and fringe or satellite sectors. To the west the gulf has limited the extension of the urban spread. Thus the western suburbs were subdivided into inner and outer suburbs only. But within the western sector lies Port Adelaide which, for various reasons of function and location, acts, as was said earlier in the chapter, as a separate centre. Accordingly, Port Adelaide, with its own suburban complex, is separated from the other western suburbs. To the east of the city the Mount Lofty Ranges have limited the spread of settlement. Thus the eastern local government areas are placed in only two categories: of inner and outer suburbs. Proportional circles in Figure 14 show the relative distribution of Aborigines in each of these groups of local government areas. The circles have been marked into segments to show the relative number of Aborigines derived from each of the regional groups in these different parts of Adelaide. This method was used in an attempt to see whether DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 1 0 9

Figure 14. Distribution by regional groups showing the proportionate numbers jrom each regional group who had settled in the various areas at the time oj survey.

NORTH

,n— 1

Adelaide

WEST

EAST

’.00 Aborigines

Northern S.A.

West Coast

Central

Point Pearce

Northern Territory

Other areas

Generalised sector

SOUTH

MILES no THE URBAN SITUATION

Aboriginal distribution in the city was determined solely by the avail­ ability of cheap rental housing or whether, within the economic limitations set, kinship had some part to play. Figure 14 suggests that there is indeed a kinship factor influencing the distribution of Aborigines in Adelaide. Aborigines from the two largest and oldest kin groups, namely Point McLeay and Point Pearce, have tended to congregate in two separate areas. Aborigines from the smaller groups, such as the Upper Murray, or from those which lack any sense of kin cohesion, such as the Northern Territory, are scattered throughout the low rental areas. The Point McLeay people live chiefly in the inner suburban areas around the City of Adelaide and see the central city as their focal point. The people from Point Pearce live primarily at Port Adelaide and in the western sector of the district of Enfield adjacent to the Port Adelaide area. The Point Pearce people see Port Adelaide as their centre of gravity. It is thus apparent that these two, the largest kin-centred groups, do exercise a certain amount of choice in their location in order to be near their kinsfolk. When new arrivals come from Point McLeay, they tend to stay with their relatives until they can find separate accommodation. They have been so accustomed to living in very close proximity on the reserves that they seek houses in the vicinity of those occupied by their relatives. Thus it may have been accidental that the first people from Point McLeay found houses in the inner suburbs, but the continuing preference for these suburbs by people from Point McLeay has not been accidental. Actually, Aborigines from Point McLeay were some of the earliest to move to Adelaide. It is the oldest reserve and felt the effect of the population explosion earlier than any other area (Gale, 1969b). The first arrivals from Point McLeay found relatively cheap houses to rent in the area known as the West End of Adelaide. In the 1930s and 1940s these were the cheapest rental houses available. Many have since been demolished, but the people and their kinsfolk, who came later, still sought houses near the city. In a similar way Aborigines from Point Pearce are attracted to Port Adelaide and the housing estates in the western sector of the Enfield council district within easy reach of Port Adelaide. The Point Pearce and Point McLeay Aboriginal groups are the only two which are both large enough in numbers and strong enough in kinship ties to impose any kind of pattern upon the general distribution. The West Coast people have just as strong a kinship basis as these other two groups, but there arc not as yet sufficient numbers of their people DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE III in Adelaide to enable them to develop one particular centre for social activity. The Aborigines from the Northern Territory form a large enough group to generate some kind of social force, but they have come from many different parts and few are related to one another. They do not even know one another, unlike those who have come from the southern reserves. The Aborigines from the Northern Territory do not cohere as one social group, nor do they exhibit kin ties like other groups. The other significant factor evident in Figure 14 is the location of those born in or near Adelaide. In this diagram these persons are given the category of ‘central’. It will be seen that the majority of such Aborigines are living in the housing estates in the Enfield, Port Adelaide, and Elizabeth districts. These are chiefly children born to parents who have acquired a Trust home and settled down to raise a family in the city. Figure 15 shows the distribution of Aborigines on the basis of sex and marital status. For convenience, the local government areas are grouped in the same way as that adopted for Figure 14. This map was constructed in an attempt to see whether there was any differential based on sex or marital status, in the general distribution and if so whether it could be explained by the different kinds of housing available in different areas. Males are represented by the left hand side of the double column, females the right. This diagram suggests that there may be more females than males in the Adelaide Aboriginal population. This is not the case. The actual demographic values are analysed in Chapter 8. The reason that the male predominance in the Adelaide Aboriginal population does not become apparent in this diagram is the fact that all persons who registered only an institutional address are excluded from the diagrams in this chapter. Males accounted for the majority of Aborigines in penal institutions as well as a higher percentage of Aborigines in mental hospitals. Figure 15 suggests that there is little difference in the distribution of the sexes or of married or single persons, over the metropolitan areas. For those in private homes this is true. Neither sex nor marital status seem to be very significant factors in influencing location in the city. A relatively large number of single persons is to be found in each district. This is to be expected, in view of the youthful nature of the population and the high proportion of single adults, aspects of which are discussed in Chapter 8. Other variations do occur from one area to the next, but total numbers in any one area are small and thus some accidental variation would be anticipated. There is only one significant variation in the otherwise fairly 112 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 15. Distribution by sex and marital status at the time o f the survey showing the distribution oj Aborigines in each o f the suburban areas.

NORTH

Adelaide

WEST EAST

□ Widowed, divorced or separated

1 1 Married or de facto

IB Single

Female

Generalised sector

SOUTH

MILES DISTRIBUTION OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE II3 evenly distributed ratios of male and female, married and unmarried. This appears in the northern outer suburbs where females considerably outnumber males, in contrast with the eastern inner suburbs, where males outnumber females. The northern outer suburbs are almost entirely made up of Housing Trust areas. The predominance of females in this area has been caused by the relatively large numbers of Aboriginal women married to non- Aboriginal men. Such a family would have found it easier to acquire Housing Trust homes through the normal channels, than would all- Aboriginal families. These large housing estates therefore show a pro­ portionately higher number of Aboriginal females than males and especially of married females. A similar pattern on a smaller scale can be seen at Elizabeth, in the northern fringe category, and at Taperoo, in the Port Adelaide category. The main reason that there are also more single Aboriginal females in these areas seems to stem from the observation that a non-Aboriginal husband will give board more readily to his wife’s female relatives than he will to her male relatives. Thus the location of Housing Trust areas does partly influence the relative distribution of males and females. The eastern inner suburbs and the western outer suburbs, on the other hand, have a preponderance of single males. This can only be accounted for by the fact that certain households in these districts are well known as places of open hospitality to single men who cannot find other accom­ modation. Such households occur in other districts, especially in the inner suburbs, but there are proportionately more households of this nature in the inner eastern suburbs and, to a certain extent, in the outer western suburbs than in any other areas. Age is the only other variable which will be considered in this discussion of distribution. There are significant differences in the age distribution. It would require far too much cartographic detail to show the age structure in each suburb. This was attempted, but the vast amount of detail plotted merely submerged the pattern instead of clarifying it. The outer suburbs which comprise, for the purpose of this study, primarily Housing Trust houses, have a similar proportion of young people in each of the age categories for those under twenty years of age. This is not the case in the inner suburbs. Here there are relatively high numbers of young children under five years of age and a high proportion of teenagers and young adults between fifteen and twenty-four years of age. There is thus a difference in age distribution between the inner and outer suburbs. THE URBAN SITUATIONII4

The inner suburbs contain many old, large houses where teenagers and young adults can usually find accommodation in a relative’s household. These larger houses also provide temporary homes for young couples who are just beginning their families and for single girls with babies. For this reason the inner suburbs also contain a proportionately large number of Aborigines under five. Because of the housing situation, the inner suburbs tend to house new arrivals from the country. The most common age for migration is in the late teens and early twenties, and either before marriage, or before children reach school age. Quite often couples with very young children will be able to acquire a Trust Home in one of the outer or fringe suburbs after a period of time. There is a waiting list for the Trust rental houses and thus new arrivals must find temporary accommodation before moving into anything other than the older houses of the iimer suburbs. The outer suburbs, by contrast, tend to house nuclear families with children in all age groups. This is why there is a more even distribution of ages in the new housing estates. Since most old people have come to the city for medical reasons, they try to live as close as possible to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. This is why there are proportionately more older people in the inner suburbs than at Port Adelaide, or in the fringe areas of Elizabeth or Port Noarlunga. Similarly, teenagers and young adults looking for work avoid the more distant areas if they can find accommodation with relatives closer to the city. Some of these factors, such as the absence of older people in the fringe areas, cause a distribution not very different from that of the non- Aboriginal population of Adelaide. Other factors, such as the concentra­ tion of young adults in the inner suburban areas, do show trends that are particularly due to the importance which Aborigines in the city still place upon the loyalties and obligations owing to their relatives. HOUSING OF ABORIGINES 7 IN ADELAIDE

\ 7 i Tdiereas the previous chapter gave an account of the distribution of V V Aborigines in Adelaide, this chapter attempts to classify the houses in which they are living in that city and to discuss some of the problems which Aborigines face in finding accommodation in Adelaide. The housing of Aborigines who migrate to Adelaide is vitally affected by two factors. The first is economic. Few, if any, Aboriginal migrants have the means to purchase a house, or even to place a deposit upon one. Finding rental accommodation therefore is usually essential; in addition, most of them are compelled to seek premises at the lowest possible rental. The other factor is a social one. We have seen, in Chapter 6, that family relationships and demographic factors, operating within certain Aboriginal groups, have to some extent influenced the distribution of Aborigines in Adelaide. These kinship and demographic forces help to determine the kind of housing Aborigines will choose within their economic range. As we shall see from this chapter, much of the accommodation used by Aborigines is not wholly suitable for their needs. In essence, the prob­ lem is that the house whose rental is within the means of an Aboriginal is likely to be cither of average standard but too small, or, if large enough, substandard and squalid. Figure 16, adapted from the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962:72), shows that at that time a very large proportion of the outer suburban area of Adelaide contained small houses of average standard. That situation still applied in 1966. This represents, therefore, the type of house in which many Aborigines were living, along with a Ii6 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 16. Classification of residential areas, Adelaide. Adoptedfrom the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962:72). HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE II7 very large proportion of the population of suburban Adelaide at that date. The reason why such houses—which fill the outer suburbs with scribing uniformity of appearance—have become so popular, not only with the general population, but with Aboriginal newcomers as well, is the work of the South Australian Housing Trust. This organisation has profoundly affected the distribution of the lower income groups of the South Australian community. Amongst these groups is numbered the major part of Adelaide’s Aboriginal population. It is not only in determining the eventual distribution of lower income groups in Adelaide that the Housing Trust has affected the population, but, by the mere fact of making low rental accommodation available, it has actually promoted migration to Adelaide from the rural areas, although that was not its intention. One activity of the Housing Trust which, although it is secondary to its main function of building low rental houses, has also affected the distribution of the low income groups of the population. It has been its duty to administer the Landlord and Tenant (Control of Rents) Act 1942-1961. Moreover the Trust, under the Housing Improvement Act 1940-1961, controls the rents of substandard houses in the metropolitan area. The control over rents thus exercised by the Housing Trust has caused the rents of much substandard residential accommodation in certain areas near Adelaide and Port Adelaide, to fall within the financial means of low income groups. The Housing Trust has had a third direct effect upon Aborigines. Because the Trust has effected the construction of houses at a realistic price, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has accordingly been enabled to buy certain houses from it as part of a program to assist Aborigines in the city. The Department’s program began in 1964, with the purchase of three double-unit houses in Housing Trust areas. Although most of the houses purchased since have been acquired for the purpose of assisting families who have special problems, the work of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, in making it easier for Aborigines to obtain city housing, has had some influence upon the willingness of Aborigines to migrate to the city. This was referred to when discussing the pattern of urban migration in Chapter 5. The South Australian Housing Trust still is, in many respects, unique in Australia as an effective housing authority. It was set up in January, 1937 by the South Australian Housing Trust Act, 1936-1965, as a statutory body responsible to the State Parliament. The object in estab­ lishing this organisation was to provide houses at a rent which would be 118 THE URBAN SITUATION within the reach of low income groups and which would be of an adequate standard of comfort and convenience. The Housing Trust has constructed mainly two types of dwelling. The earliest was the double-unit house. Almost all of the Aborigines in the survey lived in these, the cheapest and smallest of the Trust homes available. The building of this type of dwelling has been discontinued in recent years. The single-unit house, at first not as common, has become the only form of low-rental housing now being built by the Trust. Each type of house is enclosed by a small plot of land, normal household amenities are included, and the Trust provides for the maintenance and repair of the dwelling. In spite of increased activity on the part of private builders, both at the time of our study and subsequently, the Housing Trust has remained virtually the only means available to the lower income groups for obtaining a relatively new house for rental or eventual purchase. Financial advantages which the Trust, as a semi-government body, has always enjoyed, have kept its costs well below those of the private builder. The table of rents which pertained at the time of the survey is given in Appendix II. Such rents would have been the maximum that any low income family could have managed to pay at that time although they were lower than comparable private rates. Even so, it has been possible for the Trust to charge on a reduced scale only because of the financial advantages gained through the Housing Agreement of 1945-56. As well as using its financial advantages under legislation and agree­ ments, the Housing Trust has relied for the success of its operations upon suitable land being available at a realistic price. It has always been neces­ sary for the Housing Trust to purchase cheaper than average land in order to keep its building costs as low as possible. This has accounted for the widely scattered locations of Housing Trust development areas. The following diagrams attempt to show the various types of accom­ modation which Aborigines acquire in Adelaide. Houses are classified according to several criteria and analyses of density and mobility are given. In the first of these diagrams, Figure 17, the various types of accommodation have been classified into ten categories. The total Aboriginal population of 2039 persons is represented. It is evident that only a small proportion of the Aborigines in Adelaide owned their own homes or were purchasing them at the time of this survey. By and large these Aborigines have lived in the city for a long time and have been economically assimilated, although they still retain HHOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE II9

Fvigure 17. Accommodation for Aborigines. Various types of accommodation in wvhich Aborigines were living in Adelaide at the time of this survey.

O wn hom e m Rented home 82 With relatives ffl Fostered

Accommodated by employer m Children’s home Boarding

□ Corrective institution □ Hospital □ Adopted or assimilated ann Aboriginal identity. This pattern is in sharp contrast with that of the general population. The majority of non-Aborigines attempt to buy tl heir own homes. In South Australia as a whole, ‘Owners and purchasers bay instalments occupied approximately 72 per cent of all occupied parivate dwellings at 30 June 1966 whilst tenants occupied about 26 per cccnt’ (S.A. Year Book, 1968:309). Figure 17 shows that the majority of those who have come voluntarily tco the city live in rented houses. In 1966, rent-paying tenants formed 337 • 1 per cent of the total population of 2039 Aborigines and a further 118-8 per cent lived with relatives, usually in rented houses. In terms of tl;he tenure of the house, the identity of the actual tenant is sometimes oabscure, as several members of the household may contribute to the rent. TThus the dividing line between these two groups, those who are described aas living in a ‘rented home’ and those who live ‘with relatives’, cannot bae rigidly delimited. This is because the ‘extended family’ described later in this book fcorms an important part of Aboriginal life in the city. Indeed, Figure 17 sshows that it is important in their housing arrangements. It is less common tco find among Aborigines the more general Australian pattern, in which 120 THE URBAN SITUATION one nuclear family alone occupies a house. Even Aborigines who have bought their own homes still tend to have relatives living with them for longer or shorter periods. The usual comment is, ‘You can’t say no to your own flesh and blood’, but in this case the term ‘relation’, or ‘your own flesh and blood’, implies a much broader meaning than it carries for other Australians. A small proportion of the Aborigines in Adelaide, 2-3 per cent in fact, were living in accommodation provided by an employer at the time of this survey. There are various kinds of live-in positions which women in particular seek when they first come to the city, if they have no relatives to go to. Domestic, cooking, and nursing positions frequently provide accommodation. Indeed, the provision of accommodation with certain jobs has been an inducement for some Aborigines to migrate to the city. Young Aborigines boarding with non-Aboriginal families or in hostels accounted for a further 2-8 per cent of this total population of 2039 persons. Young men, in particular, who have no relatives in the city find board with non-Aborigines or in hostels; either in those pro­ vided especially for Aborigines or in hostels for all members of the community. The remaining categories of people shown in Figure 17 really exercise little choice in the nature or location of their accommodation. In fact, as was shown in Chapter 5, approximately one third of the Aborigines in Adelaide, at the time of this survey, had been brought to the city by forces beyond their control, and, as a result, many exercised little say in where they should live. A considerable proportion of these involuntary migrants were children. At this time, children living in foster homes accounted for 8-6 per cent of the total population, and children in children’s homes or institutions accounted for 5-4 per cent. Those who had no other address in the city but that of a corrective institution or hospital accounted for 7 • 9 and 5 • 9 per cent of the population, respectively. It is the last category shown in Figure 17 that is the most difficult to define. Persons who, in our survey, had been listed as ‘adopted’ or ‘totally assimilated’ included all children who had been legally taken from their mothers and adopted into non-Aboriginal homes. It also included some young Aborigines who had become absorbed by the general white community. Although they were recognised as Aboriginal by the Aboriginal community, little was known about them, since they had long since ceased to communicate with other Aborigines. It was not possible, nor indeed defensible in terms of this study, to obtain data HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 121 concerning these adopted and assimilated individuals. They accounted for nearly all of the 122 persons (2039 minus 1917) who were excluded from the majority of the analyses in this book. A few adopted children have been included in the total study because their non-Aboriginal parents have not isolated them from the Aboriginal community but, on the contrary, have tried to involve them in many Aboriginal activities. Such individuals, of course, were included in the detailed part of this study since interviewing was possible and acceptable. On the basis of the ten categories defined in Figure 17, it is possible to study some of the reasons why such variations in accommodation occur. Certainly there appear to be variations in housing between one regional group and another in the city. These are shown in Figure 18. In this and the following diagrams the tenth category of Figure 17, that of adopted and assimilated persons, has been eliminated because, for reasons already given, there were insufficient data. The other nine categories of Figure 17 are subdivided, in Figure 18, on the basis of regional grouping. The same regional groups are used here as in all other chapters. The first three bars in Figure 18 deal with Aboriginal families, the last six bars with those who live as isolated Aborigines within the white community. All of the bars in this diagram have been given an equal value of 100 per cent, to enable comparison to be made between one category and another. The relative value, in terms of size, of each category was shown in the previous diagram. On examining Figure 18 we notice a conspicuous factor, that, by and large, Aborigines who are shown as owning or purchasing homes have not originated from the reserves. Aborigines who are buying their own homes or who have bought them already, were born in Adelaide, or came from the Northern Territory or northern parts of South Australia. These people are urban Aborigines. If they were born in the northern part of the State or in the Northern Territory, they were brought to the city many years ago and reared in such children’s homes as Colebrook Home or St Francis House. Home ownership is a concept strange to reserve dwellers, but it is a realised fact to many who have spent all or nearly all of their lives in Adelaide. From Figure 18 again, it is seen that persons from the reserves, especially from Point Pearce and Point McLeay, but also from missions in the Northern Territory, obtain rental houses in Adelaide, or live with their relatives. Indeed, many would not have lived in the city long enough to have acquired the necessary capital to place a deposit on a house. Unlike the policy adopted to help Maoris to buy their own homes in 122 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 18. Regional variations in accommodation. The classification of types of accommodation used in Figure 17 is subdivided into regional groupings.

□ Other States Northern Territory □ South East Point Pearce B Northern S.A. Point Mcleay m Upper Murray Central m West Coast

New Zealand, there is no financial policy operating in Australia by which Aborigines are assisted to place a deposit on a house. The second column in Figure 18 therefore supports the first column in suggesting that whereas Aboriginal home-owners have lived for some time within the white community, Aboriginal tenants come primarily from reserves, and have been isolated from the rest of the community for most of their lives. The third column represents Aborigines who were living with relatives at the time of this survey. It appears that Aborigines who were born in Adelaide account for 41 per cent of those living with relatives. The HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 123 reason is clear. These are children born to new arrivals. Families move to the city and live with relatives until they are able to find accommodation for themselves. These people are mainly young couples to whom children are still being born. It is hardest for those with several young children to find accommodation, other than with relatives. Virtually the only adults who live with relatives are those who have come from the four main reserves of Point Pearce, Point McLeay, Koonibba, and Gerard. Hardly any Aborigines from the Northern Territory live with relatives; they usually have no relatives on whom they can presume. As has been stated elsewhere, they have come from scattered areas in the Northern Territory and, unlike other groups in the city, lack a network of kinsmen in the urban area. The remaining six bars in Figure 18 deal with persons who have come to the city by themselves and often without choice. They have not migrated as families, as did the individuals represented in the first three bars. Northern Territory Aborigines, and, to a certain extent, persons from the northern part of South Australia, predominate in several of these six groups shown in this diagram. Generally, they have been sent south as individuals either to be fostered, or to be placed in a hostel or a corrective or medical institution. Our survey showed that Aborigines from the Northern Territory made up one-quarter of the fostered children in Adelaide and almost one-third of those who lived in boarding houses and hostels. They also comprised one-half of the Aborigines in long term hospitals. Their lack of local family background is evident in each of these bars shown in Figure 18. The other very significant aspect of this diagram is the large pre­ ponderance of Aborigines from Point Pearce and Point McLeay who are shown as being inmates of corrective institutions. This is evident in the eighth bar of Figure 18. The shading in this bar indicates that well over half the number of long term offenders of Aboriginal descent have come from these two reserves. Those living in quarters provided by employers and children in institutional homes were representative of every area. Figure 19 is structured in much the same way and deals with the same population (1917 persons) as Figure 18. In this case, however, mobility within the city is related to the type of accommodation instead of the region of origin. Figure 19 also shows a further dissection of the data relating to those living in family units. Thus, the first three bars, dealing with bought houses, rented houses, and accommodation in the houses of relatives, have been subdivided on the basis of children and adults. For 1 2 4 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 19. Mobility in relation to accommodation. The classification oj types oj accommodation used in Figure 17 is subdivided according to the number oj addresses each Aboriginal registered after his arrival in Adelaide.

this purpose children are those under fifteen years of age. Pre-school and school age children have little say in their accommodation but working teenagers and adults have more freedom. In Figure 19, mobility is measured in terms of the number of addresses each person had had in Adelaide, including the one in which each was living at the time of the survey. This diagram can be taken only as a rough indication of the relationship between mobility and the type of accommodation, as it takes no account of the length of time spent in Adelaide or at any particular address, by an Aboriginal. In spite of these shortcomings, the diagram does suggest certain things about housing. It is not surprising to find that the most mobile people are those who live with relatives, or those who at the time of this survey were in gaol or in accommodation provided by their employers. Over 10 per cent of the adults living with relatives, or in gaol, had had nine or more addresses in Adelaide. Many were constantly on the move between relatives. Several in gaol had simply gone from one relative to another until they had ended in prison. For some of these, going to gaol was a way to find accommodation in the city. At the opposite end of the mobility scale are home owners who exhibit the greatest stability. Figure 19 shows this most clearly for the children of home owners. No children under fifteen years of age, living with their parents in a home the family owned or were buying, had HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 125 resided at more than two addresses in Adelaide. Evidently such children are forced to move much less than those living in rented houses or with relatives. The stability of adults who were home owners at the time of this survey cannot be seen so clearly from Figure 19. The reason for this is that the adults showed a high degree of mobility before they bought houses. The pattern shown by these adult Aborigines was that of move­ ment from one rental house to another after their arrival in the city, but one of almost complete stability once a house was bought. The second pair of bars in Figure 19 show that there is a greater degree of mobility amongst both adults and children living in rented houses than with those in purchased houses. However, their mobility is not as great as that of Aborigines who live with their relatives. The social consequences of inadequate housing, such as the lack of continuity in children’s education, are quite evident and could be over­ come relatively simply by greater government allocation for Aboriginal housing. The results of this survey suggest that although rental houses are better than overcrowded conditions of living with relatives, govern­ ment money at present spent on the provision of rental houses might better be allocated to assist Aborigines purchase homes. The greatest degree of stability amongst those who live as isolates, and not in Aboriginal families, can be found in those who have no control over their living conditions. These include children in foster homes and institutions, and persons in hospital. In each of these three groups more than 70 per cent had known only one address other than their current one. Many had come direct from the country to a long-term medical centre, or to a foster home or children’s home in Adelaide. A more detailed study of the mobility of children in these categories can be found in Gale (1968). Although the group who live in the accommodation provided by an employer shows a pattern of regular change, this is understandable. A high rate of mobility is often found amongst persons in this type of employment within the general community. The jobs may be temporary, or the people may use the accommodation provided only until a private home can be found. Aboriginal mobility in this type of accommodation is possibly no greater than that of any other person who is in a similar situation. It is equally predictable that Aborigines in boarding houses will move frequently; most individuals in the general community use a hoarding house only until more permanent accommodation can be found. However, amongst the Aborigines filling these two accommoda­ tion categories of institution-type housing, there is an added factor which 1 2 6 THE URBAN SITUATION encourages their mobility. They are usually single people who have no family and no ties to induce stability. Thus many factors influence the type of accommodation available to Aborigines in the city. Their background and the area from which they come, as well as the reason for their migration, all influence the type of accommodation they obtain in Adelaide. No matter where they come from nor for what reason, all require time to adapt to life in the city. This is shown in Figure 20, where the types of houses acquired by Abori­ gines are related to the length of time these people have resided in the city. This diagram represents far fewer people than the other diagrams in this chapter. As it looks at the length of time lived in the city in relation to home buying, all those who have no say in their accommoda­ tion have been deleted. Figure 20 therefore includes only persons over fifteen years of age and then only such persons as those who can exercise choice in their housing. There are only 569 Aborigines represented in Figure 20. For most Aborigines the concept of home ownership is a new one, belonging to an urban area. On the reserves they had no title or tenure. Until recently they did not even pay rent for the houses they occupied, which belonged to the white administration. There was therefore no incentive for Aborigines to improve or even maintain their dwellings. Thus considerable psychological adjustment has to be made towards home ownership by Aborigines when they move to a city. Equal bars have been drawn in Figure 20 to show the relationship between the length of time an individual has been resident, and the type of accommodation, within the five free choice categories, which he has selected. There is a definite pattern of adjustment to be seen, from the time when Aborigines first arrive and find temporary accommodation in quarters or with relatives, to the second stage when they become able to rent houses. For the few who achieved it, some time was needed before they reached the final stage, that of home ownership. Indeed, over 60 per cent of those who owned their own houses or were buying them by instalments, had either been born in Adelaide or had lived in the city for more than ten consecutive years at the time of this survey. It seems likely that one of the reasons why so few Aborigines buy houses, by comparison with non-Aborigines, is the fact that the majority have moved to the city only recently. They have neither adjusted to the urban concept of home ownership nor accumulated sufficient money to pay a deposit on a home. Those living in quarters provided by an employer reveal a pattern similar to the one shown by those staying with relatives. Such accommo- HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 127

Figure 20. Accommodation according to length oj residency in Adelaide. The length oj time Aborigines have lived in the city has a bearing upon the type oj accommodation they require. Only those who had some choice in their accommodation are represented in this diagram.

□ Born in Adelaide

Ü 10+ years

a 5 -9 n

I 0 m 0 -4 11 'S 0 D 1 I "2 0 „ I c E £ a 1 I ! I i 0 o o i 02. _c £ £ * i"

dation is used by single people as a temporary measure until a flat or private board becomes available. A few, however, who have lived in Adelaide all their lives, have remained single and have occupied accom­ modation provided by their employers. By and large, these are live-in domestics. The fifth column in Figure 20 shows a pattern different from the typical path of adjustment to city living, via accommodation provided by an employer or relatives, to a rented, and, finally a purchased home. This exception is due to the considerable numbers of single males in Adelaide. The single male who boards with a white family or in a hostel has no family ties and no reason to rent or purchase a house. The remaining three diagrams accompanying this chapter deal only v/ith persons living in private homes. The number represented in Figures 21 and 22 is 1528, the same as in the diagrams in the previous chapter. 128 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 21. Types o f housing. The residential classification used by the‘ Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide' ( 1962:12) is related to actual addresses of Aborigines in this survey.

Area of blight

Are« of poor class housing

Average class oreo containing mainly older homes

Average class area containing small homes

Good class area containing small homes

Good class area containing large, medium and medium-small homes

Category

In Figure 21 we have adopted the housing categories defined in the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962) and have related them to the addresses of Aborigines in our survey. The importance of the small home, classified as ‘average’ standard by the planning report of 1962, can be seen clearly in Figure 21. This category represents all of the Aborigines in Trust homes as well as those living in small suburban houses in other areas. Aborigines living in such homes made up 64 per cent of Aborigines occupying private homes at the time of this survey. The second largest group of persons appears, from Figure 21, to be living in poor housing within areas classified as ‘blight’ by the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ (1962). The diagram shows that HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 129

Aborigines in Adelaide who live in blighted housing areas account for 15 per cent of the 1528 persons in private homes. Houses classified as ‘poor class’ contained a further 7 per cent of the people in this Aboriginal population. From this survey it appears, therefore, that substandard living conditions prevail for considerable numbers of Adelaide Aborigines; in fact, for approximately 23 per cent of those in private houses. Virtually the only Aborigines living in houses said to be in ‘good class areas’ were those in foster or adoptive homes, or women domestics who lived in the homes of their employers. Figure 22 uses the same classification of housing conditions as that employed in Figure 21, in order to show the distribution of these various housing categories amongst the regional groupings of Aborigines in Adelaide. Each column represents one of the nine regions of origin of Aborigines considered in this survey. Again, the predominance of the small house of average standard is evident from this diagram, but it can be seen that the distribution of this type of house is not even. In Figure 22 the total number of persons living in private homes is divided on a percentage basis amongst the various regional groups. The heights of these columns are not the same as those drawn in Figures 34, 36, 38, and 40, which deal with a population of 1917 persons. In Figure 22 those who are accommodated in institutions have been omitted, leaving 1528 persons. A comparison of the height of the various columns in the later figures with those in Figure 22 will show that few of the Aborigines born in Adelaide (column labelled central) live in institutions but many from the Northern Territory do so. Figure 22, in showing the predominance of the small Trust home, also shows that the majority of Aborigines born in Adelaide live in such houses. Most of these people are children. In fact, the first column suggests that children born in the city either live in Trust homes or in blighted housing areas. This is indeed so. Children born in the city tend to be born to parents living in Trust homes who have taken up permanent residence in Adelaide, or to new arrivals who are living temporarily with relatives in large, old, and usually substandard houses. The variation in the distribution becomes more significant if we compare the second column, which represents people of Point McLeay origin with other columns. It can then be seen that this diagram substanti­ ates the variations in the distribution pattern shown in Figure 14, which showed how persons of Point McLeay origin, because of their close kinship ties, tend to live in the older but larger houses of the inner suburban areas. Figure 22 supports this analysis, by showing that half of 130 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 22. Regional variations in housing types. The houses in which Aborigines in this survey were living classified according to the ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide’ ( 1962:72) and related to the region of origin o f each Aboriginal.

Area of blight

Area of poor class housing

Average class area containing mainly older homes

Average class area containing small homes

Good class area containing small homes Good class area containing large, medium and medium-small homes

the persons of Point McLeay origin were living in large, old, and often blighted houses at the time of this survey. Proportionately fewer persons of Point McLeay origin live in Trust homes than any other group. By contrast, only a very small proportion of the Aborigines from either the West Coast or the northern part of the State live in large, older houses. The Aborigines from the Northern Territory who are living in houses and not in institutions, are the best housed of all the Aborigines in Adelaide. It is no coincidence that they are also the best educated and are found in the higher income earning occupations, as later chapters will show. The opposite is true for the Point McLeay and Point Pearce people. Thus socio-economic factors, as well as the presence or absence of kinship ties, account for the variations in the housing of Aborigines in Adelaide. There are also other reasons for such variations. The environmental backgrounds of these rural migrants arc different, when we compare HOUSING OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE I3I one area with another. Aborigines in large substandard housing areas comprise, almost entirely, persons from government reserves, especially from Point McLeay and Point Pearce, and their children who were born after the parents’ arrival in the city. To these people, blight and over­ crowding in the city are not very different from housing conditions to which they have been accustomed on the reserves. The frequency histogram in Figure 23 demonstrates the degree of overcrowding in Aboriginal households in Adelaide. Only persons living in all-Aboriginal households are included in this diagram. Those living as boarders, or adopted or fostered children, or persons in private accommodation provided by an employer, all of whom were included in Figures 21 and 22, are excluded from Figure 23 because this diagram attempts to illustrate the degree of overcrowding experienced by the all-Aboriginal household. Furthermore, it was not possible to obtain exact details concerning the number of rooms in all of the houses occupied solely by Aborigines. Figure 23 thus represents only 676 persons. On the X axis, density in accommodation is shown as the number of persons per room. The Y axis defines the percentage number of persons in each of these density categories. The itinerant visitor is not included because only persons who had lived in Adelaide for more than six consecutive months were included in the survey. The average density of the Aboriginal population in Adelaide, as shown by Figure 23, is at least 1 -8 persons per room. With the frequent arrival of country visitors, this figure would often become higher. It compares unfavourably with the average figure for the general South Australian population, which in 1966 was 0-6 persons per room. In the South Australian population generally, the density decreased from 0-8 persons per room in 1947 to 0-6 persons by 1966 (Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Adelaide, pers. comm.). Density in Aboriginal accommodation, however, is probably increasing. Aborigines in Adelaide are well aware of this problem of over­ crowding. Some seek the older rental houses because they are larger than Flousing Trust houses. Those in double-unit Housing Trust houses com­ plain about the inadequacy of accommodation in such houses for their large families. One grandmother, the head of an extended household which was living in a double-unit Trust home, welcomed one of the authors with, ‘Come in, we’re all huddled together like a mob of wombats here’. Later in the conversation she said, ‘The children just shake down where they can’. All in all, the housing position of city Aborigines remains one of their 132 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 23. Housing density. Numbers oj persons per room are shown on a percentage basis for all Aborigines in normal houses in Adelaide.

<1 1 -<2 2-<3 3-<4 4 + Density greatest disabilities, almost always because of overcrowding and un­ suitability for their family and kinship requirements. With the increasing size of the Aboriginal population in Adelaide, and the resultant rise in density in Aboriginal households, an intensive program is required to provide more adequate and more suitable housing for Aborigines in the city. Furthermore a policy should be developed to assist Aborigines purchase their own homes instead of merely extending the present policy of providing rental houses. 8 THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE

r H 1his chapter analyses the demographic structure of the Aboriginal A population of Adelaide and points out some of the forces which have shaped it. Migration, whether on a large or a small scale, leads inevitably to changes in the structure of a population in any one place. It alters the composition of the population in the area of origin and changes the structure of the community in the area of reception. There are three population groups which are affected by the move­ ment of Aborigines to the cities. The structure of the Aboriginal popula­ tion in the rural areas has been changed by the outward movement of so many of its members. The composition of the Aboriginal population in the urban centres has altered with the inflow of new migrants. Con­ trasting imbalances in both age and sex ratios have occurred in the rural and the urban populations. More slowly and, indeed, almost imper­ ceptibly, the structure of the Australian community at large is being affected by this migration of Aborigines from isolated rural communities into large urban centres. Two important results of this migration are evident. In the first case, the urban movement of Aborigines leads to changes in demographic structure because it produces age and sex imbalances. In this it follows the normal pattern of most migrations. It is usual, in migrations from rural to urban areas, for some sectors of the population to move sooner and in greater numbers than others. For example, single males in their early twenties are those most influenced by the attractive pull of new areas. Thus, it is not surprising to find that single males form a relatively higher percentage of Aboriginal people in the cities than do any other 134 THE URBAN SITUATION sectors of their population. Conversely, single males are in short supply in the Aboriginal communities in several rural areas. Because of such differential effects of migration, many social problems result in the city of reception as well as in the rural area of origin. Sudden demographic changes leading to imbalance in population structures inevitably have social consequences. The Aboriginal migration in South Australia has been no exception. On the other hand, the Aboriginal migration has led to certain social changes which do not necessarily accompany all migrations. Because of the considerable differences between the cultural and ethnic origins of the migrating Aborigines and those of the white Australians in the cities, face to face contacts in numerous economic and social situations have precipitated changes in both Aboriginal and European attitudes towards each other. The legislative changes of the 1960s, discussed in Chapter 4, are but some of the results of social forces at work in this movement of Aborigines from rural to urban areas, and in the ensuing change from social isolation to social involvement in the wider Australian community. We shall discuss in this chapter the first of these consequences of migration, namely the changes in population structure. The social consequences are dealt with later. The changes in the population structure of the Aboriginal community will become obvious from examining the accompanying diagrams. In this chapter only the overall demographic patterns of the Adelaide Aborigines are examined and these are compared with both the rural Aboriginal patterns and those of the wider Adelaide population. The variations within the Aboriginal population of Adelaide, due to such factors as differences in kinship structure from one group to another, are dealt with in Chapter 9. Figure 24 shows the age and sex structure of the Aboriginal population of Adelaide at the time of this survey. Although the information took more than three years to collect, the ages have been corrected to the common recording line of 1 January 1966. This year was taken as the base line in order to make possible a general comparison between the Aboriginal population of Adelaide and the total population of Adelaide as recorded at the Commonwealth Census of 30 June 1966. The latter is shown diagrammatically in Figure 25. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs conducted a census of Aborigines in South Australia outside Adelaide during 1966-7. These results were used to compile Figure 26. Neither our Adelaide survey of Aborigines, nor the Departmental count of rural and other urban people, could be accurately called a census, since both studies lacked sufficient personnel to enable a count to be THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 135

Figure 24. Adelaide Aboriginal population structure, i 966. Age and sex pyramid o f the Aborigines in Adelaide at the time o f this survey.

Male Female

6 5 - 6 9

6 0 -6 4

5 5 -5 9

5 0 -5 4

4 5 -4 9

4 0 -4 4

3 5 -3 9

3 0 -3 4

2 5 - 2 9

2 0 -2 4

1 5 -1 9

1 0 -1 4

% Population completed at one specific point of time. But the Departmental count, which came later than this survey, adopted, on recommendation, the same categories as we used. This co-operation ensured that comparisons were possible and that no person was counted more than once. It is not entirely valid to make precise comparisons between these three populations, Adelaide Aboriginal (Figure 24), Adelaide non- Aboriginal (Figure 25), and rural and other urban Aboriginal (Figure 26), because the data was not collected in the same way or at the same time. Nevertheless general comparisons can be made, since all of the data 136 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 25. Adelaide non-Aboriginal population structure, 1966. Age and sex pyramid oj the general population oj Adelaide at the 1966 census.

Male Female 1 70+

65-69

60-64

55-59

50-54

45-49

40-44

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5 - 9

0 - 4

10 9 8 7 6543210 01 23456789 10 % Population apply to the same year, 1966, and care was taken to ensure that there was no duplication of the information. The age and sex pyramids drawn on a five-year basis from this information have certain inaccuracies but are sufficiently reliable to show the overall differences in structure between these three populations. To make comparisons between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations of Adelaide it was necessary to define the boundary of the metropolitan area that was common to both populations. In this case it was much easier to equate the data in a spatial sense than in a temporal THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 137

Figure 26. Rural Aboriginal population structure, 1966. Age and sex pyramid of Aborigines in rural areas and country towns enumerated in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs survey.

Male Female

7 0 +

6 5 -6 9

6 0 -6 4

5 5 -5 9

5 0 -5 4

4 5 - 4 9

4 0 -4 4

3 5 -3 9

3 0 -3 4

2 5 -2 9

2 0 -2 4

1 5 -1 9

10-14

5 - 9

0 - 4

0123456789 10 % Population one. As described in Chapter 1 and shown in Figure 1, the boundary of metropolitan Adelaide used for both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations in this study is that of the Adelaide Statistical Division and not metropolitan Adelaide as defined in the 1966 census. In constructing these diagrams, theoretically, we should have deducted the Aboriginal population of Adelaide from the total population to prevent population overlap in the data and diagrams. It was not possible to do this as we had no way of knowing which of the Aborigines recorded in our survey had been recorded also as living in Adelaide at the time of 138 THE URBAN SITUATIOJN the general census. Fortunately, statistically speaking, the total numbeer of Aborigines in Adelaide is so small, relative to the whole populati o n of Adelaide, that the shape of the pyramid depicting this total population (Figure 25) would not be altered whether or not Aborigines werte included. The Commonwealth census material on Aborigines was not used tco compile either Figure 24 or Figure 26. It seemed preferable that Figure 214 should relate to the individuals counted in this survey and thereforre account for the same population as that discussed in all other chapters, iin this book. The only information which we could obtain from ithie Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics tor the 1966 census wras that published for persons who described themselves as being of ‘50 peer cent or more Aboriginal or simply as “Aboriginal” ’. This figure was given as 883 in ‘metropolitan’ Adelaide, and 932 in the Adelaide Statistical Division. However, Jones (1970b) was able to obtain information aboiut those who described themselves as having less than 50 per cent Aboriginal ancestry. If his additional data is used, then ‘metropolitan’ A delaide’s Aboriginal population at the 1966 census was 1237 persons. It has ncot been possible to obtain this additional information for the whole o f tine Adelaide Statistical Division. Our survey had counted 2039 persons cof Aboriginal identity who had resided in the Adelaide Statistical Divisioin for a minimum of six consecutive months between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1966. Figure 24 represents the 1917 of these 2039 persons fo r whom all details required in other chapters were available. It is only to be expected that undcrenumeration of Aborigines iin Adelaide would occur at a census count. Some Aborigines move to thie city so that they can become assimilated and identify as whites. Certainlly several Aborigines in Adelaide, known personally to the authors, did anot list themselves as Aboriginal at the 1966 census. Therefore, because o f thie probability of undcrenumeration, our inability to acquire comprehensive data from the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, and thie desire for consistency with other chapters, the 1966 census was not u.se-d in compiling Figure 24. It was, of course, used to compile Figure 215, representing the general population of Adelaide. Figure 26 represents all Aborigines counted by the Departmental Survey other than those already included in Figure 24. To ensure that there was no duplication of persons counted in these two figures, all tof the names of the Adelaide Aborigines represented in Figure 24 weire checked against the list of names of the population compiled by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. There were a few instances in w hich =sH

• s c , K ^ ~ "is 21 II tit Q §°CO

If'O b ^i^ 5 >s, ^2 ■ s:a 1,1

is ^ <= r £ Sä t - Ö s *“—«**>• f^o. o 5 5 - £ . 1 ^ ~§ <ü — -5

V* _. ^ SO H£ •- a,11 -2 T11 1 ,<=• 'S ^ "3*r* 3^ IN S=ü of Point Pearce reserve. M ost oj the Plate 3. Children at play in an old car at Gerard reserve, in the Upper Murray.

Plate 4. Housing in a country town. A n Aboriginal family alongside their house on the fringe of Port Lincoln. Plate 5. Housing in inner suburb, Adelaide. A house in blighted condition which at the time of the survey was tenanted by Aborigines.

Plate 6. Housing Trust double units. Aboriginal families live in Housing Truist areas which have been recently developed. Pl°late 7. Children who haue come to Adelaide for fostering. Country children wwaiting at a departmental hostel until a home can be found for them m the city.

Pl°late 8. Visitors to the city. Aboriginal women who have come to Adelaide, just foior a visit, from the north oj the state.

Plate W. An Aboriginal picnic. Aboriginal social clubs in Adelaide arrange picnics and socialJunctions to unite their people.

Plate ll. Sport and urbanisation. Some Aborigines haue come to Adelaide under the sponsorship oj various sporting bodies. By courtesy Advertiser Newspapers Ltd. " § 0 -1 2 = THJE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 139 the names of the same persons appeared in both the metropolitan and the rural lists. When this occurred, the names were removed from the Departmental rural list. The reason for this decision was simple. Persons could have been listicd in the Adelaide group only if, under the terms of definition of this stiudy, they had resided for six consecutive months in Adelaide during the p eriod of research. If, during the time that the Departmental census wass being made, such persons had moved back to the country, or were visiiting there, they were still counted as Adelaide persons for the purpose of ithis study. Since, in each location, the Departmental count was made solely of persons who were in rural areas or country towns at that par­ ticular time, it was possible that city visitors could have been included. The use of a ‘residence’ definition seemed the only way to prevent the incllusion of the same person in both surveys, since unlike a census they weire not made at the same point of time. lit is possible that a more accurate diagram could have been compiled for Figure 26 if census data had been used for rural and other urban categories. But in this case we would not have been able to prevent duplication in the numbers of persons counted in Figures 24 and 26. It seemed therefore more consistent to use the Departmental list of names andl ages to compile Figure 26. A comparison between the Departmental count and the census data suggests, however, that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs classified some children in the five to nine years of age group who should have been placed in the four and under age group. The 1966 census, using the Bureau figures and those of Jones (1970b), counted 1263 Aboriginal children under five years of age in South Australia whereas the combination of the Departmental figures and those of our survey give a number of only 1027 Aboriginal children in South Australia under five years of age in 1966. Figure 26 suggests that this error occurred primarily in rural areas. Later field research has shown this to be so. But the error was not so much one of underenumeration as one of misallocation into age groups. Both the survey and the census data give comparable numbers for the total of Aborigines in South Australia under twenty years of age. The total figures given for the state from the different sources do not vary greatly. Our survey listed 2039 Aborigines in the Adelaide Statistical Division in comparison with a total count of 1237 by the census in metropolitan Adelaide. Some of this difference is due to the fact that one used the metropolitan boundary and the other the statistical division boundary. Undcrcnumeration by the census is a further factor causing 140 THE URBAN SITUATION the variation. A third reason is the fact that since the count was made at a different time some persons were no doubt included in the Adelaide survey but later counted in the rural or other urban figures at 30 June 1966. On the other hand, the census counted 5347 Aborigines outside the metropolitan area. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs counted 4689 excluding those listed in our survey and those for whom ages were not obtained. Actually, several more were counted but these were not tabu­ lated if their ages could not be checked. Thus the census listed an Aboriginal population for South Australia of 6584 persons and the other surveys of 6728+ persons. But there is evidence to suggest that the census underenumerated in the city in several age groups and that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs misclassified some children under ten years of age. This means that the pyramids drawn in Figures 24 and 26 would have varied somewhat had census data been used or a different definition of Adelaide Aborigines been applied. Since neither source of data is entirely accurate, and in any case the difference between them is not major, it seems reasonable to make general if not precise comparisons between the three populations represented in Figures 24, 25, and 26. The Aboriginal population of Adelaide, which is represented in Figure 24, totals 1917 individuals. As we explained in Chapter 1, it was not possible to establish the age of some Aborigines because we did not personally interview all individuals. In particular, we purposely did not follow up and approach the majority of adopted children. Thus Figure 24 does not represent all 2039 Aborigines enumerated in this study. The total population of Adelaide, that is in the Adelaide Statistical Division, numbered 771,595 persons at the 1966 census. Figure 25 thus represents a much larger number of persons than does Figure 24. The rural Aboriginal population, which is represented in Figure 26, totals 4689 individuals. This is the number for whom the Department of Aboriginal Affairs was able to establish exact ages in its count in 1966-7. In studying these three pyramids it is obvious that there are considerable differences between them. The greatest differences are those that occur between the general Australian population, represented in Figure 25, and the Aboriginal populations, both metropolitan and rural (including those listed as other urban), represented in Figures 24 and 26. There are also important distinctions to be drawn between the metropolitan and the rural Aboriginal populations. The major differences between all of the groups lie in the patterns of the age structures and in the masculinity ratios. A glance at these diagrams is sufficient to show that the Aboriginal THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE I4I population throughout South Australia, in both urban and rural areas, is a very youthful one. The differences in the masculinity ratios cannot be seen so easily in the diagrams. Let us examine the subject of age structures. Since the greatest differ­ ences occur between white and Aboriginal, irrespective of whether the latter are urban or rural dwellers, we will first compare the age structure of the general population, shown in Figure 25, with that of both of the Aboriginal groups depicted in Figures 24 and 26. For the purpose of this general comparison of whites and Aborigines, all Aborigines in South Australia are included. That is, the information used to compile Figures 24 and 26 is combined. Technically speaking, we should also present a pyramid of the non- Aboriginal rural population of South Australia in order to make com­ parisons between the total white population of the state and the total Aboriginal population of the state. However this has not been done because we found that the total state population is not very different in structure from that of Adelaide. In 1966, some 58-8 per cent (58-2 per cent if census data is used) of the whole Aboriginal population of South Australia was under twenty years of age, whereas 39-5 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population of South Australia fell within this younger age group. On the other hand, only 20-8 per cent (22-2 per cent if census data is used) of the Aboriginal population was over the age of thirty-five years, in contrast with the non-Aboriginal population in which 41-6 per cent of its people belonged to the category. The comparisons given in parentheses show that, in general terms, results do not vary greatly whichever source of data is used. There are fewer old Aborigines. In 1966, persons over sixty years of age comprised approximately 5 per cent (4-2 survey data, 5-3 census) of the state’s Aboriginal population, whereas 12-1 per cent of the non- Aboriginal population of South Australia belonged in this older category. In Adelaide, the contrast is even greater. Persons over sixty years of age accounted for 12-7 per cent of the non-Aboriginal population, but only 2-8 per cent of the Aboriginal population, in the city in 1966. These sharp contrasts in age structure between the Aboriginal and the non-Aboriginal populations of South Australia are due to two main factors. Firstly, a higher birth rate amongst Aborigines during much of this century has meant that there is a higher percentage of young people amongst the Aborigines. Secondly, a much higher death rate has led to the situation that Aborigines who reach older ages form a smaller 142 THE URBAN SITUATION percentage of the Aboriginal population. These features of the Aboriginal population are dealt with in more detail in Gale (1969b), Jones (1970a, 1970b), and Barwick (1971). The higher birth and death rates of the Aboriginal population account for the triangular shape of the pyramids shown in Figures 24 and 26. This pattern is well known to demographers as the classic shape of rapidly increasing populations associated with many of the developing countries. The Aboriginal population has many similarities with the population structure of countries such as India or Brazil. However, if one looks at the base of the pyramid drawn in Figure 24, it can be seen that the Aboriginal population structure in the city has probably begun to change in recent years. The birth rate of Aborigines appears to be declining in the rural population also according to Figure 26 but this is not so. The under enumeration of the under five year olds in the data used for Figure 26 is the cause of this, but in Adelaide the birth rate does appear to be declining slightly. There are at least three reasons for this. Firstly, as will be explained later in this chapter, a much higher proportion of Aborigines in the city remain single than do their counterparts on reserves. Although some single persons have children they certainly do not have as many as do married persons. Secondly, the rate of Aboriginal marriage with non- Aborigines is much greater in the city. Also, as detailed later in this chapter, Aborigines who marry whites appear to have fewer children than those who marry Aborigines. Thirdly, Aborigines in the city have become more aware of contraception, whether they are single or married either to Aborigines or non-Aborigines. In the urban environment, there are stronger pressures, both economic and social, which prompt Aboriginal women to limit the number of children they have. But for Aborigines who still live on reserves there are neither social nor economic pressures to encourage family planning. Field work has shown that Aborigines who live on southern segregated reserves, and who have little economic responsibility, tend to have large families. Their birth rate has not declined. Ostapchuk (1969) showed that this was so, as recently as 1969, in her study of the population at Point Pearce reserve. These diagrams show that urbanisation has a strong influence upon the Aboriginal demographic structure. It therefore seems likely that, as more and more Aborigines migrate from rural to urban communities, the overall structure of the Aboriginal population will come in time to resemble more closely that of the general Australian population. This will take a long time. Certainly for the present, population increase is in- THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 143 evitable. Jones (1970b: 37) has estimated that the Aboriginal population enumerated at the 1966 census as 6584 in South Australia would be 12,460 by 1986 and 20,473 by 2001 at its present rate of increase, but the results of this survey suggest that, before 2001 is reached, increasing urbanisation, along with other factors, will help to slow down this high rate of population increase. The many points of difference in the age structure of the Aboriginal population, between the Adelaide people counted in our survey and the rest of South Australia enumerated by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, will now be examined. These are not as great as the contrasts between the Aboriginal and the general white populations, but they are nevertheless significant. A comparison of Figures 24 and 26 shows that these two populations differ in all age groups. The rural population (in this case all those outside of Adelaide) has relatively higher numbers in the younger age groups. Children under the age of fifteen years made up at least 48 • 6 per cent of the rural Aboriginal population but only 44 • 2 per cent of the city Aboriginal population in 1966. Urbanisation has affected this structure in two ways. In the first instance, as already mentioned, the city exerts greater pressures than any other environment upon the Aboriginal woman to limit the number of children she bears. Secondly, families with very young children are less prone to migrate to the city than are families with older children. Thus fewer children arc born in the city and fewer parents with young children migrate to the city. This is particularly evident in the under five years age group. In 1966, children under five years of age made up at least 16-3 per cent of the rural Aboriginal population, but only 13-7 per cent of the urban Aboriginal population. The rural population also contains a relatively larger number of older persons than does the city population. Older people are less likely to migrate than are younger ones. Although several older Aborigines have been forced to move to Adelaide for medical treatment, the ratio of older persons is still higher in the rural community. Even those who have moved to the city like to return to their ‘home country’ when they feel death is near. In 1966, Aborigines of thirty-five years of age and over comprised 22 • 1 per cent of the total rural community. On the other hand, the Adelaide Aborigines in this age group made up only 17-9 per cent of the Adelaide population. Aborigines over sixty years of age accounted for 5 • 8 per cent of the rural population, but only 3 • 0 per cent of the Adelaide population. When we look at the section of the pyramids in Figures 24 and 26 144 THE URBAN SITUATION depicting teenagers and young adults, the attractive force of the city becomes evident. The Adelaide population contains a relatively large number of Aboriginal persons between the ages of fifteen and thirty-four years. In 1966, this age group made up 38 • 1 per cent of the city population. The growth in the city population in this age group, teenagers and young adults, has occurred at the expense of the rural community. By contrast with the Adelaide figure, Aborigines between the ages of fifteen and thirty-four years comprised only 29 • 4 per cent of the rural population at the time of this study. The effects of migration are greatest upon people between these ages. The movement of young Aborigines from the country into Adelaide during the last ten years has had a drastic effect on the structure of both the rural and the city populations. This has inevi­ tably had many social consequences in both areas. Clearly, then, there are quite marked differences in the age structures of the three populations shown in Figures 24, 25, and 26. Another contrast is evident in the masculinity ratios. The differences in sex ratios between the structures of the three populations do not stand out as clearly as the differences in age patterns, but are nevertheless just as important. In the Aboriginal populations, both rural and urban, males outnumber females to a greater degree than in the European population. If the masculinity of a population is expressed as a ratio of the number of males to each 100 females, the masculinity of the Aboriginal population of South Australia, taken as a whole, was 108-7 in the 1966 survey, whereas the masculinity of the total population of South Australia, measured at the 1966 census, was 101-0. However, to take an overall figure for masculinity does not bring out the significant differences at certain age levels. Since these have important social consequences for Aborigines in Adelaide, we shall look at the ratios of males to females in more detail. The most obvious difference between the Aboriginal and non-Aborigi- nal populations occurs in the older age groups. A further glance at Figure 25 will show that, from the age of fifty years onwards, females predominate over males in the European population of Adelaide. This is not so in the Aboriginal population. The masculinity rate for those over fifty years of age in the Adelaide white population was 82-5 in 1966, whereas the rate for Adelaide Aborigines was 112-7. There is thus a considerable difference between the two populations in the sex ratios at the older age levels. That older females outnumber older males to a considerable degree in the European population, but that the exact opposite is the case in the Aboriginal population has been observed in comparisons of these two THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 145 peoples in areas other than Adelaide; for example, by Jones (1970a). The extreme difference in the sex ratios of these two groups at the upper age levels must be the result of very different life histories for males and females in Aboriginal and European societies. In this case, the demo­ graphic structure reflects the cultural contrasts between the two people. It is interesting to note, however, that, although the masculinity ratio of Aborigines over fifty years of age in Adelaide is very high in com­ parison with the ratio for non-Aborigines, it is not as high as that of rural Aborigines. The masculinity rate of 112-7 for Adelaide Aborigines over fifty years of age is considerably less than the rate of 137-3 recorded for rural Aborigines in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs survey. As one would expect, there are no significant differences in the sex ratios in the younger age groups of the three populations. No doubt the proportion of male to female babies born to each community is similar. It is what happens to them subsequently that determines the difference in the sex structures of the three populations we are considering. The other age group worth studying is that of the young adults. The ages from twenty to thirty-four years are probably the crucial ones relevant to this study of urban migration and its consequences upon the social structure of the Aboriginal people. These are ages at which people tend to migrate as individuals. These are the most important ages in terms of marriage. In the Aboriginal population of Adelaide, males far out­ number females in this age group. This is not true of the general population. Had the data for this Adelaide Aboriginal population been taken from the census, one might have assumed that the relatively low number of Aboriginal women was a result of Aboriginal women, married to Europeans, describing themselves as European on the census form. But our data was taken from field work. Aboriginal women married to white men were counted as Aboriginal. It is therefore the influence of the city environment and not the method of enumeration which has led to a prepondcrence of males in Adelaide. Persons aged between twenty and thirty-four years of age made up 22-8 per cent of the Adelaide Aboriginal population in this survey. Of this total, males comprised 12-0 per cent and females 10-8 per cent. In the non-Aboriginal population in Adelaide at the 1966 census, persons aged between twenty and thirty-four years comprised 18-6 per cent of the total. This was made up of 9-2 per cent males and 9-4 per cent females. Thus it can be seen that not only do Aborigines in this young adult group form a higher percentage of the Aboriginal population in the city than do the corresponding group of whites in the non-Aboriginal population, but 1 4 6 THE URBAN SITUATION they also have a higher proportion of males. When the masculinity rates were worked out for these age groups, urban Aborigines registered a value of 111 -6 and urban whites a value of 98-4. It is therefore inevitable that, in a monogamous society, Aboriginal males will find it difficult to secure wives. This high masculinity ratio in the city has been established to the detriment of the rural communities. Young adult males, more than any other sector of the population, are attracted by the better economic opportunities which a city appears to offer. In all areas of the world, when migration has taken place, it is usually found that the host community has a higher percentage of young adult males than have the areas of origin, where there are higher percentages of females. The migration of Aborigines to Adelaide during the last decade has followed this pattern. Outward migration from the rural areas has meant that a lower overall percentage of persons in the age groups twenty to thirty-four years remain there. In 1966, the rural communities registered 19-5 per cent of their members in this age group, a lower figure than the 22 • 8 per cent registered for the city. In the country, males comprised only 9-4 of this total whereas females accounted for 10-1 per cent. The actual masculinity ratio which the numbers in these age groups showed was 93-0. This is con­ siderably lower than 111-6, which was the masculinity ratio shown for city Aborigines. Perhaps this figure, as much as anything, shows the significance of the migration to the city. W ith a rural population approximately three times the size of the Adelaide one in 1966, there is still a large pool from which the city may draw migrants. If migration continues at a rate similar to that experienced in the period under study, one may anticipate that the difference in the sex ratios between people who are in these marriageable age groups will be accentuated. A more pronounced imbalance will result, with an even greater preponderance of males than at present. The attractive pull of the city therefore acts in different ways upon the various age groups, and varies between males and females. It also shows a differential in the kind of attraction it exerts for persons from different areas. Age and sex pyramids have been constructed for each of the major regional groups in Adelaide. These are shown in Figures 27 and 28. The considerable variation in the shapes of these pyramids suggests that all rural areas do not suffer a population loss to the same degree, from the same age groups. Few young children, especially those under five years of age, are shown as migrants on the pyramids in Figures 27 and 28. It is unusual for families THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 147

Figure 21. Population structure, Aborigines from southern reserves, 1966. Age and sex pyramids oj Aborigines in the Adelaide survey who had come from Point McLeay and Point Pearce.

POINT MCLEAY Male Female

'/. Population

POINT PEARCE Male Female

'/. Population 1 4 8 THE URBAN SITUATION

Figure 28. Population structure, Aborigines from northern areas, 1966. Age and sex pyramids of Aborigines in the Adelaide survey who had come from the northern part o f South Australia and from the Northern Territory.

NORTH Male Female

7. Population

NORTHERN TERRITORY Male Female

65-69 60-64 55-59 50-54 45-49 40-44 35-39

25-29 20-24

7. Population with very young children to migrate. Those born to parents who do migrate, after the parents’ arrival in the city, are classified as city-born and therefore do not appear on these diagrams. Young children come to the city usually only if directed to do so for medical or welfare reasons. The lack of medical facilities in the north of the state has been the main reason more young children have come from this area than from any other. THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 149

The teenagers and young adults are those most attracted by the city, from the older southern reserves at Point Pearce and Point McLeay. But persons from all ages have left these reserves and moved to the city. In other words, outward migration from these two areas has been on a family basis as well as an individual one. On the other hand, individuals, especially children, and those under twenty, have formed the main segment of those coming to Adelaide from the more distant areas of northern South Australia and the Northern Territory. This regional differential in the migration movement has added further difficulties to the social adjustment of Aboriginal persons, once they have entered the urban environment. The migration of Aborigines from rural to urban areas has thus led to many demographic changes. Such an imbalance in the sex ratio of young adults in an urban community must inevitably influence the marriage pattern. Indeed, the marriage structure of the Aboriginal population in Adelaide is quite different from that of the non-Aboriginal population of Adelaide. Further differences can be seen in the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations of Adelaide if we compare the marital status of each popula­ tion. Figure 29 is a composite bar diagram showing the marital status of male and female Aborigines at various ages, in Adelaide in 1966. Their marital status is compared with that of the non-Aboriginal population as described by the 1966 census for Adelaide. The diagram commences at the age of fifteen years for both population groups. The number of married people in either the Aboriginal or the white population under fifteen years of age is too insignificant to appear on such a diagram and is therefore omitted in this instance. As in the previous diagrams, five-year age groups are used. In this diagram, Aborigines and non-Aborigines who live in Adelaide are classified in the categories of single, married, widowed, and other. The last category includes persons who are living apart, separated, or divorced. For the Aboriginal population, this category of ‘other’ also includes persons living together in a de facto relationship. Thus the terms single, married, and widowed, are used in the legal rather than the general sense. Since all of the information concerning the Aboriginal population was collected from field interviews or recorded case histories, greater precision was possible than with information obtained from the Commonwealth census of the non-Aboriginal population. It is not possible to say how persons living in a de facto relationship in the general community would classify themselves. In any case, their numbers are probably too small to affect the diagram. This is not true of 150 THE URBAN SITUATION the Aboriginal population. In examining Figure 29, it is therefore necessary to realise that these de facto relationships are classed in the category of ‘other’ for the Aboriginal population, but it is not known how they are classed in the non-Aboriginal population. For this reason de facto marriages have not been distinguished in Figure 29. It is doubtful whether this anomaly in the classification of the two populations would be significant enough to make very much difference to the diagram. Thus in spite of this apparent anomaly, it is possible to observe definite contrasts in marriage patterns between the Aboriginal and the general population of Adelaide, in 1966. To make clear a comparison between the marital status of Aborigines and non-Aborigines in any one age group, it is necessary to eliminate the over-shadowing effect of the different age structures of the two popula­ tions. The age pyramids drawn in Figures 24 and 25 have shown how different are the structures of the two city populations. In Figure 29, the effect of this difference has been removed by making each bar the same length. This means that each five-year age group in the male and female sectors of both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations has been given the same value of 100 per cent. By eliminating in this way both the differences in the total numbers, and the relative age variations, it is possible to compare the differences in marital status between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal males and females. The first obvious difference between Aborigines and non-Aborigines represented in Figure 29, is revealed by the percentages of marriages in each of the two populations. From the diagram, one can see that persons classified as married accounted for some 74-1 per cent of the general population of twenty years of age and over, in 1966. This figure stands in stark contrast to the Aboriginal population. Married Aborigines made up only 52-3 per cent of the Aborigines in Adelaide over the age of twenty years at the time of the survey. Widowed persons comprised 8 • 5 per cent of the general population of twenty years of age and over, but only 5*9 per cent of the Aboriginal population. Clearly, if expressed in percentage terms, the marriage rate of adult Aborigines in Adelaide will be lower than that of the non-Aboriginal population. No anomaly in classification could account for such a difference between the two populations. The key factor is that marriage is not the expected norm for adult urban Aborigines to the extent that it is for adult urban whites. The reason being, that it is considerably more difficult for an Aboriginal in the city to find a marriage partner than it is for a non-Aboriginal. This is the first important influence of urbanisa- THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE I5I

Figure 29. M arital status of Aborigines and non-Aborigines, Adelaide, 1966. A comparison o f the marital status oj Aborigines in Adelaide counted in this survey with that o f the general population o fAdelaide at the 1966 census.

Male Female

□ O th e r □ Widowed □ M a rrie d

Single

G eneral population

A b o rig ina l p o p u la tio n % Population 152 THE URBAN SITUATION tion on Aboriginal social structure. It breaks traditional patterns of marriage normality and does not provide sufficient opportunities for other marriages. It follows, therefore, that there must be a high percentage of single Aborigines in the city. Figure 29 shows that single persons comprised 13-9 per cent of the general population, but 30 • 9 per cent of the Aboriginal population in 1966 in the group aged twenty years and over. This difference does not mean that Aborigines in the city marry at a later age than whites. It means that Aborigines in the city frequently do not marry at all. The reasons for this stem from a complex set of economic, social, and psychological forces which cannot be dealt with here. The Aboriginal males are more affected by the forces which arc limiting marriage opportunities for Aborigines in the city than are the females. In 1966, single males made up 41 -5 per cent of the male Aborigi­ nal population of twenty years of age and over. This proportion is quite different from that of the non-Aboriginal male population of Adelaide. Single males of twenty years of age and over accounted for only 16-7 per cent of the non-Aboriginal male population of Adelaide in 1966. It is quite evident that it is much more difficult for Aboriginal males to find wives in the city than it is for white males. It seems more difficult for an Aboriginal male to find a marriage partner than it does for an Aboriginal female because in 1966, single females accounted for 19-1 per cent of the female Aboriginal population of twenty years of age and over whereas single males accounted for 41 *5 per cent of the male population. Figure 29 also shows that it is much more difficult for Aboriginal females to find spouses in the city than it is for non-Aboriginal girls. Compare the value of 19-1 per cent for single Aboriginal females with 11-4 per cent for single white females. Thus all Aborigines in the city find greater difficulty in acquiring marriage partners than do non-Aborigines, but it is harder for Aboriginal males than it is for Aboriginal females. In the absence of sociological data it is not possible to say how many Aborigines, or to what extent, they have consciously decided not to marry. Nor is it possible to decide to what extent their situation has been forced upon them by environmental circumstances over which they have little control. There are many factors in this situation which require study. It is evident, however, that the traditional norms of marriage have broken down and have not been adequately replaced. At present the Aboriginal community in Adelaide does not hold marriage as a norm to the same degree that the general community does. THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 153

Nor is marriage the socially determining force for Aborigines that it seems to be for non-Aborigines. There arc now enough single Aboriginal males in the urban community for them to find a certain amount of companionship and security together, without the need for marriage. Without further study it is not possible to tell what sexual outlets arc employed. Certainly crime and mental illness are much higher amongst these people than they are amongst whites. No assessment has been made of homosexuality. There is a significantly high percentage of Aborigines in the ‘other’ category of separated persons, divorced persons, or those living in de facto relationships in nearly all adult age groups. Separated or divorced persons made up only 3 • 4 per cent of the general Adelaide population, but those in this category comprised 11-6 per cent of the Adelaide Aboriginal population. This is not a valid comparison because of the different methods used in collecting the data for the two populations. Nevertheless, if complete figures were available for the general population, it is doubtful whether its percentage of aberrant marriage relationships among people of twenty years of age and over would be as high as the 11-6 per cent registered for the Aboriginal population. It seems that not only is it difficult for Aborigines in the city to become married, but it is also difficult for them to stay married. The Aboriginal population of the city is definitely an unstable one from a marital point of view and consequently exhibits a marital pattern rather different from that of the rest of the city population. This is related to the break-down of the traditional patterns governing marriage that occur abruptly when Aborigines move to the city. It is in sharp contrast to the structure of traditional Aboriginal society where marriage, not necessarily monogamous, but marriage nevertheless, is the rule, and where single or separated individuals living alone are rare indeed. Even in the decultured groups of Aborigines living in country areas or on reserves, marriage is still the norm. Many of Adelaide’s Aborigines have come from old reserves where most other traditional practices are no longer in use. But the arrangement of marriages by older kinsfolk had remained a common practice on these reserves even after many other traditional forces had died out. In the urban environment there are strong forces which break down even these residual traditional patterns. The fact that Aborigines can now move so readily away from the reserves to the city lessens the influences of the older people. Young people for whom a marriage is planned on the reserve may leave the group and ‘try their luck in the city’, rather 154 THE URBAN SITUATION than abide by the decisions of their older kinspeople. Furthermore, under the policy of assimilation, young people have been actively encouraged to leave rather than stay and marry a partner chosen for them. Govern­ ment and mission policy, by encouraging disobedience to elders over marriage decisions, has aggravated the break-down of traditional marriage without offering any alternative. For what alternative to marriage does ‘assimilation’ really offer Aborigines in the city? Often only the chance to be single or amoral. The contrast between male and female Aboriginal marriage oppor­ tunities is shown more clearly in Figure 30. It becomes evident that one of the major reasons why so many Aboriginal males in the city are single is that Aboriginal females acquire white spouses far more readily than do Aboriginal males. There are 444 individual Aborigines represented in this diagram. Males account for 204 persons and females, the remaining 240 persons. Whereas males as a whole outnumber females in the Adelaide Aboriginal population, married females are more numerous than married males. Surely the most conspicuous factor to be observed in Figure 30 is the high proportion of Aboriginal women who are married to white men. Indeed 40 per cent of the 240 married women represented in this diagram had white spouses. On the other hand, only 11 per cent of the males had managed to secure non-Aboriginal spouses. This difference has been noted in other capital cities: in Sydney, New South Wales, Beasley’s (1970:146-7) sample of one hundred households, totalling 703 persons, included only twenty white males and seven white females. The incidence in Melbourne, Victoria, was similar at 1962: in the city 28 per cent of the 129 married men and 47 per cent of the 225 married women had white spouses or partners but the very low rural incidence reduced the rate for the total state population to 11 per cent of married men and 27 per cent of married women (Barwick 1963:267-8). Men who had married Aboriginal women outnumbered women with Aboriginal spouses in the Adelaide population in 1966 as Figure 30 sug­ gests. The sections of the male column representing those married to Aboriginal women, either from their own kin group or from another group, are larger than the equivalent sections in the female column. This is because married Aboriginal men have often come to the city, volun­ tarily or involuntarily and left their families, at least for a time, in the country. The relationship of female to male intermarriage rates is not surprising. In multi-racial societies where the coloured group is in the minority, it is usual to find that coloured women marry white men much more fre- THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 155

Figure 30. Marriage choices o f males and females. Proportion oj male andfemale married Aborigines in Adelaide. The bars are subdivided according to the origin of spouses, whether from the same regional group, from a different Aboriginal group or non-Aboriginal.

□ Non-aboriginal SH Different area

Same area

c M Male

quently than coloured men marry white women. For example, the Maori studies of Harre (1966) show such a situation. The differences between the intermarriage rates of male and female Aborigines with non- Aborigines appears to follow the pattern found in other inter-racial situations. The apparent ease with which Aboriginal females can find white spouses, in contrast to the difficulty the males experience in doing 156 THE URBAN SITUATION so, is no doubt the major reason why so many Aboriginal men in the city remain single. What is surprising is the high degree of intermarriage between Aborigines and non-Aborigines in the city, which this diagram illustrates. The linear graph drawn in Figure 31 attempts to show the influence of ethnic intermarriage upon the size of families in the city. The per­ centage of marriages have been plotted against the numbers of children per marriage for two groups. The continuous line represents the marriage in which both partners are Aboriginal; the broken line indicates a marriage in which one partner is non-Aboriginal. Every family counted in the survey, for whom full details were available, is included in Figure 31. The diagram docs not account for the age of the parents or the duration of the marriage. It therefore includes younger couples who had not completed their families at the time of this survey as well as families which had been completed. There were too few older women in the survey to make a comparison solely of the family size of mothers who had reached the menopause. Thus it must be remembered that in making the following comparisons we are discussing families which have not necessarily been completed. If intermarriage is increasing, as it appears to be, then the proportion of younger families, and also for this reason smaller families, may be greater amongst mixed marriages. The differences in size between the all-Aboriginal family and the mixed family may not be as great as the following figures suggest. Because this graph does not deal only with completed families, the comparison is not statistically valid. Similar differences were evident, however, even in comparing the small number of completed families. For this reason the graph is included as a pointer to possible future trends. The two lines on our graph in Figure 31 diverge considerably. The widest gap lies between the two groups of parents in the category of families which contain only one child. A total of 23-6 per cent of marriages between an Aboriginal and a non-Aboriginal issued in only one child. On the other hand marriages in which both parents were Aboriginal contained a single child in only 5 • 8 per cent of those marriages. The lines in Figure 31 converge at the point representing families of three to four children. Beyond the latter number the lines diverge again. A higher percentage of large families occurs in the cases where both parents arc Aboriginal than where one parent is white. From our figures it was calculated that the all-Aboriginal family living in Adelaide at the time of the survey had an average number of 5-4 children per family. Those with one non-Aboriginal parent had an average size of 2-6 THE DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE 157

Figure 31. Family size in relation to intermarriage. The percentage numbers oj marriages have been plotted against the numbers oj offspring according to whether spouse is Aboriginal or white. Families tend to be smaller where one parent is non-Aboriginal than where both parents are Aboriginal.

----- Non-Aboriginal spouse ____Aboriginal spouse

Numbers

children. It appears that where both parents are Aboriginal, the number of children is slightly more than double that where one parent is white. The average of 2-6 children for the mixed family is closer to the general Australian average of 2-4 children per family, at the 1966 census. The children counted in these families are the total number of children belonging to the mother. In several instances the family therefore includes a child or children born prior to marriage. Since these belong to the family, they arc counted. The comparison of average family sizes in Figure 31 is only a guide to probable future trends. The number of cases in each of the two marriage categories is too small and too dissimilar for predictive statistical comparison. However, the number of cases is sufficiently great to be of some guide in estimating future population patterns. There are 277 families who are included in the graph of all Aboriginal marriages and 106 families who are counted in the line depicting mixed marriages. It is evident, then, that the typical family of Adelaide Aborigines 158 THE URBAN SITUATION tends to be large if both parents are Aboriginal. In fact, a small percentage of the families contain more than ten children. On the other hand, the typical family in which one parent is non-Aboriginal tends to be closer in size to the Australian average. There seems little doubt that, for young Aborigines, marriage to a white spouse leads to a smaller family, on the average, than does marriage to an Aboriginal. The increasing rate of intermarriage between Aborigines and non-Aborigines in Adelaide is, apparently, a significant factor in lowering the previously high Aboriginal birth rate. The influence of this changing marriage pattern was observed in Figure 24. It is evident that many demographic changes are taking place as the Aboriginal population of South Australia becomes more urbanised. Many indications of these changes can be seen in the statistical material collected in this study. Only a few of the major trends have been discussed in this chapter. Regional variations in some of these demographic factors, especially as related to kinship structures, are dealt with in the following chapter. PART IV CAUSES AND RESULTS KINSHIP IN THE 9 URBAN ENVIRONMENT

inship has greatly influenced Aboriginal migration to the city. In IV fact, in terms of numerical results, it has been the major cause of migration. For this reason, kinship is dealt with first in this section of six chapters which discuss the reasons why Aborigines migrate to the city. This chapter will show that the nature of kinship and the extent of its power, as a force attracting Aboriginal migrants to the city, varies considerably from one regional group to another. While kinship has encouraged many Aborigines to migrate, it is not quite as significant a force as our statistics at first seem to suggest. In one section these remarks need qualification. Many of those Aborigines who were recorded in our survey as having migrated because they had relatives in the city, on analysis were found to be children or young people who had moved with their parents as, naturally, they would. Although kinship remains a major cause of migration of Aborigines to urban areas, perhaps it does not produce figures which arc as numerically significant as our results might suggest. The forms of kinship which are observable in Adelaide today developed as powerful social forces amongst Aborigines on reserves, particularly those in the southern part of the state. The policy which placed Aborigines in reserves was described in Chapter 3. Because they were then forced to adopt a sedentary life in a confined area, the characteristic form of their Aboriginal community became that of an interrelated cluster of families in close contact with each other, but isolated from other Aboriginal groups and from the general community. IÖ2 CAUSES AND RESULTS

This pattern is still evident on the older reserves, such as Point Pearce, Point McLeay, and Koonibba. In these communities there evolved a kind of society which was neither Aboriginal in the traditional sense, nor European. It had the appearance of being European in form, and still has, because of the presence of certain features, such as monogamous marriage. But certain Aboriginal traditions remain, such as kinship loyalties, and the retention by the older people of a degree of influence in the question of choice of marriage partners. Thus in these respects, and in others, the reserves exhibit a type of sub culture. Changes in the roles of the sexes took place in the Europeanised Aboriginal groups who were confined to the reserves. These role modifi­ cations caused a lowering in the social status of Aboriginal men. Because their traditional hunting and food-gathering areas had been usurped by settlers, they were forced to find employment or to accept government rations. Neither of these alternatives allowed Aboriginal men to preserve their former social status. If they sought employment in the rural industries beyond the reserve, they were frequently absent from their families for long periods of time. Their absences, in turn, helped to raise the status of Aboriginal women, because the erosion of male authority in the family was often a natural consequence of frequent absence, forced on the men by the nature of their employment. Another result of this kind of situation, in which the men were absent, but the women were present, was that missionaries and government officers on the reserves frequently found it more con­ venient to deal immediately with the Aboriginal women about many matters, rather than wait for the return of the men. This kind of practice strengthened the role played by the women in family affairs. If the man remained on a mission or a reserve, he might be given some employment. But there were usually far more men than work available, especially when the mission had become established. In any case, he and his family were provided with food, clothes, and medical attention. Thus, without significant thought or action by the men, either individually or as a group, their families were provided for. On the missions and reserves, Aboriginal men were relieved of the need to take any initiative in caring for their families, both separately, and collectively as a community. Furthermore, mission superintendents often bypassed the men. They concentrated their welfare efforts upon the women and children, often acting arbitrarily without consulting the men about the needs of their families. Moreover, the missionaries tended to usurp the role of the Aboriginal males in the education and religious instruction of KINSHIP IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT 16 3 the young people. Such findings concerning the South Australian situation tally with material gained in other areas of Australia by Wilson (1958), Barwick (1963, 1970), and Calley (1969). A rise in the status of Aboriginal women in relation to the whole family group was a concomitant of the loss of male authority and leadership of the tribal kind. Apparently this change in social structure began to emerge as soon as European missionaries and government officers moved into Aboriginal territory. Its occurrence in Victoria, in the nineteenth century, has been studied by Barwick (1970). It cannot be assumed that the loss of authority by the males and the loss of male direction and support by the family automatically gave rise to female dominance of the family. Some Aboriginal families show some signs of a matriarchal organisation, but many lack an authority figure of either sex. The male has lost his role of leadership, but the female has not necessarily assumed it. In many cases, families are partly or largely directed and led by authority from outside, in the person of a superinten­ dent or a welfare officer. But other families seem to lack direction, either from within or without. Many features characteristic of Aboriginal society on a reserve have persisted during and after the movement of individuals to Adelaide. This is one reason why the presence of relatives in the city is important as a stimulus to migration and is likely to remain so for some time. Those who have left a reserve keep in close touch with relatives who remain. They like to feel that the reserve is available to them, either as a retreat from the city in times of hardship or as a holiday place where they can see their relatives. They are always delighted to return home. The fact that contact with relatives is very frequent, establishes for some Aborigines a kind of orbit within which they can move from the reserve to their city relatives, and vice versa. At the same time, those Aborigines who have remained upon a reserve feel that every relative who has moved to Adelaide carries a piece of his homeland with him. A house in Adelaide where a relative lives is thus a haven where visitors from the reserve will feel secure, and where they will meet friends and relatives. Such a house often becomes a local centre for a group, whose members are thus continuously in touch with those still located on the reserve. It is also a medium for dispensing news about relatives and can act in a small way as an employment agency for relatives who may need a job. For example, a pastoralist who recently required a shearing team, sent one of his Aboriginal employees to Adelaide in order to muster one. Within three days the latter had 1 6 4 CAUSES AND RESULTS gathered a full team of shearers and other hands from amongst his Aboriginal relatives and friends in the city. Although all the members of a related group may not know each other personally, the strength of the bond created by kinship is always latent between them. The case of one part-Aboriginal woman will illustrate this. Her full-blood Aboriginal grandmother had several mixed-blood children. In due time these children grew up, married, and became dispersed throughout the state. It was not until one of the grand­ daughters, who had moved to Adelaide, had begun to make inquiries through her father’s siblings, that the presence of a numerous body of relatives in Adelaide was known to her. She was delighted at this discovery because it provided a ready-made kinship group. As opposed to the groups of Aborigines for whom kinship is a domina­ ting social factor, there are in Adelaide certain groups who are almost distinguished by an absence of kinship ties. These groups come to mind when one is considering the social plight of Aborigines who have been brought up, often from an early age, in foster homes and institutions in different parts of the country from their parents and families. Many of the Northern Territory Aborigines who now live in Adelaide have this background. They are the loneliest Aborigines in Adelaide. In Chapter 5 we referred to some of the reasons which brought individual Aborigines from the Northern Territory. Their involuntary migration has nearly always deprived them of family ties. Many have been brought to Adelaide as individuals, either because they were originally destitute or neglected children, or because they needed assistance with their education. In most cases they have no relatives in Adelaide, and remain apart from the South Australian groups of Aborigines because the latter have maintained such a tight social cohesion amongst themselves. However, it is interesting to note that as Northern Territory Aborigines have grown into adults they have begun to establish amongst themselves certain substitutes for real kinship, based upon their common upbringing. For example, those who were reared in the same institution feel a sense of oneness. Amongst themselves they interact similarly to persons of the same kinship group. But their informal relationships are not so binding as kin ties. Moreover, these individuals lack the bond which unites Aborigines who have been born and reared in a particular area of country. Nor are there any authority figures whose status depends upon seniority. The members of these groups tend to be of a similar age; those older persons who are accorded respect in the ordinary kinship group are missing. KINSHIP IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT 1 6 5

Kinship tics tend to be maintained within those groups who came originally from the southern areas after the individual members have settled in the city. Chapter 6 showed that the location of kinsfolk has often been the main factor in determining what part of the city the newcomers settle in. However, the opposite situation occurs occasionally, in which Aborigines move to the city to escape from relatives and kinship respon­ sibilities. Suffocatingly large numbers of relatives, and their demands, have induced some families to leave the reserve and seek isolation in Adelaide. Here they feel they may be free from the constant pecuniary demands and pervasive family influences which accompany the tightly-knit com­ munity on the reserve. In the city, such families present the picture of a nuclear household, similar to that of most Australian households. However, it is not uncommon to find an Aboriginal household in Adelaide consisting of an extended family. The dominating character in such a household is often a grandmother. Her establishment may consist of daughters, with their children and with or without their spouses. Very often one or more single male relatives—sons, brothers, cousins, or the like—may be attached to, rather than part of, the household. Barwick (1964:27) found very much the same situation in Melbourne. Even the permanent nucleus of such a household may be very large. At times, ten or fifteen or more persons may permanently live there, while intermittent or continuous streams of visiting relatives make it difficult to decide which are family and which are visitors. The visits of relatives are accepted as a matter of course. The power that kinship displays, by inducing Aborigines to move to the city, varies from group to group according to the proportions shown in Figure 32. In this diagram the height of each column depicts the percentage number of migrants from each regional group now living among the Aboriginal population of Adelaide. Those born in Adelaide have been omitted, of course, from this diagram. The lower part of each bar is shaded to represent the proportion of persons from each area whose prime reason for migrating was the presence, already, of relatives in the city. Figure 32 shows that Aborigines from the southern parts of the state have tended to move in family units, to a much greater degree than have persons from the more distant areas to the north. It docs not distinguish between, on the one hand, children who merely moved with their parents, although their category deemed they had migrated for kinship reasons, and, on the other hand, teenagers and adults who had made 166 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 32. Influence o f kinship upon migration. The proportionate number from each regional group who have given the presence oj relatives in the city as the main reasonJor migration is shown as the shaded section in each bar.

Relatives as cause of migration

their own decisions to migrate, on the grounds that they had relatives in the city. This figure does not show clearly the role played by kinship in the Aboriginal movement to Adelaide, in the second place, because the significance of its role may have been obscured. Although it may not have been stated as the main reason for a person’s migration, it may still have played a very important part in that movement. For example, Aborigines from southern reserves who must go to hospital may prefer to come to Adelaide where they have relatives with whom they can stay, both before admission and after release, rather than go to a country hospital where they have no relatives in the vicinity. To summarise, it is evident that kinship has played a major role in Aboriginal migration by influencing the movement of Aborigines from the southern reserves of Point Pearce, Point McLeay, Gerard (Upper Murray), and Koonibba (West Coast). Moreover, it has been the main force which has encouraged Aborigines from the South East to move to Adelaide. By contrast, kinship has exerted a less significant influence on the movement of Aborigines from the more distant areas of northern South Australia and the Northern Territory, because relatively few of these persons have kinship ties with people in Adelaide. As we have seen KINSHIP IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT I67 in Chapter 5, their coming has been due more to force of circumstance than to voluntary migration, or to reliance on kin. Incidentally, these northern Aboriginal migrants must often learn to adjust to city life without the assistance of kinsfolk. What we have tried to show thus far is that kinship plays a varying role, and one not clearly distinguishable from other forces, in the migra­ tion of Aborigines to the city. In the remainder of this chapter we will try to outline how kinship functions in relation to marriage and the family structure, and how its influence varies from one group to another, in this area of life. Figure 33 illustrates marriage choice on the basis of group or kin identification. The height of each column depicts the relative numbers of married Aborigines in Adelaide, from each ot the major areas. All persons who were married, widowed, or separated, at the time of this study, are represented in this diagram. Figure 33 thus represents 444 individuals; 204 males and 240 females. It is evident from an examination of Figure 33 that the pattern of the selection of marriage partners varies from group to group. The variation is shown by the differential shading in each column. The first two columns, representing males and females from Point McLeay, suggest that there arc more married men than married women in Adelaide from this area. Furthermore, males and females from Point McLeay have made rather different marriage choices. There are several reasons why the darker, lower sections of the two columns depicting male and female Aborigines from Point McLeay are not equal in height. Some men had married wives born in the same areas as themselves, but at the time of this survey, their wives were not in the city with them. A fairly large number of Point McLeay married men were either in gaol or in hospital when this survey was made. Their wives had remained in the country when the men were brought to the city. As well, some men had come to the city to find employment and anticipated that their wives would follow them at a later date. Others, again, were widowers. Similarly there were several men from Point McLeay, living in Adelaide in 1966, who had married Aboriginal women from other areas but had moved to the city without their wives. However, the major difference between the columns depicting the male and female marriage choices of Point McLeay people is found in the proportionate numbers of each sex who have white spouses. It is evident from the Point McLeay columns, and the other pairs of columns in the diagram, that Aboriginal females marry white men more often than i68 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 33. Influence of kinship upon marriage choice. Percentage numbers of married males and females Jrom each regional group are shown. The bars are subdivided to give proportions of Aborigines who have chosen spouses from within their own group against those who have selectedfrom other Aboriginal groups or from the general population.

□ Non - Aboriginal H Different area

Same area

M Males

Females

M

Aboriginal men marry white women. This is true no matter which regional group is considered. The first two columns representing Aborigines from Point McLeay also show that persons from this area choose spouses from within their own kinship group more frequently than they select them from other groups of Aborigines. The main reason for this is the cohcsivcness of this group and the continuity of its existence, for a long period, in the same area. KINSHIP IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT 1 6 9

The Point McLeay community is very old. Indeed, it is the oldest reserve in South Australia. Under the benevolent supervision of the first missionary, George Taplin, many traditional practices were allowed to continue, albeit in an altered form. The social influences of kinship remained strong even after many religious beliefs had been lost. These influences have permeated the community to the present day. Many of the marriages, statistical details of which we are now studying, were arranged by kinsfolk. The majority, of course, took place before these people moved to Adelaide. It is unlikely that such traditional influences will persist for long in the city. Indeed, Aborigines from Point McLeay who have married since their arrival in Adelaide have chosen white spouses more often than people from their own group. Thus, if this diagram were constructed ten years hence, the extent of marriage with persons outside of the Point McLeay group would no doubt be con­ siderably greater than it is at the present time. People from Point Pearce form the second largest group of married Aborigines in Adelaide. Although this reserve was also established over one hundred years ago, it does not have quite such a tightly-knit kinship network as that of Point McLeay. Traditional beliefs and practices were broken down much more quickly at Point Pearce. The residents were never a cohesive group, stemming from the local area, as were the Point McLeay people. A discussion on the origins of the Point Pearce Aborigines can be found in Ostapchuk (1969). Briefly, they came from tribes living in the northern part of Yorke Peninsula, as well as from Adelaide, and from the Poonindie mission on Eyre Peninsula. The difference in the power of the traditional forces of the two groups can be seen in the lower proportion of marriage choices made by Point Pearce Aborigines from within their own group, compared with the proportion made with persons outside the group. This diagram illustrates the pattern of endogamous marriage which grew up within the reserve as a result of the social isolation of the people from other Aborigines and from members of the white community. At Point McLeay, particularly, marriage to a person from the same group was more common than marriage to an Aboriginal from another group. In fact, women from Point McLeay who have married outside of their own group, have married white men more frequently than they have married Aboriginal men from other groups. Figure 33 shows that Aborigines from the two oldest reserves, Point McLeay and Point Pearce, formed the largest groups of married Aborigines in Adelaide at the time of this survey. The patterns of their choice of 170 CAUSES AND RESULTS spouses vary considerably, comparing one group with the other. But there is not as much variation between them, as there is between them and the next four groups, shown in Figure 33. In Adelaide, married Aborigines from these four groups, the Northern Territory, Adelaide, the West Coast, and northern South Australia, are approximately equal, numerically speaking. Married persons in these four groups comprise proportionately fewer of each of their groups than do married persons from the two older reserves. In other words there are proportionately more single persons in these four regional groups than in the two larger groups from Point McLeay and Point Pearce. Greater numbers and tighter kinship control made marriage more common in these two older groups than in any of the others represented in Adelaide today. Figure 33 shows clearly that Aboriginal women from both the Northern Territory and from Adelaide marry white men more frequently than they marry Aborigines. The proportionate rate of intermarriage between Aboriginal females from these two areas, and white men, is much greater than that of women from any of the other reserves in South Australia. Figure 34 deals with material similar to that shown in Figure 33, but it takes different information and looks at marriage choices amongst the regional groups from another point of view. Whereas Figure 33 included the 444 married Aborigines in Adelaide, Figure 34 takes the whole Adelaide Aboriginal population of 1917 persons for whom details were available. To compile Figure 34 we listed the parents of these 1917 Aborigines, that is to say, we examined the unions which had produced these 1917 offspring. The same three categories are used in Figure 34 as in Figure 33. Each individual Aboriginal is registered according to whether his parents are of the same kinship group as each other, or of a different group, or whether one parent is non-Aboriginal. Figure 34 shows that there are considerable differences in the nature of the unions when one area is compared with another. Unions occurring in some places show the influence of the cohcsivcness of strong kinship networks. That the city is a place of change, and an environment where traditional forces are weakened, can be seen from this diagram. More than half of the Aborigines born in Adelaide have one non-Aboriginal parent. Thus the contrast between the situation in the city and that of the four major reserve areas is dramatic. The northern part of South Australia and the Northern Territory are rather different cases again. The people from these KINSHIP IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT I7I

Figure 34. Parental origins. The region oj origin oj each Aboriginal in this survey is shown. The bars are subdivided to show the proportionate numbers of Aborigines who had parents from the same area, parents from different areas, or one non-Aboriginal parent.

No record of parents' area

One parent non-Aboriginal

Parents from different areas

Parents from same area

areas show responses different from the reactions of either Aborigines from the reserves or those who live in the city. The four major reserves in the southern, settled areas of South Australia, Point McLeay, Point Pearce, Koonibba (West Coast), and Gerard (Upper Murray), present a picture of fairly closed communities which have had only limited contact with non-Aborigines. The social isolation of Aborigines on reserves strengthened the unifying power of kinship, with the result that marriage to non-Aborigines was not common. Thus, the Aborigines who have come to Adelaide from the older reserves tend to be children of unions that took place within the Aboriginal community. These areas, therefore, stand in strong contrast to both the city and the remoter areas of northern South Australia and the Northern Territory, where matings between Aborigines and non-Aborigines occur more frequently. There are three different circumstances shown in Figure 34. In order of historical sequence, the diagram shows that in the more distant rural 1 7 2 CAUSES AND RESULTS areas there is still a contact situation, in which European men mate with Aboriginal women, but marriage is not the rule. The Northern Territory and northern South Australia typify this situation. The second historical phase, that of the isolated reserve, saw the restriction of social contacts for Aborigines to members of their own race. Thus this second phase is represented by the Point McLeay and Point Pearce and West Coast columns. The third phase, exhibited in the cities today, is a renewal of intermixing between persons of Aboriginal descent and white Australians. Unions between these two ethnic groups are increasing in the city, but, in contrast to the situation, in the past, a majority of these unions take place within legal marriage. This is shown in the central, or city, column. In this way the diagram shows a cross-section of Aboriginal society, as observed in Adelaide in 1966: it exhibits all three of the major phases of miscegenation which have occurred in Australia during the last two centuries. In addition, Figure 34 shows that the power of the larger kinship group to decide in matters of Aboriginal marriage varies from one reserve to another. The fact that the choice of marriage partners has been restricted to such a great extent to members of the Point McLeay community shows how tightly knit that community has remained, within the bounds set by kinship. Taking persons noted in this survey who were born at Point McLeay, we find that 77 per cent of them had parents who also originated from Point McLeay. To a lesser degree, the West Coast Aborigines, primarily from Koonibba reserve, show a similar adherence to their own group, in choosing spouses. By contrast, only 49 per cent of the Aborigines from Point Pearce had parents who were both born at Point Pearce. Gerard (Upper Murray) and Point Pearce have both grown up from groups of Aborigines who were brought together from other and diverse areas. The Point McLeay and Koonibba populations, however, grew from local groups of Aborigines who had been collected at these sites by missionaries. The latter groups, who stayed in their own environments, retained a much stronger sense of kinship and group identity than did those who were removed to other areas, like Gerard or Point Pearce, where they were mixed with other Aborigines. The historical differences between the origins of these reserve populations can be seen in the different types of unions which occurred among their descendants, who are the parents of today’s Aboriginal population in Adelaide. Thus, marriage partners have been chosen most frequently from within each of the communities at Point McLeay and Koonibba, whereas partners have been sought outside KINSHIP IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT 173 each community, as often as inside it, in the case of both Point Pearce and Gerard. As Figure 34 has shown, there is a higher rate of intermarriage in the city than in the rural areas. The greater degree of intermarriage is evidence of the increase in social interchange between Aborigines and non- Aborigines in the city. In this way the influences of the past are being undermined amongst Aborigines who are now living in the context of the urban society. The future role of kinship networks in the urban environment is hard to predict. At present there are two opposing forces at work. On the one hand there is an impetus, deriving from incoming persons from the reserves, to maintain and develop in the city the kinship loyalties they already possess. The strength and solidarity which these give to Aborigines who are living in a seemingly hostile European community, arc of considerable importance. On the other hand, there are forces at work both within and without the Aboriginal community which tend to dissipate the obligations of kinship. The increasing rate of marriage to non-Aborigines and the mixing, in the city, of Aborigines from different and unrelated areas tend to break down the power of the existing kinship obligations from within the broadening Aboriginal community itself. Furthermore, the general population is exerting both overt and covert pressure in an attempt to force Aborigines to conform to European social preferences for nuclear families and weaken kinship responsibilities. Many Australians fear that the congregating of Aborigines in kinship groups will lead to the formation of dangerous cliques and ghettoes, without realising that people in cultural transition need mutual support, which may or may not continue in such extensive ways among future generations. To label as ghetto formation the occupation of single houses by multiple Aboriginal families is a misinterpretation in the terms of our analysis of the Aboriginal housing situation (Chapter 7). The fact that people can mistake overcrowding in family groups for ghetto formation, indicates that Europeans are quite unaware that kinship is still a determinative force in the lives of Aborigines, when they come to the city. But we have seen that the historical role of kinship has been subject to change ever since European settlement. In the urban setting kinship will probably continue to change as it has been doing in the rural areas, especially on reserves, since early last century. The phrase, ‘continuity and change’, used by Stanner (1958) to describe the Aboriginal situation as a whole, is particularly applicable to 174 CAUSES AND RESULTS the role of kinship in the city. Kinship, as a cohesive force, is continuous in effect and ever changing in nature. Today, the traditional influence of kinship continues in mainly psychological and emotional forms as its nature and purpose arc changed by the urban environment. WELFARE SERVICES 10 FOR ABORIGINES

\ X Welfare services, in one way or another, probably fill the most V V important role in the interplay of forces that bring Aborigines to the city. The role played by welfare services in the urban movement of Aborigines is not easy to define, since these services affect the movements of various groups of people to differing degrees. It is the welfare depart­ ments which are responsible for bringing to the city nearly all of the destitute children who are to be placed in institutions or foster homes, or to be adopted. In Figure 9, these children are shown to be the second largest category of persons moving to Adelaide. The sixth category of Figure 9 represents both juvenile offenders and neglected children who have been placed by court action under the supervision of the Minister of Social Welfare. These juveniles and children have been brought to the city by the Department of Social Welfare, to be placed in a reform school, a children’s institution or a foster home. Welfare services also assist persons who come, both voluntarily and involuntarily, for many other reasons. In the past, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has encouraged some people to move to the city in order that they might take advantage of the broader opportunities available there. Such persons may have said that they came for no particular reason and certainly no legal action had forced them to move. But for many, the assistance given by welfare officers bad made possible their migration. This fact is particularly evident in the case of deserted wives or broken families, who can obtain Housing Trust accommodation at reduced rentals in the city. Welfare officers also aid many who come seeking employment, or medical care, or education. 1 7 6 CAUSES AND RESULTS

A large number of the Aborigines in Adelaide depend to a certain extent upon welfare services, irrespective of the prime reason for their initial movement to the city. This dependence is not new to members of the Aboriginal community. Indeed, in Chapter 3, we recorded that it had begun within a short time of European settlement in the state. Then, the destitution suffered by so many Aborigines had to be relieved by the expenditure of public funds. Subsequently, their dependent condition was maintained during the long period of their isolation on reserves, under the paternal control of the state. As we shall see in Chapter 12, which discusses Aboriginal employment today, many Aborigines still suffer severe economic stress, which forces them to depend to some extent upon the state welfare services. In fact, as Makin (1969:13) noted in Perth, Western Australia, the culture of city Aborigines is a ‘culture of poverty’. Indeed, the following words from the Nimmo Report made by a committee of inquiry on health insurance, seem to apply most aptly to many Aboriginal families: ‘low income families, as a social group are self-perpetuating and rarely do the children get a chance to raise themselves to a higher standard of living. On the contrary, sooner or later they become recipients of government and voluntary aid’ (C.A.P.P., 1969, No. 2:33). Again, through long isolation on the reserves, many Aborigines are not fully aware of the norms of European society. Their failures in adjustment to city life or their lack of conformity to the standards of urban society have brought many adult and juvenile Aborigines into contact with state welfare services or with the courts. The latter will be considered in Chapter 13 where the subject of Aboriginal offenders is discussed. This chapter deals with the contacts made by Aborigines with the welfare services of the state. All social services available to members of the South Australian community may be used by Aborigines. In addition, there are special welfare services which cater solely for Aborigines. Finances for these services come from three sources: the Commonwealth government, the state government, and various church and voluntary agencies. Common­ wealth social services confer monetary assistance at a fixed rate. A means test is usually a condition of eligibility for such benefits. A wide range of civilian and service pensions is provided by Commonwealth finance, besides child endowment, maternity bonuses, unemployment and sickness benefits, and various other smaller benefits. An account of Common­ wealth social services is given in the Year Book of Australia. When originally enacted, the Commonwealth Social Services Act WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES 177

made no provision for the payment of benefits to Aborigines. However, by an amendment made in July of 1959, all Aborigines in South Australia became eligible for aged, invalid, and widow’s pensions, and in 1960, for maternity allowances. Aborigines always have been eligible for other Commonwealth social services, such as child endowment and repatriation benefits. Frequently, however, it has been the practice to pay these benefits into trust funds to employers, mission bodies, or welfare agencies rather than directly to individual Aborigines. Many South Australian Aborigines thus have contact with Common­ wealth social services through the pension schemes, and other benefits. However, in South Australia there are also two other groups of Aborigines for whose maintenance the Commonwealth is entirely responsible. One of these consists of Northern Territory residents for whom specialised or institutional care has been necessary. Because these facilities are not available in the Northern Territory, an arrangement has been made with South Australia, whereby such people arc accommodated in South Australian institutions and the costs of their care are subsidised by the Commonwealth government. The second group consists of children from the Northern Territory who have been sent to southern states, and particularly South Australia, for education and fostering. W e have referred to this group of Northern Territory people in previous chapters, but from other viewpoints. The process of bringing them to live in other states was instituted in 1955 by the Commonwealth government, in co-operation with church bodies. Under this scheme, the Commonwealth bears the cost of maintaining such children in foster homes or institutions until they reach the age of seventeen years. W e have discussed the Commonwealth’s powers with respect to legislation for Aborigines in Chapter 4. Until 1967 the Commonwealth could give direct assistance in social welfare only to Aborigines who had originally come Irom the Northern Territory, because this area is adminis­ tered directly by the Commonwealth government. All other Aborigines who lived in the states received Commonwealth assistance only in an indirect way, through the system of pensions and allowances which applied to the whole community. However, as a result of the referendum held in 1967, the scope of Commonwealth powers with respect to Aborigines has been altered. The Commonwealth may now allot funds for the benefit of all Aborigines. This it is beginning to do chiefly through liaison with the state departments. State welfare services for members of the general community in South 178 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Australia are primarily the responsibility of the Department of Social Welfare. This Department was amalgamated with that of Aboriginal Affairs in 1970. The new combined organisation will be called the Department for Community Welfare. However, since the two depart­ ments functioned quite separately at the time of this survey they will be treated as separate bodies in the following discussion. One of the major functions of the Department of Social Welfare has been to arrange the care of committed and neglected children under the age of eighteen years. Those convicted of an offence by a Juvenile Court may be placed on bond, or committed to the care of the Minister of Social Welfare, where­ upon they are placed in a home or in an institution, or committed to a reformatory. Children charged as neglected or destitute are usually committed to the supervision of the Minister of Social Welfare and placed in a licensed foster home, a cottage home, or in an institution run by the Department or one of the voluntary associations. Another section of the Department deals with the adoption of unwanted children. Yet another section cares for deserted wives and provides emergency relief for families in various circumstances of need. Details of the work of this Department can be found in the South Australian Year Book. In each field, the Department of Social Welfare comes into contact with Aborigines. The degree of contact which Aborigines have with the Department of Social Welfare and with many of the voluntary family agencies shows the considerable amount of social stress which seems always to be present in the Aboriginal community. This is discussed in Gale (1966). In addition to these general welfare services, the government of South Australia also provides specifically for Aborigines through the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. This Department was set up last century when Aborigines were living in social and often physical isolation from the rest of the Australian community. Its functions were then very different from those of other social welfare agencies. Indeed, for more than a century that Department provided virtually the only government welfare services for Aborigines. During recent years Aborigines gradually left the reserves and came to live within the general community. The role of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs inevitably changed when its clients ceased to be identified as a people who were segregated and distinct from other Australians. As Aborigines moved out into the towns and cities, however, they came into contact with other agencies. Over the last decade, other state departments as well as the Commonwealth government have taken over WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES 179 certain functions which previously belonged only to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. During the 1950s the Department of Aboriginal Affairs began to adopt that process of assimilation which led to its own demise. It took the first step of this nature with the fostering of Aboriginal children in approved European homes. This method of caring for certain Aboriginal children began in 1956. The intention was to avoid an institutional upbringing for destitute or neglected children. In 1966, there were 137 Aboriginal children being maintained by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in white foster homes. A study of these children can be found in Gale (1968). An anomaly that occurred in the case of some of these placements was that many such children were not state wards; that is, they had not been committed to the care of either of the Departments, Social Welfare or Aboriginal Affairs, by a court. Some children had merely been taken from their parents by police officers, missionaries, or welfare officers and placed in some kind of substitute home. Sometimes this was done by arrangement with the Aboriginal parent or parents and sometimes without their consent. In 1962, legislation was passed to prevent this kind of discriminatory action whereby Aboriginal mothers could lose their children without a court order, but white mothers could not. After 1962, Aboriginal children, like other children, could be removed from their parents only by a court order directed through the Department of Social Welfare. Another function of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has been the provision of houses for Aborigines. In this it has been assisted by the South Australian Housing Trust. This aspect of the Department’s work has already been discussed in Chapter 7. The newly formed Common­ wealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs has also started building houses for Aborigines in South Australia. Other activities undertaken by the Depart­ ment of Aboriginal Affairs have included the provision of assistance or guidance to help Aborigines to find employment. In recent years this work has been carried out in liaison with the Commonwealth Employ­ ment Bureau. Since early 1969, the latter Department has appointed officers to cater solely for Aborigines. Like the question of the fostering of children, the provision of an employment service by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs was largely taken over by another government department during the 1960s. For several years the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has given financial assistance, books, and uniforms to Aboriginal children to ensure their attendance at school. In this field also, another government depart- i8o CAUSES AND RESULTS ment has now commenced work. Since the beginning of 1970 the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs has given grants of money to encourage Aboriginal children to continue with secondary education after the age of compulsory attendance (fifteen years). The health and general welfare services of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs have always represented a considerable proportion of its organisa­ tion and budget, but like the housing scheme, have had their main impact in the country areas of the state. Even before the establishment of the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs in 1968 the Commonwealth government provided some welfare services for Aborigines in Adelaide. For many years the Commonwealth has maintained in Adelaide a small office, which was a subsidiary of the welfare branch of the Northern Territory Administra­ tion. This office has cared for children and adults who have been brought to Adelaide from the Northern Territory for medical treatment. It has also assisted children sent south for education and fostering. If these children remain in South Australia, as many of them do, they become the responsibility of the South Australian welfare agencies after they reach the age of seventeen years. In Adelaide, until just recently, the situation thus arose wherein Aborigines had access both to the Department of Social Welfare, as ordinary members of the community, or to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, as a special group of persons needing assistance. The duplication in function of these two departments has caused confusion and frustration for some Aborigines. It was in an attempt to overcome this duplication and to offer better services to all those in need, that the two departments of welfare were amalgamated. Recent years have seen considerable demand by Aborigines for changes in the structure of welfare services. The increasing urbanisation of Aborigines has brought about the need for change, but just how effective these changes will be it is too early to tell. The following figures deal with Aborigines in relation to welfare agencies at the time of this survey. They therefore predate the changes which have taken place at both the Commonwealth and state levels. The diagrams show the dependency of Aborigines upon the various welfare services, a dependency that is unlikely to diminish following either the amalgamation of the two state departments, or the appearance of the Commonwealth in this field. These administrative changes may make better services available to Aborigines but they are unlikely to alter the picture of dependency, outlined by these diagrams, for a considerable time to come. In the figures we shall study WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES l8l

Figure 35. Weljare contact by age. A n age pyramid o f Aborigines in this survey. The shaded portions represent those in contact with government welfare agencies; the stippled sections those whose names are recorded but who have never been contacted. Male Female

Not on record 6 5 -6 9

Recorded, no contact 6 0 -6 4

Welfare contact 5 5 -5 9

5 0-54

4 5-49

4 0 -4 4

3 5-39

3 0-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

1 Population

the proportionate numbers from each group of Aborigines who have contact with either of the two Aboriginal welfare agencies, the South Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration, or with the general welfare department of the state, the Department of Social Welfare. Figure 35 is an age pyramid which shows the proportion in each age group of Adelaide Aborigines who have had contact with, or who have b«en recorded by, either the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the i 82 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Adelaide branch of Northern Territory Welfare, or the Department of Social Welfare. This diagram uses the same pyramid as that shown by Figure 24. As in that figure, the total number of Aborigines is 1917 persons. In Figure 35 we have added information about their degree of contact with welfare agencies. This was calculated from data in the files of the three government agencies. In this diagram the proportion of persons in regular contact with one or more of these three agencies is shaded the darkest colour. The proportion of Aborigines recorded at one or more agencies but not in regular contact with them, is shown by a lighter stipple, and the proportion of those unknown to any of the three government agencies is left uncoloured. If contact takes place, whether initiated by Aborigines or by an outside authority referring them, it is evident that a presenting problem exists. It appears from Figure 35 that a large proportion of Aborigines arc in need of welfare assistance. The relatively large numbers of adults who are in contact with welfare agencies may be due to several factors. One is the voluntary migration from the reserves. When such movement was undertaken by a family, assistance was often sought from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in such matters as housing and employment. Another way in which adult groups establish contact with welfare services is through their children. As will be seen from the age pyramid, a large proportion of young people between ten and nineteen years of age is in contact with a government welfare agency. They may be state wards or children in institutions or foster homes in Adelaide who are under the supervision of one of the departments of welfare. In contrast to the high degree of contact evident amongst older children, younger children, especially those who arc under five years of age, have apparently come into contact with welfare agencies to only a minor extent. A considerable proportion of those children have been recorded by name in their parents’ fdes but there are no records in the fdes of actual contact between them and the three special welfare departments. Many members of this young group have been born in Adelaide after their families have made the move to the city and have ceased to have any contact with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Figure 36 is a bar diagram in which the bars are shaded to indicate the degree of contact which the various regional groups have with the three departments. The total number of Aborigines used as a basis for this diagram, is again 1917, for each of whom both the region of origin and the degree of contact with welfare agencies was known. This diagram reveals that the larger reserves lead, both in the actual numbers seeking WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES i83

Figure 36. Welfare contact by regional grouping. The height o f the columns represents the percentage numbers in each regional group. These bars are subdivided to illustrate relative numbers in contact with government welfare agencies.

Not on record

Recorded, no contact

Welfare contact

help and in the proportion of the group which had had regular contact with agencies. This is not surprising, because the administration of a reserve makes departmental officers accessible to Aborigines who live there. Further, the administration can put Aborigines, who are moving to the city, in touch with social service agencies in Adelaide if necessary. The low percentage of contact shown in the column which represents the Northern Territory people is also noteworthy. It substantiates the statements, made elsewhere, that Northern Territory people in Adelaide receive comparatively little care. They have not had a traditional contact with the South Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs. The Northern Territory Administration branch in Adelaide caters only for specific cases, such as sick persons or neglected children, who have been brought south for a particular purpose. Thus, many Aborigines from the Northern Territory do not have contact with any Aboriginal welfare agency. By contrast, 73 per cent of the South Australian Aborigines who were living in Adelaide were on the records of the Department of i84 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Aboriginal Affairs. But only 38 per cent of the number of Northern Territory Aborigines who were living in Adelaide were on the records held in the Adelaide office of the welfare branch of the Northern Territory Administration. Only 6 per cent of the Northern Territory group was also recorded at the South Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Although, once they have moved into South Australia, Aborigines are eligible for assistance from the South Australian Department of Aboriginal Affairs, in practice few know this fact or seek help from the Department. For one reason or another, some Aborigines from the Northern Territory have been referred to the South Australian Department of Social Welfare. Even if we take the sum of Northern Territory clients amongst all three government agencies, the total represents only 41 per cent of persons from this area who have had contact with any welfare agency. This contrasts strongly with the experiences of Aborigines from rural areas of South Australia. In Figure 36, the bar representing the proportion of Northern Territory people who have had contact with welfare agencies shows a pattern similar to that of metropolitan Aborigines (denoted as central in Figure 36), but not necessarily for the same reasons. It is clear from the diagram that when Aborigines move from one state to another, their links with previous welfare agencies are broken and new ones are not readily established. The bar depicting Aborigines born in Adelaide represents mainly young children. Of these persons, only slightly more than one-half was recorded in any way at either the Department of Aboriginal Affairs or the Depart­ ment of Social Welfare. Of these Adelaide-born people, only a little more than 30 per cent had ever had any direct contact with officers from either of these welfare bodies. Figure 36 therefore shows three things: that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs has kept in contact with a high proportion of the Aborigines born on the reserves or in rural areas; that it has not been able to retain a high level of contact with persons born in the city; that Aborigines formerly from the Northern Territory receive less welfare assistance than do persons who originate from within South Australia. Our next two diagrams will show in more detail some aspects of the contact of young Aborigines with state welfare services. Figure 37, an age pyramid, is shaded to show the proportions of Aboriginal people in Adelaide who, at the time of this survey, had spent part of their childhood in either a state institution or cottage home for neglected children, or in a children’s home run by a church or voluntary body, or in a foster home. WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES I85

Figure 37. Children separated from parents according to age, shaded to show the proportion in each age group who spent some or all oj their childhood separated from their parents.

Male Female

7 0 + _ 1 1 No record

Children’s home 6 5 - 6 9 _ 1—-J or foster record 6 0 - 6 4

5 5 -5 9

5 0 -5 4

4 5 -4 9

4 0 - 4 4

3 5 -3 9

3 0 -3 4 ff 2 5 -2 9

2 0 -2 4

15-19

10 -1 4 „

5 - 9

0 - 4

10 987654321 0 0123456789 10

% Population

Thus all children who were taken from their parents by force or persuasion and were brought up in a non-Aboriginal situation, are grouped together in this diagram. Aboriginal children who have been brought up while living away from their parents make up a significant proportion of the Aboriginal population of Adelaide. Those who had spent at least some of their childhood in a children’s home or a foster home, made up 25 per cent of the survey population of 1917 persons. The large number of persons 186 CAUSES AND RESULTS separated during childhood from Aboriginal families and kinsfolk is important in terms of the mental health of the Aboriginal community. Many older Aborigines are strongly critical of the government policy which isolates children in this way from their Aboriginal inheritance and forces them to become ‘white blackfellows’. The relative age distribution of this portion of the population, which has known separation, can be seen in Figure 37. This diagram uses the same age pyramid as that in Figure 35. It appears from Figure 37 that there are relatively many people under the age of twenty-five years who have had the isolating experience of being reared away from their families and kin-groups. Only a few persons over twenty-five years of age were separated in childhood from their families, but this diagram shows that over the last twenty to twenty-five years the numbers of persons who have been removed from their families has increased. Almost half of the Aborigines in Adelaide in 1966, aged between ten and nineteen years, had spent a portion of their lives in isolation from their Aboriginal kinsmen. This situation indicates the extent to which the Aboriginal family has been splintered in recent years, and the degree to which its members have become dependent upon state welfare services. The numbers of children placed in foster homes and children’s homes have increased since the introduction of the policy of assimilation during the 1950s. One method of implementing this policy has been to encourage parents to send their children to the city to take advantage of better educational opportunities. Likewise, the high degree of ill-health in the Aboriginal community, especially amongst children, has meant that many young people must be removed from their parents and placed in homes or hostels in the city so that they can receive regular medical attention. The relatively large numbers of young adult Aborigines who have been cared for in foster homes or institutions have resulted from the complexity of the social and political changes which have taken place in recent years. In the older age groups, the relatively small proportion of Aborigines who spent their childhood in a foster home or institution, can be related to the former welfare policy of confining Aborigines, for the most part, to government reserves. Figure 38 shows the same persons as those recorded in Figure 37: that is, those with a record of care in a children’s home or foster family. In Figure 38 they are related and compared, on the basis of regional group­ ings, whereas in Figure 37 they were related to the rest of the Aboriginal population of Adelaide on the basis of age. This diagram incorporates two types of information about all the individuals whom it represents: WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES I8?

Figure 38. Children separatedfrom parents according to regional grouping. The height oj the columns gives an idea of the size of each regional group in Adelaide. The bars are subdivided to show the relative numbers from each group who spent a part or all o f their childhood separatedjrom their parents.

No record

Children’s home or foster record

whether they have had a record of foster or institutional care, and what their regions of origin are. The bars thus represent the relative size of each regional group and the proportion of each group who have lived in children’s homes or foster homes. The diagram shows that all regional groups have a proportion of their people in this category. Two groups, however, are especially significant: the one from the northern part of South Australia, and that from the Northern Territory. Nearly 60 per cent of persons in the former and nearly 40 per cent of people in the latter have spent part of their childhood in institutions or foster homes. Bearing in mind the absence of such facilities in the remoter areas of South Australia, and also in the Northern Territory, it must be concluded that persons have come to Adelaide, as children, for the purpose of being maintained in this way. For them, living in an institution or foster home is no temporary arrangement. The majority have been sent south permanently and will remain there until they reach adulthood. Thus the regional bars for northern South Australia and for the Northern Territory, shown in Figure 38, support the statement 188 CAUSES AND RESULTS made in Chapter 5, that the need for child care in a foster home or institution has been a major cause of migration to Adelaide from some of the remoter areas of Australia. It appears, from the bar representing the Upper Murray area, that a relatively large number of children from this regional group also are being maintained, or were in the past, by persons other than their parents. These young persons make up approximately 30 per cent of this group. The fact that the government reserve, Gerard, in that area is of comparatively recent origin may account for this. Many of the people who live there have been brought to this reserve from various other areas of the state, and time has not been sufficient for groups of kindred to have built up amongst them. The proportion of children from Point McLcay who are not cared for by parents or relatives is slightly greater than the percentage from Point Pearce, the other, old, government reserve. The fact that Huntingdon’s Chorea has affected several families in the Point McLeay group would account in part for this difference. When a parent becomes affected, it is impossible, eventually, for the family to remain together as a unit. There is only a very small proportion of the Adelaide group of Aborigines, shown in the first column, who have been placed in children’s homes or in the care of foster parents. The majority of Adelaide Aborigines have probably benefited from the greater economic opportunities in the city, where there has been a tendency for some nuclear families to become established fairly securely. It therefore seems possible that the increase in the numbers of neglected children may be merely part of a temporary phase, and a result of the rather drastic social changes which Aborigines have been forced to undergo in their move­ ment away from the reserves. It promises well for the future that young people born in the city may be less likely to spend part of their childhood away from their parents. Nevertheless the emotional scarring of those who have been isolated from their kinsfolk is illustrated by the following figures. One-third of the Aboriginal people who spent part of their childhood in a children’s home or foster home, away from their parents, were subsequently committed cither for juvenile or adult offences. From a converse point of view, if one considers the total number of Aborigines serving sentences during the period of this study one finds that some 37 per cent had spent part of their childhood in a children’s institution or foster home. In other words, persons who had been removed from their parents for one reason or another during childhood or youth comprised 25 per cent of the WELFARE SERVICES FOR ABORIGINES 189

Aboriginal population in Adelaide, but amounted to 37 per cent of Aboriginal offenders. It seems likely, therefore, that their removal from parental custody predisposes children to indulge in socially unacceptable behaviour at a later stage. This cannot be argued conclusively, as there is no evidence to suggest that such children would have been less likely to commit offences had they remained with their families. It does, however, show that to place Aboriginal children in institutions, while it may seem to answer the immediate problem of caring for their physical well being, does not prevent their indulging later in anti-social behaviour and indeed may even provoke it. The ratios for offenders, which we have quoted, apply to children who have been placed in children’s homes, both through voluntary action on the part of their parents or legal steps by a welfare authority. These ratios do not apply, except in a couple of instances, to foster children. This is so, because the practice of placing Aboriginal children in foster homes was less than a decade old when this study was made. There were, therefore, few children from foster homes who had reached the critical ages at which the majority of first offences are committed. Thus, the 37 per cent of offenders who had had a childhood upbringing away from parents, had spent this part of their lives in a children’s institution and not in a foster home. The figures do not prove that foster homes are better than children’s homes, though they may be. The figures merely show that the foster system had not been practised long enough to be tested statistically, at the time for this study. There is, however, a relationship between committals and institutional upbringing. Certain aspects of the lives of adult offenders are discussed in more detail in Chapter 13. One noticeable feature appears to be that the lives of many Aborigines have been a process of dragging out an existence in one institution after another. A child may have been charged as neglected and thenceforth may have lived in various institutions for children and adolescents. The disturbing fact is that such a high proportion of these young people eventually acquire a criminal record. Subsequently, as adults, their lives may be spent alternating between confinement in gaol, and living in the world ‘outside’. One writer, in reporting certain aspects of social problems in Australia, has stated: ‘The number of social misfits that have been produced by institutions for children seems to indicate that an examination . . . of their long-term effects on children could be needed’ (Stubbs, 1966:88). It might seem paradoxical therefore that so many Aboriginal children, 190 CAUSES AND RESULTS other than orphans, are committed to an institution, to a cottage home, or to the care of foster parents. But, for some cases which come before the courts, there seems to be no alternative because supportive family services have not been developed. In conclusion it can be said that the rapidity of the process of social change which Aborigines have been forced to undergo has led to a considerable dependence upon welfare services. An increasing number of children have been removed from their parents for one reason or another. This further disruption has contributed to the increase in the rates of delinquency and crime among Aborigines. Whether this pattern will continue amongst families born and reared in the city, it is too soon to say. But it does appear that life in the city, in offering the Aboriginal family greater economic and social opportunities to remain intact, tends to decrease the number of neglected children and the number of delinquent teenagers. In time, too, city living may help to decrease the dependence of Aborigines upon social welfare services. But considerable assistance will be required during the period of adjustment if true independence is to become a reality for the majority of Aborigines. 11 HEALTH IN THE CITY

\ lthough the Aborigines were a healthy people prior to the European / V occupation of Australia, their medical history in post-European times has presented a very different picture. Their lack of immunity to European diseases, the decline in their dietary levels leading to malnutri­ tion, their poverty, and their lack of medical care, all contributed to their declining health. The results were evident soon after the colonisers arrived; the Aboriginal death rate rose dramatically (Barwick, 1971; Gale, 1969b; Jones, 1970a). Studies of Aboriginal health in a traditional environment have been made by various medical observers. In recent years there has also been an increasing interest in the study of ill-health amongst Aborigines living at the level of poverty on reserves or on the fringes of European communi­ ties; for example, the studies made by Bcrndt and Lewis (1969), Edwards (1970), Jose and Welch (1970), Kalokennos (1968, 1969a, b), Moodic 1969), and Wise et al. (1970). The ill-health of Aborigines in urban communities has been considered also, in studies like those of Lickiss (1970, 1971a). The role of ill-health in bringing Aborigines to Adelaide was discussed in Chapter 5. There it was shown that 12 per cent of those recorded in this study who had migrated to Adelaide and had remained there for more than six months had been forced to move for medical reasons. All of these people required specialised or long-term medical care which was not available in other centres in South Australia or in the Northern Territory. Actually, many more Aborigines than that came to the city for medical treatment, but, as they remained there for less than six consecutive months, they were not included in this study. 192 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Ill-health in the rural Aboriginal community has also been indirectly responsible for bringing to Adelaide more Aborigines than the actual number who came solely to receive medical treatment. Amongst the Aborigines who were recorded in Figure 9 as having to come to Adelaide because relatives were already there, many in fact came because a member of the family had become ill and therefore had to be sent to Adelaide for treatment. The strength of kinship ties, discussed in Chapter 9, has caused whole families to move to Adelaide in order to visit a sick mother or other close relative. Once having established themselves for a few months, such newcomers frequently remain in the city. Thus the state of health of one member may have a lasting social effect upon a whole Aboriginal family. Ill-health has therefore been important, both directly and indirectly, in the migration of Aborigines to Adelaide. The depressed socio-economic conditions under which the majority of Aborigines must live are the prime causes of the high incidence of serious illness amongst them. The survival of the Aboriginal people of Australia is due to a high birth rate, generally. W ith high levels of morbidity and mortality, lower fertility rates would have meant complete destruction. This book is not a medical study and it does not attempt to analyse the types of disease contracted by Aborigines. Hospital records were scanned in order to obtain demographic material and not medical histories. In any case, histories acquired by most doctors from Aboriginal patients in hospital appear to be unreliable, or at the best, incomplete. Nor do they contain the sociological data so necessary for an understanding of most Aboriginal patients. By and large, diagnoses of the conditions of Aborigines who arc hospitalised in Adelaide suggest a vital link between socio-economic factors and ill-health. Children are admitted most frequently for respiratory infections, pneumonia, gastro-enteritis, and ear infections. Overcrowding, under-nutrition, and poor hygiene arc contributory factors. Frequently, medical attention is not obtained until the ailment has reached an advanced stage. Varying degrees of deafness, resulting from lack of treatment for car infections, and blindness, from undiagnosed trachoma, are not uncommon in the Aboriginal population. The handicaps of childhood morbidity and poor nutrition remain with a person through life. It is not surprising therefore to discover that Aboriginal life expec­ tancy is much lower than European. Ill-health, associated with life in a difficult social environment, and one which is changing rapidly, must predispose Aborigines to mental HEALTH IN THE CITY 193 illnesses. It is probably for this reason that several individuals were sent to Adelaide for hospitalisation in psychiatric institutions during the period of this study. For these reasons, the structure of South Australia’s medical services has had considerable influence upon the nature and degree of the move­ ment of Aborigines into the city. One major reason is that specialised medical care is available only in the capital. Further, only in Adelaide can there be found the facilities for any treatment which must necessarily be prolonged, such as therapy for post-poliomyelitis cases. The other point is that the majority of Aborigines, for economic reasons, require medical attention at the lowest possible cost. They must therefore use those services which are subsidised by the government. On the whole they are unable to pay for private medical attention. The background of this aspect is as follows. In the past Aborigines on reserves, or in the vicinity of country hospitals, were given free medical care, either directly by persons em­ ployed by the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, or through normal channels. The costs of such medical care were borne by that Department. However, during the 1950s it was realised that, if Aborigines were to be encouraged to move away from reserves and into the normal community, they would need to learn to become independent in a whole range of matters, of which medical care was but one. Gradually they were encouraged to use the general health services of the community at large. Finally on 1 July 1964, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs relinquished responsibility for the medical and hospital costs of Aborigines. Although, on some reserves, a nursing sister was retained on the staff, in general, Aborigines have had to seek help from the normal channels available in the community, and have been responsible themselves for their medical debts since mid-1964. Certain exceptions to this rule apply in the case of Aboriginal children who have been fostered, or who have been placed in institutions. In such cases, the parents are relieved of the medical costs of their children, for which the Department of Aboriginal Affairs pays. This change in policy caused Aborigines to become more strongly influenced by the structure of the health services available in the general community. The Australian government assists in the provision of medical care in two ways. The Commonwealth administers national health services such as medical, hospital, pharmaceutical, and pensioner benefits. The State supervises local boards of health and administers public hospitals and, to a certain extent, those which are subsidised by the government. 194 CAUSES AND RESULTS

The Commonwealth pharmaceutical benefits scheme applies to every­ one. Under this scheme, drugs, if prescribed by a doctor, are reduced in cost or provided at only a nominal fee. However, participation in the Commonwealth medical benefits scheme, for both doctors’ and hospital fees, is contingent upon becoming a member of a registered medical benefits organisation. These are private bodies financed by members’ contributions. The cost of such membership is too high for many Aborigines to meet. The result is that many Aborigines are therefore not eligible for Commonwealth medical or hospital benefits when they become sick or are hospitalised. Following the change in administrative policy that has just been referred to, officers of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs encouraged individual Aborigines to join medical benefit societies. In practice, how­ ever, few Aboriginal families took this course of action. Their low incomes, their lack of knowledge of such organisations, amounting to a kind of cultural illiteracy, and the prolonged habit of dependence, pro­ duced by life on a reserve, combined to prevent their joining such schemes. Thus, with his very limited means, the sick Aboriginal who lives in a country district will be unable to meet the fees of the local private practitioner, or the hospital. Under these circumstances, many Aborigines who need medical attention must resort to the out-patients departments of the government hospitals in the city. Charges are made for in-patients, but out-patients are subject to a means test and for this reason few Aborigines have to pay. Many Aborigines move to the city to take advantage of the cheaper medical care since only a few country centres provide such subsidised services. Adelaide has several public or subsidised hospitals. The Royal Adelaide Hospital was the first to be established in South Australia and is situated within the city at the northeastern corner of the city’s square mile. It is a general and casualty hospital for adults. It is, in addition, a teaching hospital and contains a department of dentistry which provides free dental care. The Royal Adelaide Hospital includes additional wards at Magill and Northfield for special classes of patients; the latter ward is used for infectious patients, the former predominantly for geriatric cases. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is situated at Woodvillc, in the western suburbs. It was opened in 1954, and is a general, casualty, and maternity hospital, and also a teaching hospital. As well, it incorporates a paediatric hospital which was once known as Mareeba Babies’ Home. The Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital are not government hospitals, but they receive considerable financial assistance HEALTH IN THE CITY 195 through government grants. At the latter, children under fourteen years of age may receive in-patient and out-patient treatment. In the metropolitan area there is also a large Repatriation hospital, and some 130 private hospitals (1966) of varying size. The public and subsidised hospitals tend to be cheaper than private hospitals, which therefore seldom have Aboriginal patients. Private hospitals, after an initial check, were thus excluded from this survey. At the time of this survey state mental health services were provided solely in Adelaide, and were concentrated in two major hospitals. One, known as the Glensidc Hospital, is in the southern suburbs, and the other, Hillcrest Hospital, is at Northfield, a few miles to the north of the city. Patients who live north of the River Torrens are usually referred to Hillcrest Hospital, while those from areas south of the river are admitted to Glensidc. A Child Guidance Clinic in Adelaide is also part of the state’s mental health services. In addition to these medical and hospital facilities, other health services cater for certain specialised aspects of medical care. Many of these deal especially with the needs of children and several owe their inception to voluntary enterprises. Some institutions deal with specifically medical problems, while others provide both education and training for physically or mentally handicapped children, as well as the accommodation and care appropriate to their special needs. Warrawee is an institution of the first type. It is a convalescent and pre-operative home for children from inland areas who need pre- or post-operative care and treatment. Northcote Home provides treatment for children during the early stages of tubercu­ losis and provides preventive care for those who have been in close or prolonged contact with an active case. The second type of institution is represented by: Ashford House, an institution for the care and training of cerebral palsied children; Somcrton Crippled Children’s Home, which provides for the accommodation and care of crippled children; and Townsend House, where children whose sight and hearing are impaired or lost can be trained to live as normally as possible. Minda Home is an institution for the care of mentally retarded children and adults. Our survey made use of the records of Aboriginal patients treated by any of these various health facilities in Adelaide. None of the general hospitals identified Aborigines as such. W e scrutinised the lists of admis­ sions of each of the three general hospitals in order to identify Aboriginal patients. This was done in 1965, the last year of the survey. By this time a comprehensive list ol known Aboriginal residents in Adelaide had been compiled. Once an Aboriginal person’s full name and date and place of 196 CAUSES AND RESULTS birth had been established, it was a relatively simple matter to identify him, if his name occurred in the lists of patients recorded by a hospital. This search was very time consuming and had to be completed in 1965, before the survey ended. Although this, and the study of gaol records, discussed in Chapter 13, took most of 1965 to complete, a com­ mon recording date was kept. Whether the records for one hospital were made in June 1965 and another in July 1965, a common date, that of 1 January 1965, was used. Thus the following hospital survey covers a period of thirty months, 1 July 1962 to 1 January 1965. Only persons admitted to hospital during that period of time are included in the following analysis, although persons living in Adelaide for another year, until 1 January 1966, are counted in other sections of this book. Had it been possible to make this study of hospital records after the completion of all other data, that is after 1 January 1966, a hospital record for all of those counted in the Adelaide population would have been available to us. Unfortunately we lacked the research funds to make possible this desired recount. Because the hospital checking closed early the following statistics omit records of Aborigines hospitalised in the last year of the survey period. Furthermore these figures include only Aborigines admitted to the major hospitals and medical centres. The rate of hospitalisation of Aborigines is therefore probably higher than the results suggest. In discussing the admissions to hospital shown by the following figures, only in-patients have been considered, although Aborigines are often induced to go to the city because free out-patient medical treatment is available there. It is difficult to relate the numbers who go to hospitals for out-patient treatment to the numbers of those who seek private medical attention. However, it was possible to obtain the numbers of all those who received in-patient treatment in any one hospital or institution in Adelaide. Since ill-health was being studied, not just hospital admission rates, all maternity cases have been excluded from the following figures. These figures illustrate the degree of ill-health in the Aboriginal community. The high death-rate and the relatively small proportion of Aborigines in the older age group has already been discussed in Chapter 8. The prevalence of serious disease amongst Aborigines is the main reason for this high death-rate. The hospital figures support the demo­ graphic figures. It is evident, however, that the degree of ill-health is greater in rural areas than in the city. In all, the three general and two psychiatric hospitals treated 835 Aborigines as in-patients during the thirty months under review. This is HEALTH IN THE CITY 197 an inordinately large number. It accounts for 10 per cent of the state’s total Aboriginal population, without taking any account of those who were admitted to the larger rural hospitals, such as that at Port Augusta. The total of 835 people was made up of 485 persons at the Royal Adelaide, seventy-four at the Queen Elizabeth, 212 at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, and a further sixty-four at the two psychiatric hospitals. In addition to this number, twenty-nine Aborigines were in residence at one or other of the specialised medical centres listed above. Furthermore, the Child Guidance Clinic treated twenty Aboriginal children over this period of time. During the thirty-month period taken for study, the number of Aboriginal in-patients treated at the five hospitals and the six medical centres thus totalled 864. This number excludes those treated at the Child Guidance Clinic, which does not have in-patients. O f this total of 864 in-patients, twenty-one were treated at more than one centre. Thus the actual number of persons, not the number of Aboriginal admis­ sions to these hospitals and medical centres over the thirty months was 843. Several people were admitted to hospital more than once and some, for four or five times during this relatively short period, and the actual number of Aboriginal admissions was much higher. To avoid any duplication in the figures, a person was counted only once, no matter how many times he entered a hospital or medical centre during this period of time. O f this number of 843 persons, 433 were defined as city Aborigines for the purpose of this study. That is, they remained in Adelaide for more than six consecutive months between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1966. The remaining 410 came direct from the country to a hospital in the city and returned to the country within six months. Of the 433 in-patients identified as Adelaide Aborigines, 234 were already living in Adelaide at the time of admission to hospital. The remaining 199 persons came to hospital direct from a country address. For them to be listed as city Aborigines in this survey means that either they remained in hospital for more than six consecutive months or else, on their release, they did not return to the country. Many were forced to remain in Adelaide because they required some kind of out-patient treatment or follow-up therapy of a specialised kind. These figures show that many Aborigines come to Adelaide for medical treatment. Some return home but others become established as city dwellers. Ill-health is thus an important factor in urbanising Aborigines. The following diagrams deal with the 433 Aborigines who lived in 1 9 8 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Adelaide for at least six consecutive months. The others who came to the city for treatment, but returned to the country within six months, are not included. Two factors emerge from these diagrams. One is that there is a considerable amount of sickness in all age groups in the Aboriginal population. The other is that many people spend a considerable amount of time in hospital. These factors must seriously limit the educa­ tional and employment opportunities of many Aborigines. The low level of educational attainment and the high level of unemployment must be due, at least in part, to the considerable degree of ill-health in their community. Furthermore, so much illness must have serious economic and social consequences for the families of those hospitalised. Figure 39 shows the relative numbers of Aborigines in each age group who were hospitalised during the course of this study. The pyramid in Figure 39 has been drawn from the same numbers, 1917 persons, as in all other age pyramids in this book. Of the 1917 persons for whom detailed information was available, 433 individuals or 22-6 per cent of the total, were admitted to hospital during the thirty months between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1965. In Figure 39, the percentage numbers of Aborigines who had short- and long-term hospital records are marked by different shading. A long-term stay is here classed as more than thirty consecutive days spent in hospital and a short-term stay as thirty days or less spent consecutively in hospital. Figure 39 illustrates the point that relatively large numbers of Aborigines from every age group have been affected by illnesses which required hospitalisation for a period. By and large, a greater proportion of males is shown to have long-term illnesses than females. This comparison applies particularly to those over thirty years of age. This high rate of sickness has an immediate effect upon employment opportunities, particularly of course in the case of males. One example will illustrate this. A married Aboriginal railway employee had a steady job in a small country centre. There was accommodation for his family and a local school provided education for his children. However, his wife’s continued ill-health forced him to come to Adelaide, with his family, to obtain treatment for her from a specialist. In the city it was difficult for him to find an unskilled job that would be permanent. The family had to find accommodation with successive groups of relatives as their stay became more prolonged. Their living standards progressively deteriorated, while the education of the children suffered through constant changes of schools. Children, particularly those under five years of age, who have been HEALTH IN THE CITY 199

Figure 39. Hospitalisation according to age, shaded to show the relative numbers in each age group hospitalised between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1965.

Male Female

170 + 1 1 No hospital record 6 5 -6 9

L . I < 1 month 6 0 -6 4

5 5 -5 9 > 1 month

5 0 -5 4

4 5 - 4 9

4 0 - 4 4

3 5 -3 9

3 0 -3 4

2 5 -2 9

2 0 -2 4

15-19

10-14

5 - 9

0 - 4 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 6 7 8 9 10

% Population in hospital for more than one month, comprise a significant proportion of the total population. The high rate of sickness involving long-term hospitalisation amongst children under fifteen years must mean that the education of this group is interrupted or impaired. A lack of education, in its turn, will adversely affect their economic prospects in the future. Further, the separation of a child from parents and family, particularly at a young age, is regarded by most authorities as having serious effects upon the child’s emotional development. Therefore it seems unfortunate that a major proportion of the hospital admissions amongst Aboriginal 200 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 40. Hospitalisation according to regional grouping, shaded to illustrate the relative numbers from each group hospitalised between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1965.

children, in the younger age groups, should be for a comparatively long period of hospitalisation. Figure 40, by means of a bar diagram, shows the region of birth of each of the hospital patients included in the figures obtained during the thirty-month period of study. When discussing the period spent in hospital, our definitions are slightly more refined than those used in Figure 39. ‘Short-term’ applies to patients who have spent less than thirty days in hospital and ‘long-term’, more than one year. The intervening period, of more than one month but less than one year, is classed as ‘medium-term’. These different periods of time spent in hospital are represented by different shading. Some observations can be made from this diagram. The first is that less than 10 per cent of Adelaide-born persons, who are represented by the first bar, were hospitalised during this thirty-month period of study. For these persons, half of their hospital admissions were short-term only. The low rate of hospital admissions of Aborigines who were born in Adelaide is noteworthy. Either the urban environment is a considerably HEALTH IN THE CITY 201 healthier place to live in than the reserve or Aboriginal camp, or else Aborigines receive medical attention at a much earlier stage in any illness, thus obviating the necessity for long periods of hospitalisation. The next two bars, representing the Point McLeay and Point Pearce groups respectively, show a higher rate of sickness. Those admitted to hospital for treatment comprised 28 per cent of the Point McLeay group and 25 per cent of persons from Point Pearce. Although a comparatively large proportion of persons from each of these two older reserves had been admitted to hospital for treatment, there is a significant difference to be observed in the duration of these admissions. One third of the admissions from Point McLeay were hospitalised for more than one month; one sixth for a period exceeding one year. On the other hand, only a very small proportion of Point Pearce people arc shown to have been admitted for a period as long as this. Amongst the Northern Territory group, it is evident that approxi­ mately 70 per cent of those who are admitted to hospital are long-term patients. This corroborates the observation made in Chapter 5, that these are people for whom the Northern Territory could not, at the time of this survey, provide suitable medical facilities. Because of this, they must be sent to Adelaide in order to be properly accommodated. This necessity for the transferral of hospital cases to the city has also applied to persons in northern South Australia. In fact, the rule that usually seems to apply is that the more remote the home territory lies from Adelaide, the longer is likely to be the period spent in hospital. People who have no relatives in the city with whom they can stay during convalescence, or while they receive treat­ ment at an out-patient’s department or a special clinic, must stay in hospital either permanently or until they are fit to return to work. This factor has undoubtedly affected the length of the time spent in hospital by individuals from the northern areas of South Australia, and from the Northern Territory. The nature of the illness is also a factor which affects the time spent in hospital. Northern Territory medical services do not provide facilities for the treatment or accommodation of many long-term cases. Hence, several persons who are mentally ill, as well as children who are physically or mentally retarded, are accommodated in Adelaide institutions. At the time of this study, twenty-nine out of the sixty-four Aborigines in the two psychiatric hospitals were from the Northern Territory. In other words, Northern Territory Aborigines comprised 45 per cent of the total number of Aborigines in the two psychiatric hospitals. 202 CAUSES AND RESULTS

These figures are critically high, especially since the tribally oriented Aboriginal is at a particular disadvantage when undergoing treatment in a southern hospital. His sickness can be aggravated by fear and un­ certainty in strange surroundings. Medically, it is considered that certain psychiatric patients are helped by undergoing treatment as out-patients and by being supported in regaining their role as functioning members of their own community. But none of these ways of hastening convales­ cence is open to the unsophisticated Aboriginal. If he comes from the Northern Territory or northern areas of South Australia, he is totally cut off from his family and his own society by admittance to an Adelaide hospital. In the case of such a patient, recovery could well be abnormally delayed or even prevented by his complete isolation. Other figures for psychiatric hospitals are of interest also. If we exclude from the total number those from the Northern Territory, two groups show significantly high numbers among the remaining thirty-five persons admitted to mental hospitals. These are the northern region of South Australia and the Point McLeay area. Twelve Aborigines from the northern parts of South Australia had been admitted for psychiatric treatment. Conditions in the north of the state resemble those in the Northern Territory. The recent occurrence of cultural clash and a lack of identity experienced by such Aborigines, combined with remoteness from medical services, have increased the degree of mental illness in the north, as those factors have done in the Northern Territory. The numbers of cases of mental illness amongst Aborigines from outback areas has been discussed by Cawte (1966), who relates it to the duality of the cultural influences which are now bearing upon many of these people, who may experience a severe dichotomy within themselves as a result. The other group which predominates in the intake of Aboriginal patients to these two hospitals is Point McLeay. There were ten Aborigines from this area in the two psychiatric hospitals at the time of study. The Point McLeay group has contributed notably to the numbers of long­ term patients because of the incidence of a hereditary disease among some families who have lived for generations on the reserve. This disease, Huntingdon’s Chorea, is one of the central nervous system, causing lack of muscular co-ordination, premature senility, and eventual death, in most cases after a relatively long period of physical and mental incapacity. At some period during the last century Huntingdon’s Chorea was intro­ duced amongst the people living in the Point McLeay area. The segregated conditions of an Aboriginal reserve, which were maintained at Point McLeay for over forty years, encouraged intermarriage, so that, by the HEALTH IN THE CITY 203

1960s, a large number of individuals carried the genes or were in fact affected by the disease (Gale and Bennett, 1969). Huntingdon’s Chorea has caused numbers of Aborigines, whose families originated from this reserve, eventually to need permanent hospital care in one of the psychiatric hospitals. By contrast, only one Aboriginal from Adelaide was being treated at a mental hospital during the period under review. Indeed, the health of Adelaide Aborigines in general compares more than favourably with those from country areas. Bearing in mind that infant morbidity is high in the Aboriginal population at large, and that the majority of Adelaide’s Aborigines fall into the youthful category, it is interesting that serious illnesses are much less frequent in the city. It seems that the urban setting, in which better jobs, housing, and sanitation are available, along with readily available medical services and out-patients’ clinics, have prevented among urban Aborigines the occurrence of the more serious illnesses prevalent amongst rural Aborigines. This does not mean that Aborigines in the city are as healthy as their white counterparts. They are still affected by poverty and insufficient medical attention. This study has merely shown that, by and large, urban Aborigines arc healthier than rural Aborigines. The results of this study also suggest that Aboriginal ill-health is not taken as seriously as it needs to be. Some individual doctors, welfare officers, and nurses have shown a great deal of concern at the therapeutic level, but officially, the need for organised, preventive work and health education amongst Aborigines is largely ignored. EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES 12 IN ADELAIDE

A /I any of the Aborigines who come to live in Adelaide do so because EV-L they believe that the city offers them better prospects of employ­ ment than do the rural areas. This was indeed true when the Aboriginal migration to the city began, for, in the immediate post-war years, an acute shortage of labour was experienced in all industries. No avenue of employment in Adelaide is specifically debarred to Aborigines, to whom, along with the rest of the community, apply all wage awards made under state or Commonwealth industrial legislation. However, Aborigines have difficulty in securing work in Adelaide, whether they seek employment directly, or through one of the agencies. There are two reasons for this. In the first place, the majority of Aborigines have had a limited education and the level of their skills is very low. In the second place, there are some employers who, for one reason or another, are reluctant to employ Aborigines. Although Aborigines have difficulty in finding jobs in the city, the urban environment nevertheless offers more opportunity of employment for unskilled persons than do the rural areas. The increase in mechanisa­ tion in the agricultural industries has led to a progressive decrease in the amount of unskilled work which is available in the country. Whereas in the past many Aborigines were employed on farms, this avenue of employment has diminished considerably. The city has therefore attracted many rural Aborigines in search of work. With them have come their families. Therefore the prospect of gaining employment in Adelaide has been a significant factor in the migration of Aborigines to the city in recent years. EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 205

The following diagrams will be used in order to illustrate some features, relating to the employment of Aborigines, which were observed in Adelaide during the period of the study. It must be remembered that these diagrams do not represent a situation at a particular point of time as those constructed from census material would do. They represent a generalised pattern, obtained by a study made over a period of three and a half years. The data have all been standardised to one point of time, namely 1 January 1966, but all items were not, in fact, recorded at that one time. Thus, persons who lived in Adelaide for a minimum of six consecutive months during the period of study are included, although they may not have been resident in the city on 1 January 1966. Furthermore, it is difficult to place some people in employment categories when one is giving a generalised picture over a period of time. For example, during the course of this study, one man was employed as a labourer for about eight weeks; he was then unemployed for some three or four months; he next obtained work as a transport driver, in which he remained for nearly five months. He was then unemployed again for some four months. Following that, he went to the country for approxi­ mately six months, where he obtained work. But this employment was occasionally interspersed with periods of opal gouging and unemploy­ ment. He returned to Adelaide and, after about three months without work, secured a job as a labourer in a government department. Were these diagrams drawn from census data he would be classed as cither unemployed or a labourer or a driver, depending upon the actual point of time when the counting was done. We have taken the mean, as it were, and called him a labourer. Such classification is rather subjective, but perhaps no more so than that made in a census. However, the follow­ ing figures must be read with an awareness of these difficulties in mind. Thus, when we say that 26-2 per cent of the Aboriginal population was in the work force, we need to remember that this figure was obtained by a projection to 1 January 1966, and not by a count at that date. In fact, we calculated that this figure could vary from 23 • 5 per cent as a minimum, to 28-7 per cent as a maximum, depending upon the date taken as a base line and the categories of employment used. It will be seen, however, that the method used virtually establishes an average and, in any case, the variation is not very significant in contrast with the figures for the non- ! Aboriginal population. Figure 41 is an age pyramid drawn from figures relating the age distribution to the employment status of the Aboriginal population of Adelaide. It is the same basic pyramid used in earlier diagrams and as 20 6 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 41. The Aboriginal workforce at the time of the survey. This age pyramid oj Aborigines in Adelaide at the time of this survey has been shaded to show the proportionate numbers in the workforce at that time.

Male Female

65+ Percent of workforce 6 0 -6 4

5 5 -5 9

50-54

4 5-49

4 0 -4 4

35-39

30-34

25-29

20-24

15-19

10-14

5 - 9

0 - 4

10 987654 321 0 0 1 23456789 10 % Population previously stated, represents 1917 persons in all. The shaded portion of the pyramid indicates the percentage of Aborigines in each age group who are part of the work force. The unshaded portion thus represents those who, through incapacity or unemployment, do not make economic contributions to the community. Perhaps the most arresting feature of Figure 41 is that it shows that there is indeed a substantial proportion of Aborigines in all age groups who do not, or cannot, make this contribution. Even in the groups of young male adults, among whom it may be expected that capacity for EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 207 work will be high, there are proportionately large numbers of Aborigines who do not work. Some 69 per cent of Aboriginal males in Adelaide, be­ tween the ages of twenty and twenty-four years, were employed at the time of this survey, which means that 31 per cent of males of this, the most active age group, were unemployed. The proportion of persons not in the work force, and therefore a charge on those who are working, continues to be high as the ages ascend. In the general community, the economic fortunes of the fifteen to nineteen year olds tend to be confused by the numbers of persons who remain at school beyond the compulsory age of fifteen years. This factor does not apply generally to Aborigines. Indeed, at the time of this survey, only 13 per cent of males in this age group were continuing their education at either secondary or tertiary level. Yet Aboriginal males who were in employment at this time totalled only 48 per cent of this age group. If we add together the percentage values of those employed and those studying we obtain a total figure of 61 per cent, leaving 39 per cent of the fifteen to nineteen year old males unemployed. To assess the opportunities for Aboriginal females to find employment, we need to compare their rate of employment with the standard rate of female employment set by the general community. In the Australian community at large, it is normal for large numbers of young women to marry and to leave the work force at a relatively early age. It is not possible to distinguish between women who would work if they could find jobs and those who would remain at home even if there were employment opportunities for them outside it. This difficulty can be partly overcome by comparing the relative numbers of Aboriginal females in the work force with the relative numbers of non-Aboriginal females in the work force. A comparison of Figures 41 and 42 reveals this difference. Figure 42 is an age pyramid of the total Australian population enumerated at the 1966 census. As in Figure 41, the proportionate numbers in each age group who were in the work force at this time are indicated by shading. Since both of these diagrams apply to approximately the same period of time, namely 1966, the one taking the total Australian population and the other the Adelaide Aboriginal population, com­ parisons of the employment opportunities of the two populations should be possible. Of course, the two populations are very different in size. The diagram of the total Australian population represents 11,550,462 persons, considerably more than the 1917 Aboriginal persons accounted for in Figure 41. Nevertheless, since these two age pyramids arc calculated on 208 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 42. The non-Ahoriginal ivorkforce shaded to show the proportionate numbers in the workforce at the 1966 census.

Male Female

10 9876543210 0123456789 10

% Population percentage variations, and not on absolute factors, then comparisons are possible. The contrast between the level of employment of urban Aborigines and that of Australians as a whole is immediately obvious from even a glance at Figures 41 and 42. It is evident that a greater proportion of the pyramid which depicts the general population is shaded, representing employment, than is the case in the pyramid representing the Aboriginal population. In fact, the Australian population as a whole had 42-2 per cent of its members in employment of some kind in 1966; the Adelaide Aboriginal community had only 26-2. This means that persons who EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 209

make no immediate economic contribution made up 73-8 per cent of the Aboriginal group and 57-8 per cent of the total Australian population. The contrast is particularly striking if male employment ratios are compared. In the Australian community at large, the work force, as a percentage of the total population, was made up of 29 • 8 per cent males and 12-4 per cent females in 1966. In the Aboriginal population of Adelaide, working males made up 17-5 per cent of the population and working females 8-7 per cent. The gap between the proportionate numbers of employed males in the two populations is much greater than the discrepancy between the female employment ratios. Thus, Aboriginal males appear to find greater difficulty in obtaining employment than do Aboriginal females. Aborigines in Adelaide who are not a part of the work force represent a considerable economic burden for Aboriginal wage-earners. On the face of things it appears that 26-2 per cent of the Aboriginal community is attempting to support the remaining 73-8 per cent. This non-productive group is made up largely of children. Those under the school leaving age of fifteen years accounted for 44-3 per cent of the total Aboriginal population in 1966. There are few old people in this group. In fact, Aborigines above the retiring age (sixty years for women and sixty-five years for men) made up only 2-4 per cent of the population in 1966. This was a rather different picture from that of the Australian population as a whole, of which retired persons accounted for 10-5 per cent at that time. Although, in general, retired persons may be an economic responsi­ bility to the community at large, they are not so great an economic burden to their families because, subject to a means test, they receive age pensions. The white community is fortunate in that a higher proportion of its non-productive members are older persons who either have private incomes or are supported by Commonwealth social services. The Aboriginal community has a higher proportion of its non-productive members in the young age groups which receive considerably less financial support from Commonwealth social services. A family must have at least eight children before it receives as much per week in child endowment as one older person receives from an age pension. When visiting Aboriginal homes, one is struck by the economic difference between those which have an aged member of the family in residence, as well as a number of children, and those which contain children, but no age pensioners. The level of social service payments is especially critical for those families who cannot depend upon a regular 210 CAUSES AND RESULTS

income from employment. Taken on a per capita basis, social services which are structured to make more generous payments to the aged, rather than the young, give greater financial assistance to the white community than to the Aboriginal. The demographic structure of the Aboriginal population has certain parallels with that of economically under-developed countries—a large number of children supported by relatively few adults. Aborigines in Australia, are, however, handicapped further: they are living in a largely industrialised country where there is only a limited demand for unskilled workers. In most under-developed countries, where families are large and levels of education are low, there are usually opportunities for adults to obtain labouring work in the rural industries. This is no longer so in Australia. We have mentioned earlier that the decreasing amount of unskilled work available in the country has been partly responsible for the migration of Aborigines to the city. But even there, as Figure 41 shows, they still find difficulty in acquiring jobs. It is clear then that Aborigines are living demographically on the level of economic life in an under-developed country within the socio-economic structure of a developed country. Not all of the unemployed Aborigines could in fact be employed, even if unskilled work were readily available. Aborigines have suffered mentally and physically during the disintegration of their society, with the result that many are now maladjusted and unable to work. The relatively large number of these people in long-term hospitals, especially psychiatric hospitals, and in penal institutions, is evidence of their mal­ adjustment. The situations of these persons are discussed in other chapters. They are an economic responsibility to the state, rather than to their families. Even so, their families must care for such persons when they are released. Several Aborigines arc frequently in gaol because they arc unable to work, yet, by the same token, they are a burden to their families when they are not in prison. Although the state cares, almost unwittingly, for many persons who cannot work, it does not care for others who could work if they were helped more adequately with their problems of finding and keeping jobs. The following diagrams attempt to illustrate some of these problems. A further discussion of Aboriginal employment in Adelaide can be found in Gale and Lewis (1966). Many of these factors have also been studied in other parts of Australia. Examples can be found in works such as those edited by Sharp and Tatz (1966). More material dealing with the problems of Aboriginal employment, as well as on other topics, can be obtained EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 211

Figure 43. Employment and welfare. Relative numbers of Aborigines of fifteen years of age and over in three categories oj employment, one of unemployment, and one representing women at home, invalids, pensioners and other persons not able to work. These categories are subdivided to show degrees oj contact with government welfare agencies.

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

Frequent contact

□ Infrequent contact u CL 0 B No contact

from the bibliography published regularly by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. The diagrams analyse various aspects of the employment of Aborigines 212 CAUSES AND RESULTS of fifteen years of age and over in the Adelaide metropolitan area. O f the 1917 persons for whom details were available, 1069 were fifteen years of age and over on 1 January 1966. Figure 43 shows the percentage numbers of these 1069 persons in each of the employment categories defined and the degree to which each group is in contact with government welfare services. Those described as ‘skilled’ workers include such persons as qualified tradesmen, nurses, teachers, and secretaries. ‘Semi-skilled’ refers to the type of work done by truck-drivers, shop assistants, or general office workers. ‘Unskilled’ work is used to describe that of persons in labouring or domestic jobs. The ‘unemployed’ category includes persons who, theoretically, could work but did not have a job for much, or all, of the duration of this survey. They were not just temporarily unemployed, but regularly so. Some were employed for short periods of time but spent more time out of work than in. The category ‘other’ includes married women who were not earning, students of fifteen years of age and over, all persons receiving invalid or age pensions, and those more or less permanently incapacitated. It is a large column, representing 41 per cent of those fifteen years of age and over. It shows that, apart from young children, the Aboriginal community has a high proportion of persons who cannot for one reason or another contribute to the economy. This group includes married women, who might work if they could find employment, and persons in penal or mental institutions, who, had greater care and assistance been available to them in the past, might now have been able to earn. Figure 43 shows that the largest proportion of the Aborigines who are actually in employment are in unskilled jobs. At the time of this survey 32 per cent of all Aborigines of fifteen years of age and over, or nearly 60 per cent of those working, were in unskilled occupations. This fact is not surprising when one considers the low levels of education persisting amongst the Aboriginal community as a whole. The corollary, of course, is that there are relatively few persons in skilled occupations. Skilled Aborigines made up only 7 per cent of those of fifteen years of age and over, or 13 per cent of those in employment, at the time of this survey. The bars in Figure 43 have been subdivided in order to show the relative responsibility which the state takes, through its welfare services, for Aboriginal persons in each category of employment. As in Chapter 10, the welfare departments referred to arc the three government departments dealing with social welfare in Adelaide from which Aborigines can obtain assistance. The shading indicates that at least some Aborigines in EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 213 each employment category have had contact with one of these three government agencies. This diagram indicates how closely economic factors affect Aborigines’ contacts with welfare organisations. An Aboriginal does not usually approach an agency unless he has a problem. Mostly, these problems are economic. Indeed, Aborigines brought up on the ‘hand out’ system have come to see government welfare agencies primarily as places which give out material aid in times of emergency. By and large Aborigines do not see these departments as counselling services which might assist them to solve other problems such as marital or educational difficulties. That this was the viewpoint of Aborigines generally, was clearly revealed by the survey carried out in 1970 by the Public Service Board of South Australia, whose aim was to find out how Aborigines viewed the role of govern­ ment welfare services. The measurement of contact with welfare services has again been placed into three categories. Those who visit one or more of the depart­ ments often and are recorded in voluminous files are deemed to be in frequent contact. Those who have been seen by welfare officers occasion­ ally and for whom there are only small files are classed as being in infrequent contact. The third category is self evident. No file on these persons exists in any of the three government agencies. In Figure 43 it can be seen that only a small proportion of those in skilled employment, and therefore, presumably, with reasonable income­ earning capacities, have any contact with a government welfare agency. The majority of the Aborigines in this employment group are quite unknown to either of the departments dealing with Aboriginal welfare or to the general state department of welfare. The ratio of Aboriginal contact with welfare agencies increases as their degree of skill, or job security, decreases. Figure 43 shows that, of the Aborigines counted in this survey, more than half of those in unskilled jobs had regular contact with one or more of the government welfare departments. Similarly, just over one half of the unemployed Aborigines had frequent welfare contact. A survey of voluntary agencies, made during the course of this study, (Gale, 1966) shows that unskilled and unemployed Aborigines also seek help regularly from numerous non­ governmental welfare bodies. Some Aborigines in unskilled jobs have temporary periods when they are out of work. But even when constantly employed, these Aborigines find great difficulty in coping with their financial problems. They belong in the low socio-economic groups referred to in the Nimmo 2 1 4 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Report (1969), by the survey on poverty undertaken by the Australian Institute of Political Science (Masterman, 1969), and in the Melbourne study of poverty (Henderson, et ah, 1970). They live on or below the poverty line. It is not surprising that for them, frequent contact with welfare agencies is inevitable. A large number of those categorised as ‘other’ have had no contact with welfare agencies. These include wives of men who are economically self-sufficient and those married to white men, older students who are being supported by scholarships, and persons subsisting on social service benefits, such as invalid or age pensioners. A significant proportion of this ‘other’ group appears to be in frequent need of assistance. Primarily these are the wives of those unskilled and unemployed males who also need help, but the category also includes many maladjusted persons who cannot manage to survive without assistance of some kind from welfare agencies. The remaining figures in this chapter deal only with those of fifteen years of age and over who are actually or potentially in the work force. Those in the above category o f‘other’ are all omitted; women at home, students, pensioners, persons in institutions, children under fifteen. In Figure 44, representing 631 Aborigines, the work categories have been drawn in a way similar to that used in the previous diagram. Figure 44, however, correlates the type of employment with the length of time the individuals concerned have lived in Adelaide. The length of residence in the city has been divided into five periods; less than one year, one to three years, four to six years, seven to nine years, and ten or more years. Apparently the length of time spent in the city does influence the type of employment an Aboriginal can obtain, though there are many other factors involved. Half of the persons in skilled employment had lived in Adelaide for more than ten years at the time of this study. This is proportionately much higher than the figure for any other employment category, although there are persons in each group who have lived in the city a long time. Well over half of those in unskilled jobs had been in Adelaide for a relatively short period of time when this survey was made. It does therefore appear that the longer an Aboriginal lives in the city the greater is the opportunity for vocational training and the acquisition of a semi-skilled or skilled job. Whilst it is true that the city offers more opportunities for semi-skilled and skilled employment than most rural areas can provide, there are other factors represented in this diagram. The majority of Aborigines in skilled and semi-skilled employment, who have lived in Adelaide for more than a decade, were actually EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 2 1 5

Figure 44. Employment in relation to length of residency in Adelaide. The number o f years Aborigines had resided in Adelaide at the time o f this survey is related to their employment.

<1 year in city

1-3 years » ..

4-6 ......

7-9 ......

10+ ......

educated in the city. Many came to Adelaide as young children and received better schooling than their counterparts in the country. Several went into apprenticeships and to trade schools when they left secondary school. Such opportunities were seldom available to those educated on the reserves or in country towns. The fourth category in Figure 44 is perhaps a little surprising. One would expect that persons who have lived in the city for four or more years would be able to find some kind of employment. Yet two-thirds of the unemployed Aborigines in this survey had been resident in Adelaide for more than three years. Nearly one-quarter had lived in the city for a decade or more without obtaining permanent employment. Apparently, 216 CAUSES AND RESULTS

the length of time these Aborigines had lived in Adelaide made little difference to their employability. Indeed, they arc virtually unemployable. They form an uneconomic hard core, as it were, in the Aboriginal community, over and above those who are physically or mentally incapacitated for work. It is a sombre fact that in the Aboriginal population there is a relatively large group of persons who cannot hold jobs. Mainly, these are people who are emotionally maladjusted and socially disturbed. No amount of time in the city will, of itself, make them employable. They require comprehensive and intensive therapy, for they need complete re­ education—emotional, cultural, and social. A regional division of the Adelaide Aboriginal population, according to its members’ skills, has been made in Figure 45. This diagram uses the same population as that described in Figure 44 but subdivides it on the basis of regional origin. The bars in Figure 45 have been brought to the same value to show relative, not actual, numbers. The diagram depicts the relative degrees of skill within each regional group. This diagram shows two important facets of the Aboriginal situation in Adelaide. A relatively large number of Aborigines from the Northern Territory and northern South Australia are skilled workers. Almost without exception, these skilled persons were sent south to be educated when they were young children. They lived in children’s homes or foster homes. They received a higher level of education than their counterparts from any other area of South Australia, as will be shown in Chapter 14. The other important aspect brought out by this diagram is the large proportion of semi-skilled Aborigines in the Adelaide-born group. These Aborigines possess an educational background similar to that of the young Aborigines who were sent south from the Northern Territory and the northern part of the state. The job differences between those from the north and those born in Adelaide, lies not in a difference in their educational opportunities, for these were broadly similar: their different levels of achievement result from their different social and familial backgrounds. The northern people who were reared by whites were motivated to go on and become trained as tradesmen, nurses or teachers. By contrast, the city people were brought up in their own families which possessed lower educational and employment aspirations. Most Aboriginal parents lack the knowledge, experience, and con­ fidence to assist their children to train for either the skilled trades or the professions. The whole ethos of the Aboriginal community discourages EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 2 1 7

Figure 45. Regional variations in occupation. The numbers from each regional group are given a value oj 100 per cent to show relative differences in employment.

Unemployed Semi-skilled □ Unskilled Skilled

educational achievement. It seems evident that supportive adult education in broad terms is essential before we can expect many Aboriginal children to enter the fields of higher education and more remunerative employ­ ment. Figure 45 shows a further contrast in opportunity when one examines the bars representing those persons who were born and educated on the government reserves of Point McLeay and Point Pearce. The majority of Adelaide Aborigines who were reared on these two reserves are unskilled workers. Figure 45 therefore suggests two things: Aborigines educated in the city have greater economic opportunities than those from the reserves; but the level of skill achieved depends more upon the social and familial background of the individual than upon his educational opportunity. Figure 46 looks at only the three categories of those actually employed: the skilled, the semi-skilled, and the unskilled. In this figure the bars have 2l8 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 46. Employment in relation to mission background. The three employment categories showing degrees of skill have been given equal value in this diagram. The bars are subdivided to show the relationship between employment skills and life history on a mission or government reserve.

Never on mission or reserve a 10 or > years since leaving mission or reserve a 5-9 0 - 4 ii ii

again been brought to the same value to show the relative, not the actual, numbers of persons who have or have not been reared on a reserve or mission. The length of time since leaving the mission or reserve is also shown. The periods of time elapsed since leaving the mission or reserve, are indicated by three types of shading: up to four years, five to nine years, and ten or more years. It is evident that the majority (65 per cent) of skilled Aborigines have never lived on a reserve or mission. As stated previously, most persons holding skilled jobs have been reared and educated in the city. By contrast, some 68 per cent of the unskilled workers were reared on one; only 32 per cent being brought up away from a mission or reserve. The factor that has a critical bearing on the type of job they obtain is whether they have been reared on a reserve or in the general Australian community. This diagram, like the previous one, suggests that Aborigines EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 219 who have been reared within the general community are more likely to become semi-skilled or skilled workers than those who were brought up in segregated communities. Furthermore, Figure 46 shows that, whatever the length of time spent in the city in later life, it makes little difference to one reared on a reserve. It is the early years of schooling which determine levels of skill, because Aborigines rarely receive adult education in the city or elsewhere. Figures 45 and 46 do not support the official attitude that reserves arc training centres. ‘The various Reserves, according to their facilities, are actively engaged in training Aborigines in a number of fields’ (S.A.P.P., 1964, No. 20:6). Our research indicates that, whatever the theory under­ lying the administration of an Aboriginal reserve, in practice the element of ‘training’ is either minimal or absent. A11 upbringing on a segregated reserve does not equip an Aboriginal for economic independence as an integrated member of the general community. The only other aspect of Aboriginal employment in Adelaide to be discussed in this chapter is that of continuity. Aborigines are often accused of being unreliable workers who ‘go walk-about’. The results of this study do not support such a blanket statement. Many Aborigines have remained in the same job for a number of years. No doubt continuity in one job is related not only to the personal satisfaction gained by the worker, but also to the degree of difficulty the employer experiences in replacing him. It is therefore not surprising to find that skilled Aboriginal workers retain their positions more easily than do unskilled persons. The following table relates the three employment categories used above to the length of time spent by persons in that job which they filled at the time of the survey. Only working males are listed. Females have been excluded because they may leave a job to marry or have children. Thus the length of time that a woman had spent in one job is not such a useful guide to the factors which lead to job satisfaction as it is in the case of the male worker. There were 189 males in regular employment at the time of this survey for whom details of length of service could be obtained from employers. This table suggests that skilled Aboriginal workers display the greatest continuity of employment, and unskilled persons show more mobility. Some 63 per cent of the persons in unskilled occupations had been in their jobs, at the time of this survey, for less than one year, and many had had several positions since their arrival in the city. By contrast, only 12 per cent of the skilled workers had been in their positions for less than one 220 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Continuity of male employment

Y ears in sam e j o b S k illed Semi-skilled U n s k ille d

Less than one year 3 11 78 O n e y e a r 6 7 21 Two years 4 2 7 Three years 5 4 3 F o u r years 1 4 4 Five years 0 4 2 Six years 1 0 0 Seven years 1 1 0 Eight years 1 2 1 Nine years and over 3 5 8

Total numbers 25 40 124 year, and some 50 per cent had remained in the same occupation for three or more years prior to our survey. As one would expect, the persons in the semi-skilled category fill a midway position between these two extremes of a reasonable degree of continuity and a relatively high rate of mobility. However, one cannot draw definite conclusions from this table. Since the migration of Aborigines to the city is of recent origin, the majority have not lived in Adelaide long enough to remain any length of time in one job. Many of those, in all classes of work, who had spent less than two years in one occupation, had lived in the city for only that period of time. However the study does show that a fair proportion of those who become settled in the city become reliable and steady workers no matter what kind of job they are in. It was not possible to make a comparable study of white workers in various occupations, and this would be necessary before one could make any definite statements about the relative reliability of Aboriginal and European employees. Several factors emerge from this study of employment. Many Aborigines are capable of performing a variety of jobs in a manner equally as satisfactory to their employers as that of Europeans. Such persons, whether in skilled or unskilled occupations, are considered by their employers to be reliable workers. On the other hand, many Aborigines, due to deprivation and social maladjustment, are not only unemployed, but are virtually unemployable. Intensive therapy would be necessary to assist them to become economic contributors instead of recipients. Nowhere are such programs of rehabilitation being carried out. It seems inefficient, that because such adults were deprived in the past their children are being deprived in the present, and thus as a community EMPLOYMENT OF ABORIGINES IN ADELAIDE 22T we are unwittingly encouraging larger numbers of unemployable persons to emerge in the next generation. Many other persons can be found midway between these two extremes. Such Aborigines have been seriously handicapped by lack of education and training. Many are physically and mentally capable of economic advancement if they could be given the necessary skills to acquire more remunerative positions. It would appear therefore that the economic imbalance in the Aboriginal community could be at least partially overcome with efficient adult education. To overcome it completely would require intensive work at the level of a crash program. But clearly if this money is not invested now the future costs to the whole community of increasing numbers of under-employed and unemployed persons will be much higher. 13 ABORIGINES AND THE LAW

\ borigines as well as members of the general community are bound by T V the Australian legal system. The speech of Governor Hindmarsh, in establishing the colony of South Australia, stated that Aborigines were British subjects and as such were to be entitled to the full protection of British law. The underlying assumption was that, if two legal systems were allowed to exist, one of them would inevitably confer a lower status upon its subjects than would the other. In practice two legal systems have always co-existed, with the result that some Aborigines have been bound by both Aboriginal and Australian law. The effectiveness of the Aboriginal legal structure has been steadily undermined but there are still Aborigines in South Australia who suffer because of the conflict between the two legal systems. Furthermore, there are many Aborigines who are being forced to undergo radical changes in their way of life. For these people, now as in the past century, neither traditional Aboriginal law nor the Australian legal system is effective. From the early days of the state there have been critics of the system of applying concepts of British law and justice to people of another culture. Contemporary observers such as Grey (1841) and Eyre (1845) recognised the existence and effectiveness of the Aboriginal legal system. More recent research by anthropologists such as Strehlow (1947, 1970), Meggitt (1962, 1966), Bcrndt and Bcrndt (1964), Berndt (1965), and Hiatt (1965) has provided information about the processes of law and order which applied in Aboriginal societies, and the various means at their disposal for the punishment of a transgressor. Legal writers such as Kriewaldt (1960) and Eggleston (1970) have recently studied the conflicts ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 22 3 which occur in the lives of Aborigines who in their present circumstances are forced to abide by both the Aboriginal and Australian legal systems. Commonsense modifications of legal procedure have gradually been established, in an attempt to overcome the source of the practical difficulties of applying British law to Aborigines. These modifications apply largely to Aborigines who have had little contact with Europeans. An example of such adjustment is the South Australian Evidence Act 1929- 1957. This Act was based upon a much earlier Ordinance, passed in 1848. Certain Aborigines, very fully and rather quaintly described in both documents, are absolved from the obligation of taking an oath (and therefore, of course, from the possible risk of a charge of perjury in the future). A further example is the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance of the Northern Territory (1939) which states that a court in which an Aboriginal is convicted of murder (the sentence for which, according to law, is death) ‘shall not be obliged to pronounce sentence of death’ but may ‘impose such penalty as, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, appears to the Court to be just and proper’ (Kriewaldt 1960:47). Kriewaldt observes that, in practice, long before the passing of this Ordinance, the death penalty had always been commuted. Cases in which a ‘crime’ is committed for purely tribal reasons are comparatively rare in Australia today. Aboriginal law has lost much of its power. But where cases have occurred in recent years, the penalties imposed show that much more regard was taken to the circumstances in which the crimes were committed than occurred in previous decades. Such a case, relevant to the present study, was that heard before Mr Justice Chamberlain in Adelaide in 1964, in which six men were convicted upon charges arising from the murder of another Aboriginal. Since all six were serving sentences at Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide at the time of this survey, they were included amongst the Aborigines interviewed in Adelaide. The sentences imposed by His Honour upon these six men appear to have been nominal in view of the crime, and seem to have given due regard to the influence of Aboriginal law. The text of his sentence is quoted in Appendix III at the end of this book. This suggests a good deal more flexibility of outlook than that of a case in 1861. This case (Rex v. Neddy Monkey, 1861) quoted by Kriewaldt (1960), shows the lengths to which the general principle was taken, that is, that the whole criminal law should be applied to Aborigines. In that case four Aborigines were charged with the murder of another. An Aboriginal woman, called as a witness for the prosecution, claimed to be the ‘lubra’ of one of the 224 CAUSES AND RESULTS accused. Had she been a white woman she could not have been compelled to give evidence against her husband. However, Mr Justice Barry in the Full Court, to which the question of the admissibility of the woman’s evidence was referred, held that, as proofs of her marriage were lacking, her evidence was admissible. In spite of a progressively more liberal attitude, reforms in procedure are still necessary in Aboriginal cases, particularly where there are difficulties of communication. Many Aborigines can speak English sufficiently to be understood, but not well enough to understand many of the constructions or shades of meaning which may be used in a court­ room. Discussing this problem of communication, evident in cases heard at Alice Springs, Downing (1969:2) says, ‘Affirmation of negatives or double negatives often leads to misunderstanding. If a person is asked in a court, “You did not want to kill that man, did you?” the answer would almost invariably be “Yes”, meaning “Yes, I did not want to kill him” .’ Since in normal English usage the answer, No, would be anticipated in such a case, then, as Downing continues, ‘It is not hard to see the possi­ bilities of miscarriage of justice in this practice.’ In crimes of a minor nature the problem of conflict between Aboriginal and Australian law is less likely to occur. But the problem of com­ munication with Aborigines who have had little education and are largely illiterate is still just as real. Eggleston (1970) has studied this situation in an attempt to see just how far justice has miscarried because of cultural and social differences between Aborigines and other Australians. Even if an Aboriginal can speak English well, there may still be barriers to adequate communication because of differences in cultural back­ ground between those being tried and those administering justice. It is very difficult for a magistrate to assess the extent to which cultural factors influence the actions and responses of any Aboriginal. K. Inglis (1961) gives an account of the controversies which arose over one such case. There are instances involving Aborigines in which the two legal systems do not actually conflict but in which neither system effectively applies. Recent cases concerning young men from the Amata reserve in northern South Australia provide evidence of the inadequacies in the Juvenile Courts Act. Some young Aborigines became intoxicated through inhaling petrol fumes and then broke into the local store. Naturally, there is nothing in traditional Aboriginal law to deal with any offence relating to petrol. The old people therefore are at a loss to deal with a new offence such as this. Yet it seems that the Juvenile Courts Act can only offer penalties which are either ineffective or severe in the ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 225 extreme. Offenders may be brought south for trial and returned under bond. When this happens, they have had, in their own eyes, a good holiday at the government’s expense. The bond has no meaning to them. Or they may be committed to the guardianship of the Minister of Social Welfare and be placed in an institution in the city, or they may be sent directly to a reformatory. To remove young men suddenly and forcibly from their familial and cultural setting, and then to place them in an institution in the city threatens to destroy any possibility of their future adjustment to European society and their integration into the Australian community. Thus, of the two alternative courses of action that are open to a magistrate, one is meaningless and the other is socially dangerous. Aborigines vary considerably in their degree of sophistication. It is obvious that the extent to which Aborigines have accepted European culture will largely determine the measure of their understanding and acceptance of European laws. It is equally as obvious that the penalties imposed by those laws will vary in effect according to the degree of sophistication possessed by Aborigines who are convicted. One stipendiary magistrate, Mr Cameron Stuart, who has had considerable experience with Aborigines in the courtroom, described, in a personal interview, this variation between Aborigines and their differing responses to the law as a ‘continuum of sophistication’. He suggested that every Aboriginal sits at a different point on this continuum although, for convenience, three bands could be identified. The first band consists of the integrated, city people for whom gaol is an effective punishment, because it brings undesirable consequences, such as the loss of job, money, and social status. At the opposite end of this continuum are the unsophisticated Aborigines, for whom a conviction may hold positive attractions. This especially applies to the comparatively unsophisticated Aborigines who live in the remoter northern areas of the state. Offenders are likely to be mainly young males. The nearest court where a case can be heard is at Port Augusta. To take them there may involve a journey of several hundred miles, which is in itself an opportunity for travel of the kind not usually available. During the trial they will experience better material conditions than prevail at home. Thus the experience may not be distasteful and may even be positively enjoyable. Furthermore, it may increase their social status on return to the home territory, because of the stories, either real or imaginary, which then can be retold at length. For them, therefore, a conviction will offer negative valence in terms of punishment and indeed may even be positively attractive. 226 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Between these two opposite extremes, Cameron Stuart suggests, there are many to whom a conviction is neither a real deterrent nor an interest­ ing experience. Various people from the southern reserves, now living in Adelaide, could be categorised in such a way: they do not like going to gaol because it limits their freedom of movement but it has no social disadvantages and produces no particular effect upon their employment opportunities. On the other hand it does at least offer the guarantee of accommodation and regular meals. Although the application of the law must be the same in all cases, drawn from these three broad categories, the administration of punish­ ment needs to be adjusted to suit the level of sophistication of the offender. We have already referred to the tendency of modern judges to take this into account when sentencing offenders. But a problem arises since it is axiomatic that punishment, to be effective, should also bring dis­ advantages. Norval Morris (1966:627-656) discusses this problem in terms of ‘the principle of less eligibility’. If, in fact, the punishment is either enjoyable or meaningless, it makes nonsense of the application of Australian law to many Aborigines. Partly because of the unreal nature of the punishments being meted out to Aborigines, the numbers of persons admitted to reformatories and prisons is not decreasing. In fact, the converse is true. For many, admission to a penal institution, though distasteful, has certain advantages. Through the educational programmes offered at Yatala, the maximum security prison in Adelaide, some illiterate Aborigines have learnt to read and write; others with a limited knowledge of English have been helped to extend their grasp. Aborigines who were interviewed at Yatala have commented on these services. They expressed the opinion that a gaol sentence was actually an asset because there were no such opportunities in the general community, especially in the outback, for illiterate persons to learn to read and write. It seems to be rather a grave indictment to suggest that Aborigines must first commit serious offences and be sent to a long-term gaol before they receive the kind of general educational opportunity which would enable them to become integrated members of the Australian community. The number of Aborigines admitted to gaols and reformatories in South Australia has risen quite strikingly in recent years. This increase applies both to the total numbers of Aborigines and also to the pro­ portion of Aborigines to non-Aborigines. In the year ending 30 June 1957, Aboriginal admissions to South Australian gaols comprised 7-4 per cent of the total admissions, even though Aborigines made up less than 1 per cent ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 227 of the total population. In the year ending 30 June 1967, Aboriginal admissions to gaols had risen to 19-6 per cent of the total; in the year ending 30June 1969, 23-8 per cent; and in the year ending 30 June 1970, 30-9 per cent. At first sight these figures appear to support the prediction of Gregor and McPherson (1964), who tested Aborigines at Yuendemu and Hermannsburg in Central Australia. They used primarily the Porteus Maze test but supported it with the Gestalt continuation test. They compared the test results of these Aborigines with the results of tested Europeans and said that the Aboriginal: scores tend to indicate that assimilation of the Aborigines into Australian society will be accompanied by considerable adaptive tensions. The crime and delinquency rate among Aborigines can be expected to exceed that of the white population at least during the initial acculturation period. Whether the crime rate stabilizes finally at the average community level will be determined by a number of considerations not the least of which is the fact that the Aborigines constitute a population of high social visibility, which makes their complete assimilation increasingly difficult to effect (1964:10).

The present author is not competent to discuss the validity of such psychological tests. The results appear to be applicable to the general South Australian situation, in which Aboriginal crime is increasing as assimilation proceeds. But the tests of Gregor and McPherson were carried out on a limited and non-typical sample. The following analysis of Aboriginal offenders in Adelaide shows that various environmental factors greatly influence the crime rate. ‘Considerable adaptive tensions’ are certainly present in Aborigines who arc in the process of assimilation, but the extent to which these tensions are expressed in crime and delinquency varies so greatly from one area to another, that one suspects that the difference in environment is as significant as the variations in psychological make-up of different Aborigines. In some circumstances the tensions can certainly be alleviated more readily than in others. The fact that there arc large and increasing numbers of Aborigines who are being admitted to gaols and reformatories docs not necessarily mean that a high proportion of Aborigines are prone to commit criminal offences. The majority of Aborigines are admitted for petty crimes such as drunkenness, using indecent language, or having insufficient means of support. Frequently, these are offences which white persons may commit without being convicted, because they arc less conspicuous in the com­ munity through their lack of pigmentation. Certainly these crimes express Aborigines’ ‘adaptive tensions’: but they are also expressions of poverty. 228 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Moreover, as the sentences for such offences are short and an offence is likely to be repeated, the present pattern of admissions may be that comparatively few offenders arc admitted several times a year. O f the 223 adult Aborigines who were in gaol at some time during the period from 1 July 1962 to 1 January 1965, sixteen had each served more than ten sentences in one year. The charges were drunkenness, drinking methylated spirits, begging, or disorderly conduct. The sentences varied from seven to twenty-eight days. One Aboriginal had nearly one hundred such convictions to his name. Robinson (1969:18) has observed a similar situation in Western Australia. These persons form a minority of the Aboriginal population, but their frequent admissions make the incidence of crime, measured by the number of admissions, appear far more widespread throughout the Aboriginal population than is actually the case. For such petty crimes the sentence is usually a fine or a short term in gaol. Because Aborigines, on the whole, live at low economic levels and these Aborigines in particular have few assets, they arc unlikely to be able to pay a fine, no matter how small. Therefore they are committed to gaol for even the most trivial offences. Similar offences, if committed by white persons, may not necessarily result in committal to gaol. Thus for economic reasons, also, the Aboriginal crime rate, as measured by the number of admissions to gaol, is higher than that of non-Aborigines. Prior to the recent and rapid movement of Aborigines into the general community, maladjusted persons were cared for by their kinsfolk and did not come so readily to the notice of the police. Now Aboriginal families are dispersing and many no longer give protection to such relatives. Thus, in recent years, these Aborigines, who may have been the victims of changing social forces, have remained hidden no longer from the public eye. Because of their economic situation fewer Aborigines can afford legal advice than can white persons under arrest. In general they do not apply to the Law Society of South Australia which provides free legal aid to impecunious persons. During interviews in Adelaide, it became obvious that few Aborigines actually knew that the Law Society provided such a service. Usually only in the case of serious crime arc they directly referred to the Society. Because they did not have legal advice or were not repre­ sented in court, it is likely that some Aborigines have been committed unnecessarily to gaol. Because of these various factors it would not be wise to place too much confidence in the overall figures for Aboriginal gaol admissions. They are a reflection of changing social forces and upheavals within the Aboriginal ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 2 2 9 community. They arc evidence of the ‘adaptive tensions’ many Aborigines arc facing. On the other hand, many Aborigines are coping, virtually unaided, with far-reaching changes in their way of life without exhibiting any outbursts in the form of petty crime or alcoholism. Furthermore, it is likely that the number of Aborigines admitted for long-term imprisonment at Yatala Labour Prison at the time of this survey was unusually large. As previously remarked, it is rare forjudges today to be forced to impose criminal sentences under European law for actions which Aborigines have taken in following traditional law. Yet, during the period under review, six Aborigines were serving sentences at Yatala because, in the terms of European law, they had committed murder although, in the terms of Aboriginal law, they had merely carried out their correct and expected duty. Because of the customary process ol consultation amongst Aboriginal elders, the element of con­ spiracy, as it is judged under European law, is likely to cause more Aborigines to be convicted in a particular case than will be usual in cases of violence committed by Europeans. One, or at the most two white persons might be committed on a charge involving murder, but in the case discussed earlier six Aborigines were committed for trial as the result of the murder of one man. Bearing these factors in mind, it is still worth while to look at the actual statistics. For although the figures overrate Aboriginal offences, as we have seen, the crime rates of Aborigines per capita are still significantly higher than those of other members of the community. In Figure 47 the numbers of Aborigines admitted to gaol in South Australia are compared with the admissions of other South Australians. Figure 47 has been drawn on semilogarithmic graph paper so that the relative trends of the two populations can be seen, although total numbers are quite different. Figure 47 also shows the relationship of admissions in Adelaide to those recorded for the state as a whole. As all persons charged with an offence in Adelaide arc admitted first to the Adelaide Gaol, the number of admissions to this one centre will show the comparative intake of Aborigines and other Australians in Adelaide during the decade 1957- 1966, and can be related to the total figures for South Australia. Figure 48 deals only with Aborigines. As total numbers arc not so dissimilar as in the previous figure, the graph is an arithmetic one. In Figure 48 the admissions of male and female Aborigines to gaol in Adelaide arc compared with male and female admissions to gaol in the remainder of the state. Juvenile offenders, that is those under the age of 2 3 0 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 47. Comparison o f Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal gaol admissions, South Australia. Aborigines and non-Aborigines admitted to gaol between 1957 and 1966 are shown for the state as a whole andfor the city of Adelaide.

Non Aboriginal - State

4000 Non Aboriginal - Adelaide

Aboriginal - State

Aboriginal - Adelaide

Year

eighteen, are not included in either Figure 47 or 48. These diagrams show only adults admitted to gaol. Whereas Figure 47 compared the Adelaide Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal populations with the state totals in each case, in Figure 48, Aborigines living in Adelaide and those elsewhere in the state have been separated into urban and rural populations. In this case, ‘urban’ applies only to those who were admitted to gaol in Adelaide. Thus, included in the rural population are persons living in country towns. Furthermore, the urban or Adelaide figures include a number of country Aborigines who have been sent to Adelaide to gaol. Among them were many persons from the reserves and from the Northern Territory for whom local prisons either were not available or did not provide adequate security in view of the nature of their offences. The distinction therefore between rural and urban in Figure 48 is not at all clear-cut. But it is sufficient to show that there are differences between the admission rates of Aborigines living in the city and those in the country. ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 231

Figure 48. Aboriginal gaol admissions. The Aboriginal rate of admission to gaol between 1957 and 1966 is subdivided on the basis oj location and sex. ‘ Urban applies only to metropolitan Adelaide and ‘rural ’ includes all gaols outside Adelaide.

1000

Rural - Male

Urban - Male

Urban - Female Rural - Female

Year

It appears that the crime rate amongst urban Aborigines is not in­ creasing as rapidly as it is amongst rural Aborigines. Indeed, the big increase in Aboriginal admissions to gaol has occurred primarily outside metropolitan Adelaide. Aborigines who have spent all or most of their lives in the city do not appear to have a crime rate significantly higher than that of the general community. Those city Aborigines who are admitted to gaol frequently were born and reared in rural areas and later migrated to Adelaide. Why is this so? Are Aborigines in the city better integrated? Do greater opportunities for jobs, adult education, sport, clubs, and other facilities limit petty crimes? Certainly on reserves Aborigines say that they drink, gamble, and damage property because ‘there is nothing else to do’. There may be other factors. Aborigines are not so conspicuous in a large city as they are in country towns. Police in country areas are less busy and more alert, therefore, to the behaviour of individuals. It seems likely that Aboriginal petty crime is lower in a city because there are 232 CAUSES AND RESULTS more things for Aborigines to do with their time and energy, but there is also the factor that in a city they may not be so well known to the police as they are in a country town. Lickiss (1971b: 460) in a study of delin­ quency amongst Aboriginal boys in Sydney says, ‘The few children who arc recognised by law as delinquent form the visible part of an iceberg’. The most conspicuous feature shown in Figures 47 and 48 is the accelerating rate of Aboriginal admissions to gaol during the 1960s. This has continued into the 1970s. A closer look at Figure 48 shows that the state’s increase in Aboriginal admissions has been largely due to the big upsurge of convictions in rural areas. This is true for females as well as for males. The recent increases are undoubtedly due to the change in the licensing laws after the passing of the Aboriginal Affairs Act in 1962. The previous restrictions, which prevented Aborigines from obtaining alcohol, were gradually removed from one area after another during 1963 and 1964. From 1964 onwards the numbers of convictions of Aborigines in rural areas and country towns increased rapidly. The change in the licensing laws did not affect the city people so much because Aborigines in Adelaide had usually been able to obtain liquor even if, technically, it was prohibited. Prior to 1963, however, access to alcohol was more limited in the country and, when obtained, was usually consumed in seclusion, as far away as possible from the eyes of the police. Since restrictions have been lifted, permitting Aborigines to obtain alcohol in hotels in the same way as other Australians, the amount of conspicuous drinking and alcoholism has increased. Magistrates agree that almost all Aborigines are convicted for offences committed whilst under the influence of alcohol. Colonel Patrick Montgomery, in a report to the Anti-slavery Society for the Protection of Human Rights, said: ‘It is of course true that most Aborigines will cause trouble while accustoming themselves to drink (and this may take generations), and that some, like some Europeans, will always do so. It is of course desirable that this probationary period should be lived through as soon as possible’ (Montgomery, 1970:7). It is not known to what extent alcoholism is the cause of the increase in more serious crimes against property and people, or to what extent it merely releases feelings already present: feelings of anger and resentment against the white community. Certainly, while drunk, Aborigines, especially young Aborigines, express considerable hostility towards other Australians, whom they blame for their own lack of social equality. In this sense the ‘adaptive tensions’ discussed by Gregor and McPherson arc becoming increasingly evident. ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 233

Lickiss (1971c:215) in a paper on alcoholism amongst Aborigines summarises the situation well: ‘The road towards a culture in which social drinking is well integrated and expresses and adds to the joie de vivre rather than to its tristesse is long and arduous—and is made more difficult because the individuals who must travel it might all say, as one Aborigine said, “I am carrying a load”.’ Females as well as males have been affected by increased drinking and socially deviant behaviour. Females in any population commit fewer offences than males, but the number of female Aboriginal offenders has increased rapidly in recent years. Figure 48 shows a marked upward trend since 1965. As with Aboriginal males, the female convictions are nearly always the result of alcoholism. The rate of female admissions to gaol, like that of males, has continued to increase ever since the licensing laws were lifted. In the year ending 30 June 1970 some 576 adult Aboriginal women were admitted to gaol in South Australia, out of a total admission of 809 adult females. By this year, therefore, Aboriginal women accounted for 71-1 per cent of all female admissions to gaol in this state. Although this figure of 576 female admissions represented only about one quarter of the number of adult Aboriginal male admissions (2231, that is 27-0 per cent of all males), it is very high in comparison with non-Aboriginal females. Whether these rates will continue to increase depends upon what is done to treat these persons for alcoholism and to rehabilitate them socially. At present they receive little care and no therapy in the rural areas. The institutions and social welfare services in the city offer only minimal assistance of a therapeutic nature to some individuals. Preventive work seems to be unheard of. The following figures and table deal solely with Aborigines who served one or more sentences in Adelaide during the course of this study, cither as adults at one or both of the two prisons in the city, Adelaide Gaol and Yatala Labour Prison, or as juvenile offenders at one of the three reformatories. These arc the McNally Training Centre for older boys; Brookway Park, for boys under sixteen years of age; or Vaughan House, the reformatory for girls. These figures apply only to Aborigines classified tor the purposes of this study as Adelaide Aborigines, that is, having been resident in the city for at least six consecutive months between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1966. For the same reasons as those given in Chapter 12, dealing with hos­ pital admissions, the following analysis of prison and reformatory records covers a period of only thirty months from 1 July 1962 to 1 January 1965. 234 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 49. Ages of offenders. This age pyramid oj Adelaide Aborigines has been shaded to show the relative numbers in each age group who were serving a sentence between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1965.

Male Female

70+ □ Aboriginal offenders H 6 5 -6 9

6 0 - 6 4

5 5 -5 9

5 0 -5 4

4 5 -4 9

4 0 - 4 4

3 5 -3 9

3 0 -3 4

2 5 -2 9

2 0 -2 4

15-19

10-14

5 - 9

0 - 4

10 987654321 01 234 56 789 10

% Population

It was desirable, but not possible, to repeat the time consuming process of studying the records of Aboriginal offenders at the end of the survey. Thus the following figures relate only to a period of thirty months although the actual survey, and therefore the definition of residence, was twelve months longer than this. Figure 49 is an age pyramid which shows the proportion of Aborigines admitted to one of these five penal or corrective institutions in relation to the total number of Aborigines for whom details of age were available. ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 235

As recorded in earlier chapters, there are 1917 persons who make up this pyramid, and ages have been projected to 1 January 1966. O f this number, 315 (223 adults, ninety-two juveniles) served a sentence in one of the five penal or corrective institutions over the period of two and a half years for which these institutional statistics were acquired. Although this period seems rather a short one to take for the study of recorded con­ victions, it is probably a fairly reliable indicator of the proportion of offenders in any age group in the Adelaide Aboriginal population. The reason for saying this is that all of the so-called ‘regulars’ were admitted at least once over this period of time. Figure 49 shows, as indeed did the previous diagram, that relatively few Aboriginal females are admitted to a penal institution in comparison with males. In South Australia generally the number of female offenders is increasing rapidly in comparison with the number of non-Aboriginal females, as already mentioned, but in comparison with Aboriginal males, the females account for a smaller proportion of the offenders in any age group. Teenage girls account for the majority of female Aborigines convicted in the city. Alcoholism and prostitution are significant factors in this situation. By contrast, there appears to be a large proportion of males convicted in virtually every age group, except for the very young. There are important sociological factors related to this pattern of behaviour. Rapid social change has disrupted Aboriginal family structure. It has caused males to be socially stranded and left with only minor roles to play in family or society. The increasing crime rate may be evidence of their frustration. Similar patterns of high male crime rates have been observed in other groups who are undergoing social change and rapid population increase, such as the New Zealand Maori (Hunn, 1960). Many offenders in such societies are single males without home or family. Figure 50 is a bar diagram which analyses the regional and kin affiliation of Aboriginal offenders in Adelaide at the time of this survey. The uneven bars show the relative numbers of each group in the Aboriginal population of 1917 persons in Adelaide. The shading in the lower portion of each bar shows the contribution of each regional group to the criminal population of 315 persons. Adults and juveniles are shown separately, eighteen years of age for this purpose being the legal age of adulthood. It can be seen clearly that, in relation to both their own group and the whole Aboriginal city population, the Adelaide-born Aborigines have committed comparatively few offences. Only 5 per cent of those born in Adelaide served a sentence during the course of 236 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 50. Regional affiliations of offenders. The columns representing each regional group have been shaded to illustrate the relative numbers from each group who served a sentence, either as adults or juveniles, between 1 July 1962 and 1 January 1965.

Adults

Juveniles

this study. A contrast to this situation is represented in the following bars. Of the Point McLcay people in Adelaide, some 35 per cent were con­ victed or in gaol or reform school at this time. Of the Point Pearce Aborigines in Adelaide, 27 per cent of their number had been thus committed. Very few adults who were born in Adelaide or who have spent most of their lives in the city have a criminal record. Most of the offenders shown in the first bar (central) of Figure 50 are juveniles. Many of these are young people who were born in the city to parents who, at the time, had recently arrived and were without home or security. Others arc illegitimate children from the liaisons of Aboriginal girls and white men. It has frequently happened that they have had an institutional upbringing, or a home life lacking in security. Thus, those who have stabilised in the city appear to commit few offences. The chief offenders arc young people who are suffering the consequences of social change and lack of family. But the number of delinquents in the city is increasing and this must have serious consequences for the future. ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 237

It is evident from a comparison of these figures that the people from the two oldest government stations of Point McLeay and Point Pearce have not only supplied the largest numbers of migrants to the city, but have also contributed proportionately the highest numbers of those with a gaol or a juvenile record. Point McLeay has produced the greatest numbers, both relative and total, of adult offenders. It is the most emotionally depressed of the reserve groups and, furthermore, has a number of persons who are affected by Huntingdon’s Chorea. Those suffering from early symptoms of this disease often exhibit some forms of criminal behaviour (see Gale and Bennett, 1969). From Figure 50 it is clear that the older government reserves, which have a depressed or apathetic people, also have the highest crime rates. The Aborigines brought up on these reserves take the longest time to adjust to urban life and are the chief cause of the continuously high crime rate which occurs for several years after Aboriginal migration to the city has taken place. Those who have come from smaller rural communities or country towns do not show such a high crime rate either while they are living in the country or once they have moved to the city. The Aborigines who live more or less as integrated members of the general community, whether in the city or the country, arc only slightly more prone to com­ mit criminal offences than are other members of the Australian com­ munity. Aborigines who have been brought up on the segregated reserves and missions appear to commit relatively more offences. There are thus conspicuous differences in the aberrant social behaviour of Aborigines, which are largely related to their different social environ­ ments. It should be noted that Gregor and McPherson (1964), quoted earlier, tested only Aborigines who lived on two segregated reserves. Their predictions therefore may not apply to the Aboriginal population as a whole but certainly do apply to reserve dwellers. None of the other areas shown in Figure 50 has contributed signifi­ cantly to the Aboriginal population in gaols or reformatories. The most interesting diminution in relative offences can be seen amongst persons from the Northern Territory. Although a considerable proportion of these people have been reared in children’s homes or foster homes (see Figure 38) and the majority have little kinship support, there arc fewer offenders amongst them. Probably the main reason for this is that the Aborigines from the Northern Territory represent only two types of people. Firstly, those sent south as children for education were fairly carefully selected as being those who were considered most likely to benefit from 238 CAUSES AND RESULTS schooling in Adelaide. Few of these indeed have committed any offences. The other major group of Aborigines now in Adelaide and who came originally from the Northern Territory are integrated and stable families who moved south of their own volition. Their reason for doing this was largely in order to leave behind the social disadvantages of living as Aborigines in Alice Springs or Darwin. Figure 51 deals only with the 223 adults who served a sentence in gaol in Adelaide during the course of this study. Figure 51 shows the proportionate numbers of these adult offenders in each five-year group of Aboriginal arrivals in Adelaide. The total numbers for each group of arrivals were obtained in the same way as that used for Figures 4 and 7 in Chapter 5. This graph has been drawn in an attempt to see whether there is any significant difference in the proportionate numbers of offenders amongst those who are recent arrivals compared with those who have long been settled in the urban environment. If urban living means there is less crime committed by Aborigines, one would expect this graph to be virtually a straight line which would show a decrease in the proportion of offenders according to the length of time they have lived in the city. This, however, is not the case. It appears that, when Aborigines first come to the city, the various opportunities available give them plenty of scope for self-expression in socially accepted forms. But, if they have been there for some years and have not found satisfactory jobs and social relationships, then their frustration will be expressed in alcoholism and anti-social behaviour. The relative numbers of Aborigines convicted drop rapidly when they first move to the city. Some who have had prior convictions appear to settle down quite quickly, but others take longer. The period of adjust­ ment appears to be somewhere in the vicinity of fifteen years. There is a decrease in the proportionate numbers of adult offenders who have lived in Adelaide for more than fifteen years. This may mean that they have become adjusted to city living after a period of time. On the other hand, it may mean that people who arrived earlier, that is those who voluntarily left the reserves prior to 1951, were more independent and more stable personalities, less prone to alcoholism. However, some of those who left or were expelled during the 1950s were very heavy drinkers. Figure 51 shows that these people, who came to Adelaide between 1951 and 1955 form the highest proportion of offenders. Amongst the more recent arrivals (after 1956) there have been many families who are actively seeking integration into the community and the figures for their offences are lower. ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 239

Figure 51. Length of residency in Adelaide o f offenders. The adult Aborigines who were serving a sentence in Adelaide at the time o f this survey are plotted according to their arrival time in the city.

1946- 1951- 1956- 1961- 1955

Arrival time

Figure 51 may, therefore, merely indicate the different groups of Aborigines who have migrated to the city at different times. From such data it is not possible to analyse the influence of the city on criminal behaviour. However it is apparent that Aborigines born and reared in the city commit considerably less offences than those brought up on reserves. A high degree of mobility appears to be associated with criminal activity. Those Aborigines who drink heavily and are frequently in and out of gaol are unable to hold a permanent job or to maintain a home. 240 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Therefore it is inevitable that, when they are not in gaol, they move from one relative to another and from one house to another. Their high rate of residential mobility is but further evidence of their instability. Of the fifty-three adult Aborigines who had registered nine or more addresses in Adelaide since their arrival, some forty-one served a gaol sentence during the thirty months survey. On the other hand, very few adults who had settled down in a purchased or rented house had a gaol record. Less than 20 per cent ol those adults who had registered no more than three addresses in Adelaide served a sentence during the thirty months. Nor is it surprising to find that, considered as a group, adult offenders have a high rate of contact with Aboriginal welfare agencies. The following table shows that 86 per cent of the Aborigines who were serving gaol sentences at the time of this survey had, prior to their conviction, been in more or less frequent contact with welfare officers of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

N = 315 Welfare work amongst offenders

Percentage contact w ith: Adults Juveniles Dept Aboriginal Affairs 86 40 Northern Territory Welfare 0 9 N o contact 14 51

None of the Northern Territory Aboriginal offenders, however, was receiving welfare counselling from the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration in Adelaide. Approximately 14 per cent of adult offenders had no contact with either Aboriginal welfare agency. Several of these individuals were from the Northern Territory. However, compared with the frequent contact between welfare agencies and adult offenders, the picture is different when we look at the rate of welfare contact with juvenile offenders. Of the juveniles studied in the survey, only 40 per cent (compared with 86 per cent of the adults) had had any record of welfare contact with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. A further 9 per cent were in contact with the Northern Territory welfare section. Of individuals convicted in the juvenile group, 51 per cent were unknown to either of the Aboriginal welfare agencies prior to their convictions. It would appear that there is no policy of preventive social work amongst young people. Potential criminals are not, as a matter of policy, sought out and assisted until after they have committed at least one offence. ABORIGINES AND THE LAW 2 4 I

Figure 52. Educational levels oj offenders. The educational levels off adults in the survey are shown and the bars are subdivided to represent the proportionate numbers in each category with a gaol record.

25 r

M

20 _

M

15 _

□ No record

Criminal record

M Male

F Female

The last diagram in this chapter, Figure 52, shows the relationship between crime and educational achievement. Only adults, that is those eighteen years of age and over, are included in this diagram, which therefore represents 951 Aborigines. This diagram suggests that the majority of crimes are committed by individuals who have had very little education. Only one Aboriginal who had achieved the Intermediate or higher level of education was convicted for an offence during the period oi this study. On the other hand, illiterate persons and those who had very little education contributed a large proportion of the offenders. One cannot say from these figures that lower educational levels are a cause of the greater degree of crime in the Aboriginal community. As will be shown in Chapter 14, as well as in this diagram, Aborigines by and large have had a limited education. Those who attained the Intermediate standard or higher tend to be the few who have been exceptionally fortunate in possessing ability or gaining opportunity. This does not necessarily mean that if all Aborigines had achieved a higher standard of education they would have been less prone to criminal behaviour. 242 CAUSES AND RESULTS

However, it does seem likely that improved educational opportunities for Aborigines would lessen the Aboriginal crime rate. What conclusions can we draw from the pattern of crime in the Aboriginal community of Adelaide? It is a field in which groundless generalisations are particularly easy, and particularly dangerous. Their colour makes Aborigines conspicuous, and thus an Aborginal who commits an offence is almost certain to be arrested or charged, and in the eyes of the general community, the offender is representative of the whole of his group. Aboriginal crime in the city of Adelaide does not appear to consist predominantly of serious offences. Calculation of the mean for the categories of offences shows that the greatest number of offences occurred in the form of drunken and disorderly behaviour amongst adults over twenty-five years of age. Larceny is more prevalent amongst the younger age-groups. The relatively high percentage of young persons who have a juvenile record is notable and carries disturbing social implications. There appears to be an inevitable sequel of subsequent gaol sentences for a high pro­ portion of the juvenile offenders or neglected children. The picture of the lives of such young people that emerges from the case histories of some of the neglected and offending juveniles is one of pitiful deprivation, both materially and emotionally. Some neglected children have had institu­ tional care for a number of years; for these a period of detention in gaol would seem merely an extension into adulthood of the institutional life which constituted a greater or lesser part of their childhood and youth. Aboriginal crime rates are thus a reflection of the deprivation suffered by a people who have lost their traditional way of life and all too frequently have not found satisfaction in any other way of life. In view of the fact that in 1966 it cost an average of $1596 (S.A.P.P., 1968, No. 38:6) to keep a person in gaol, the average annual cost to the government to maintain in gaol the Aborigines counted in this study was somewhere in the vicinity of $250,000. This figure was obtained by calculating how long each of the 223 individuals had spent in gaol during the two and a half years under review. By 1970 the total must be closer to half a million dollars per year since costs and numbers of convicted Aborigines have both risen sharply in the intervening period. And this accounts for the adults only. What of the increasing numbers of juveniles? Preventive social work, skilled assistance in helping the Aboriginal make adjustments and training for Aborigines could not be more expensive and would certainly be more beneficial. EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF 14 ADELAIDE ABORIGINES

T n commenting upon the education of Aborigines who lived in Adelaide A during the period of our study, we shall be dealing with the type of educational practices which apply to the rest of the South Australian community. While some development has been taking place in adopting educational methods to the needs of the more traditionally-oriented Aborigines in remoter areas (Gunton, 1967), such adaptations do not apply to Aborigines who live in the metropolitan area. Therefore the standard type of education applies to Aborigines in Adelaide. The education structure in South Australia falls into three broad divisions; primary, secondary, and tertiary. The first stage occupies a minimum of seven years schooling, the second at least five, while the length of the tertiary education period will naturally vary according to the course being taken but is not usually less than three years. Aborigines may attend any of the educational facilities available to the community at large. However, sociological and economic factors prevent all but a very few from completing secondary school, let alone attempting a tertiary level of education. In recent years financial assistance has been given to Aboriginal families, in an attempt to encourage higher educational attainment. Several different organisations in South Australia offer such help. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs assists secondary school children by providing uniforms, fares, pocket money, and a boarding allowance if they need to live away from home. Abschol, a fund raising scheme organised by Australian university students, has for many years provided scholarships for all Aborigines who undertake tertiary education. Further- 2 4 4 CAUSES AND RESULTS more, since 1964 Abschol has subsidised, on a scholarship basis, Aborigines at the secondary level. The Aboriginal Education Foundation of South Australia, formed in 1965, has paid the fees of a number of Aboriginal children attending kindergarten and has also assisted Aborigines who were not eligible for an Abschol grant at the post-secondary level. In 1969 the Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal Affairs entered the field and began a policy of giving support to all Aborigines over the age of fourteen, at both secondary and tertiary levels. Abschol now assists only secondary students under this age. This large increase in financial assistance to Abo­ riginal children for educational purposes has meant that many more are now staying on at school. The next step, of course, is to see that they are actually being educated and not merely attending school. At the time of this survey Aborigines were found in many of the schools in the metropolitan area. A quick survey made in February 1965 counted 267 Aboriginal children attending 109 schools in Adelaide. Sixty-five of these schools were government primary schools, twenty- five were government secondary schools, and nineteen were private schools. No school at this time had many Aboriginal pupils in attendance, but more than half of the schools in Adelaide had at least one Aboriginal pupil. The wide scatter of school children is to be expected in view of the distribution of Aboriginal families discussed in Chapter 6. A few schools, especially in the inner suburban areas and the new rental housing estates, contained a small nucleus of Aboriginal students. The largest group of Aboriginal children in any one school in 1965 numbered ten. This number was part of the school’s total enrolment of 754 children. Several schools each had eight or nine Aboriginal children enrolled at this time. A further count in 1970 showed one school with nineteen Aboriginal pupils and several with more than ten. In all cases they formed an exceedingly small minority of the students, both in 1965 and in 1970. Rarely were more than one or two Aboriginal children found in the same class. Because of this scattering it has been difficult to develop any specialised educational facilities to assist these children in overcoming their cultural handicaps and the limitations placed upon them by their uneducated parents. The levels of educational achievement of Aborigines in Adelaide at the time of this survey are shown in the following diagrams. Only persons of fifteen years and over are included in these figures. It is now compulsory for all persons in the city between the ages of six and fifteen years to attend school. When today’s adults were at school the minimum leaving age was fourteen. Furthermore, the practice of automatic progression EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADELAIDE ABORIGINES 245 now applies generally in this state. Thus, with a few exceptions, children are promoted one grade each year, irrespective of achievement and Aborigines of fifteen will now automatically have reached the middle levels of secondary schooling before they are permitted to leave school. An analysis of their present levels of schooling will not be of any value in assessing educational opportunity or achievement. Generally speaking, it will merely correlate with their age. Those now past the age of compulsory school attendance were not promoted automatically but on attainment, when they were attending school. Thus the grade which today’s adults reached at school is a guide to their educational achievement as well as their educational opportunity. Furthermore, many of the adult Aborigines now in the city spent their school years in rural areas, where they were either too distant from a school to attend regularly, or where the schooling available did not offer more than the elementary primary grades. Indeed, it was the policy of some mission schools in the past to provide education only until grade 4 at primary level had been reached. Children remained at that level until jobs were found for them, or they were considered old enough to leave school and join the adolescent and adult community. Nowadays children would normally reach this level by the age of eight or nine years. This was not the practice when the majority of the adult Aborigines in Adelaide went to school. Because of the change in educational policy, the level of school attainment is therefore particularly significant for those who have now left school. It is for these reasons that the following diagrams show the educational achievements only of persons of fifteen years of age and over. A similar situation applied in New South Wales (Duncan 1952:2) where children were required to reach only third grade primary standard by the age of fourteen. In 1940 this was raised to fifth grade standard. Aboriginal children were not free to enrol in ordinary state schools in New South Wales until 1949. Aboriginal children today have much more opportunity to attend school than did their parents. Those in the city arc never far from school and are compelled to attend. The majority of those in the country are now assisted by the Education Department school transport scheme, which sends buses into the rural areas surrounding each country school. Only on pastoral stations and in the more remote areas are there any children who cannot attend school. Even then the missions and the Department of Education attempt to provide special schools for Aborigines as they have done at Ernabclla and Amata in the north west. In addition, the Education Department provides a School of the Air for children who have access to 2 4 6 CAUSES AND RESULTS a radio transceiver but are too remote from any school to attend in person. Some Aborigines who live on outback pastoral stations receive schooling in this way. Many of these opportunities were not available in the past. Therefore it is important to discuss the level of school achieve­ ment of the adult Aborigines in Adelaide, as this is a direct reflection of their past educational opportunities. The most conspicuous feature of Figures 53 and 54 is the direct correlation shown between age and opportunity. Although most of the persons of fifteen years of age and over were born in rural areas, it is evident that even there educational opportunity has improved consider­ ably over the past ten to fifteen years. Indeed, there has been a con­ spicuous increase in the availability of general education for Aborigines since the Education Department took over the responsibility of Aboriginal education in the late 1950s and provided the encouragement and the means for children to continue at school. On reserves, such as Point Pearce and Point McLeay, this was done by the provision of buses to take children in the upper primary levels and secondary levels to nearby country area schools, like those at Maitland and Meningie, where general educational facilities were available. Many other innovations, notably the provision of trained departmental staff on certain mission schools, followed this change in policy. Mission schools were required to provide trained teachers or else accept departmental staff. In the head office of the Educa­ tion Department an assistant superintendent was appointed to supervise Aboriginal education at all levels. Since 1964, conferences of teachers in Aboriginal schools have been held in order to allow them to exchange ideas and improve standards. The absence of Aborigines over the age of forty-five years who have had any secondary or tertiary education shows the gross lack of opportunity in the past. Those few individuals who have acquired skilled positions of employment or leadership in the community have done so through their natural ability and perserverence, unaided by formal education. Their numbers are necessarily few. There are of course no professional persons in these age groups. The relative proportions in the Aboriginal population of those who have had secondary or tertiary education are shown in Figures 53 and 54. In the age pyramid in Figure 53, the numbers in each five-year age group who have reached at least the first year of secondary schooling are shown in relation to the total population structure. Their numbers are few. Indeed, in 1966 only 30 per cent of Adelaide Aborigines of fifteen years of age and over had continued their education beyond primary school EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADELAIDE ABORIGINES 2 4 7

Figure 53. Educational attainments— secondary, shaded to represent the relative numbers in each age group who had the opportunity to attend a secondary school.

Male Female

70 * Beyond Primary

6 5 -6 9

6 0 -6 4

5 5 -5 9

5 0 -5 4

4 5 -4 9

4 0 -4 4

35-39

3 0-34

2 5 -2 9

2 0-24

15-19

10-14

5 - 9

0 - 4 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

% Population

and the majority of these had done so only in the last decade. This pyramid, as do those in previous chapters, represents 1917 persons. Those fifteen years of age and over who were promoted at least from primary to secondary level are shown in the shaded portion. There are 271 persons represented by this shading out of a total of 1069 persons of fifteen years of age and over. Figure 54 uses the same basic pyramid but this time only those who have reached the Intermediate standard are represented by the shaded portion. The shaded portion in Figure 54 does not represent those who 2 4 8 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 54. Educational attainments— tipper secondary and advanced, shaded to represent the relative numbers in each age group who had the opportunity to reach the upper secondary or tertiary levels o f education. Male Female

Intermediate and beyond 6 5 -6 9

6 0 - 6 4

5 5 -5 9

5 0 -5 4

4 5 -4 9

4 0 -4 4

3 5 -3 9

3 0 -3 4

2 5 -2 9

2 0 -2 4

15-19

10-14

10

/ Population passed the Intermediate level examination but merely those who remained at school long enough to commence their tenth year. This level is the third year of secondary school. Under present policy it is therefore usual for children, who commence at five years of age, to reach this level by the time they are permitted to leave school, at fifteen years of age. It is the minimum pass standard required for entry into semi-skilled or skilled jobs. The fact that only eighty-three out of 1069 persons of fifteen years of age and over had achieved this standard illustrates well the paucity of EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADELAIDE ABORIGINES 249

Aboriginal education in the past. Even then over one half (forty-two persons) of this group of eighty-three belonged to the age range, fifteen to nineteen years. Therefore Figure 54 shows that at the time of this survey only forty-one Aborigines out of a total of 777 of twenty years of age and over, or 5 per cent of the adult Aborigines in Adelaide, had achieved this minimal standard of education, the Intermediate level of secondary schooling. The other significant factor to be observed in these diagrams is the discrepancy between male and female levels of achievement. More females than males go on to secondary or higher education, in spite of the fact that there are more males than females in the urban population. O f the 271 persons of fifteen years of age and over who advanced beyond primary education, females made up 56 per cent. It is not unusual to find that, in depressed racial groups and among those who are suffering rapid cultural change, females accept European education more readily than do males. This is a familiar feature in the Aboriginal field also (Calley, 1969). Such a pattern may now be changing. In South Australia as a whole, female enrolments at government secondary schools totalled 238 and male enrolments numbered 235 in 1971. In the metropolitan area there were thirty-nine girls and thirty-four boys in the upper secondary levels of the Intermediate and onwards. As mentioned in an earlier chapter, the repercussions of these low levels of educational attainment are reflected in the employment opportunities available to Aborigines. Figure 55 attempts to show this relationship. It consists of two sets of bar diagrams, one drawn for males and the other for females in the Adelaide Aboriginal population. The five educational levels used in Figure 55 are classified as follows: illiterate persons with no formal schooling and who cannot read or w rite; persons who reached an educational level of grade 4 or lower; those who completed grade 4 and reached the upper primary grades of 5, 6, or 7, but did not enter secondary school; persons who were promoted from a primary into a secondary school but did not go beyond the first two levels of secondary education; finally a very small group of Aborigines who had the opportunity to reach the first of the three certificate levels, namely the Intermediate, or were able to go even further to Leaving or Matriculation standard, or beyond to a tertiary institution. The few Aborigines who had gone on to tertiary education at university, teacher’s colleges, art school, or schools of technology are included in this category. Thus all of those who reached Intermediate secondary level or went beyond it have been grouped together since their total numbers are very small. 250 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Figure 55. Employment opportunities in relation to educational attainments. Two sets of bars group males and females into educational levels. These bars are subdivided to show employment skills.

□ Unemployed □ Unskilled 0 Semi-skilled m Skilled

MALES FEMALES

The employment categories are the same as those used in Figures 44 and 45. In Figure 55 separate sets of bars have been constructed to represent males and females so that comparisons can be made, even though actual numbers of males and females in the work force are not the same. As with Figures 44 and 45, some 631 persons of fifteen years of age and over are included in the four employment categories used in Figure 55. This number of 631 Aborigines is made up of 414 males and 217 females. Figure 55 has two main features. The most conspicuous is that females (as a group) have attained higher educational levels than males at least in the past. Figure 55 brings out this contrast even more clearly than did Figures 53 and 54. The other point raised by an inspection of Figure 55 is that there is, as one would expect, a definite correlation between educa­ tional levels and the employment skills. The correlation, however, is more significant in the case of females than males. Figure 55 shows clearly that illiterate or poorly educated Aborigines have less opportunity of obtaining a job, let alone a skilled job, than have those who are better educated. Those listed as unemployed were persons theoretically looking for work and did not include those who were sick or committed to an institution or engaged in domestic duties in their own homes. Aborigines who were unemployed accounted for one-third of the illiterate males and two-thirds of the illiterate females. EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADELAIDE ABORIGINES 251

The second column depicted in both sections of Figure 55 shows that persons who did not have the opportunity to go beyond the first four grades of primary school rarely acquired anything other than unskilled jobs. Males occasionally learnt on the job, as it were, and acquired skills, but women who had low educational levels remained domestics without the opportunity for advancement. The opportunities for employment increased with improved education. In the groups with some secondary education, the proportion of persons in semi-skilled and skilled occupations rises considerably. Indeed, nearly 70 per cent of the males in this survey who had reached the upper secondary levels were in skilled occupations. By contrast, only 4 per cent of those who had not reached secondary level were in skilled jobs. A direct result of the higher educational achievements of females is the fact that relatively more females than males acquire semi-skilled jobs. The statistical matter upon which this chapter has been based presents a fairly bleak picture of the present educational level of the greater part of the Adelaide Aboriginal group. Many of the newcomers, both adults and children, have suffered serious handicaps in obtaining an education. Conditions of rural employment for Aborigines often made continuity of schooling difficult to achieve for their children. The lack of social acceptance by other children, particularly in the early teenage group, was also a factor which greatly discouraged many Aborigines from making use of the educational opportunities which were available. Aborigines have had little motivation to continue with a European type of education. In the past, the majority could obtain employment only in rural industries where formal education appeared to confer no advantages. Thus, for lack of sufficient motive to continue, most Aborigines abandoned their education as soon as possible rather than suffer the indignities of continual failure and lack of achievement. Although these diagrams apply to Aborigines who are living in the city, it is clear that the majority of the adults received their education in rural areas. In all other chapters we have constructed diagrams to illustrate the variation in pattern from one regional group to another. This is not practicable in this chapter. Since the total numbers of adults who have reached the Intermediate or a higher educational level is proportionately very small, if these numbers are further analysed into regional groups they become far too small to show in diagrammatic form. For this reason those Aborigines of fifteen years of age and over who have reached this level of education are shown on a regional basis in the following table. 252 CAUSES AND RESULTS

Proportion of persons offifteen years of age and over who reached at least Intermediate standard

Region Total numbers Numbers who reached Intermediate or above

C entral 102 5 Point McLeay 268 6 Point Pearce 220 6 Northern Territory 200 34 West Coast 98 11 Northern S.A. 86 12 Upper Murray 44 4 South East 30 3 O th e r states 21 2

1069 83

This table shows that, by and large, the rural areas have offered very little educational opportunity to Aborigines. Only three regions have produced relatively significant numbers of persons who reached the upper secondary levels of schooling. These three areas are the Northern Territory, the northern sectors of South Australia, and the West Coast. In each case all of the persons represented in the higher educational category were educated in Adelaide. They were all sent to the city at a fairly early age to be placed in foster homes, boarding schools, or children’s homes. Colebrook Home, which moved from Quorn to Adelaide in 1944, provided educational opportunities for Aborigines from the northern part of the state. St Francis House, opened at Semaphore in 1947, offered places to boys from the Northern Territory. Since 1957 many other young people from the Northern Territory have been sent south either to foster homes or hostels such as Wiltja, the Aboriginal girls’ hostel at Millswood. Koonibba mission, on the West Coast, has sent young people to Concordia College in Adelaide to enable them to receive secondary education. Thus even these figures show that the city has really been the only area to offer further educational opportunity to Aborigines in the past. But more and more Aborigines in rural areas have been able, indeed forced, to attend secondary school in recent years. At the time this study was made most of the attempts to improve Aboriginal education were less than ten years old and therefore it should be at least another ten years before the results are seen in terms of better opportunities for the adult population. However, making secondary schooling available to Aborigines in both urban and rural areas is only one factor in fostering their educational EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF ADELAIDE ABORIGINES 253 achievements. The provision of schools does not by itself automatically lead to large scale improvement in Aboriginal education. This has already been demonstrated amongst young Aborigines in Adelaide. Although opportunities in the city are greater, it is doubtful whether the urge to make use of these opportunities has increased correspondingly amongst them. Education to one of the lower secondary levels is still the highest standard achieved by the greater part of the Adelaide Aboriginal popula­ tion. and males especially are therefore chiefly in unskilled employment. The same lack of motivation to continue an education seems to apply to boys who are approaching school leaving age in the city as it did to those living under rural conditions. Economic stress in a large family is certainly a powerful influence in causing its members to go into employment as soon as possible, but the Commonwealth scheme of subsidising children at secondary level is attempting to lessen this pressure. There are also many non-economic factors limiting educational achievement. The young adult male may see no obvious benefits from education, but a job may seem doubly attractive because of the money and goods it confers. Yet, even so, in the Adelaide community there are signs of improve­ ment in the position. There has been both a response from the com­ munity at large, which is directed towards assisting Aborigines to obtain education and an increasing awareness amongst some Aborigines them­ selves of its practical value to them. A decade ago many discerning Aborigines realised both what education had done for the white man and wha: value it could be to Aborigines. Many other Aborigines paid lip- service to education, but the practical means of obtaining it were not available to them. City life and permanent employment have now brought the means to get an education within the reach of many. Economic assistance is now available to those who wish to continue their education. Some are availing themselves of all branches of education, not only technical and commercial, but academic as well. Some have trained as teachers, while a few have entered universities or other tertiary institutions. The first Aboriginal to graduate from an Adelaide university completed his degree at the Flinders University in 1970. Nevertheless the motivation these people have displayed is rather exceptional for members of the present Aboriginal community in Adelaide. Tuese factors of changing opportunity and motivational problems have been discussed on an Australia-wide basis at seminars and conferences and more general discussion of them can be found in Dunn and Tatz 2 5 4 CAUSES AND RESULTS

(1968) and Roper (1969). Certainly there is considerable work to be done both in improving motivation and developing special forms of educa­ tional assistance for those with emotional or cultural handicaps. The Education Department of South Australia has recently introduced several schemes to try to improve both the level of teaching and the motivation of Aboriginal students (Whitelaw, 1970), but it is yet too early to measure their success. Broom (1970:156), in a discussion of Aboriginal education, summarises the situation thus: Because the whole Aboriginal population suffers educational disadvantage, there is no particular age grouping that commands attention to the neglect of others, nor any single pedagogical solution .... The evidence shows that the present Aboriginal population as a whole is inadequately educated to cope with an agricultural economy of the late nineteenth century, much less an industrial economy of the late twentieth century. 15 CONCLUSION

f I "he city encourages social change. At the same time it consolidates A some cultural forces operating within the Aboriginal community. The importance of the urban environment in inducing social change has been observed in many parts of the world: Murphy (1962) has called the city ‘a center of change’. This study has shown some of the details of two major aspects of Aboriginal migration to Australian cities in recent years. It has shown on the one hand that Aborigines find new opportunities in the urban environment and that they make adaptations as a result. On the other hand the new environment, for many reasons, encourages the persistence of certain patterns of kinship behaviour learnt in the rural community to which they belonged formerly. The dual role of the city in both inducing change and at the same time encouraging the continuance of some cultural features has been documented by writers such as Banton (1957) and Epstein (1969). Certainly for Aborigines the city is a new environment. Many changes must take place in their way of life if they are to remain within it. Such changes they are evidently prepared to make because they are migrating in increasing numbers into Australian cities. They migrate knowing that they will have to make adjustments, but they consider that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages—although, of course, their ways of expressing such a concept are often imprecise. The social changes which result from urbanisation are numerous and the forms which they take depend upon a number of independent but related variables. These variables include the reasons for an Aboriginal’s 256 CONCLUSION migration to the city, the means whereby he comes, or is brought, and the social and economic situation he enters on arrival. All of these interact to produce the kind of adjustments he must make in his new environment. This study has separated these various factors and placed them into categories for convenience in handling the data. This study has not attempted, primarily, to study the adjustments made by Aborigines to city living. It has dealt with the spatial and demographic aspects ot the migration of Aborigines to Adelaide; where people have come from, why they have moved, where they have settled, and in what social conditions they were living at the time the study was made. Thus this book has dealt with the pattern and direction of Aboriginal migration rather than the social results of their movement, although inevitably these are related and some results arc discussed. For instance, one chapter has been given to a study of kinship in Adelaide. This is not, however, an examination of the nature of kinship in the urban environment such as an anthropologist might make: it is a description of the function of kinship in the migration process. As such it looks at kinship as a reason for migration and its operation within this context, but it does not discuss kinship systems found in the Australian city today. That kind of analysis has been made for the Aboriginal community in Melbourne by Barwick (1963). The presence of relatives in the city has been an important factor in the decision taken by some Aborigines to leave the rural community and join their kinsmen in Adelaide. The opportunities for economic gain and social independence provided by the city, are attractive forces which encourage migration, but the presence of relatives in the city is of central importance in helping Aborigines to make the initial move. Migration is a painful process calling for many adjustments, so that any support which relatives can give has a significant part to play in the final decision to migrate. For this reason Aboriginal groups which retain considerable cohesion have migrated in greater numbers than those lacking this supportive bond. Where there is continual feed-back from the city dwellers to their kinsfolk in the country and where kinship obligations are recognised there is more encouragement for Aborigines to move to the city. For example, the rapid and large scale migration of Point McLeay people has shown the importance of these features, namely group cohesion and feed­ back, in inducing migration. Because Aborigines from Point McLeay know that there arc several households in Adelaide ready to give them accommodation, they feel much freer to migrate to the city than do Aborigines from some other areas. CONCLUSION 257

The size of the migration from each area is thus largely a reflection of the relative cohesiveness of each regional group. For this reason the pattern of movement exhibits features similar to those described by Price (1963) as chain migration. Although better opportunities for education and employment are often cited as reasons for migration these would have exerted little effective drawing power if it were not for the support, both emotional and material, given by kinsmen already in the city. The many young men and women who have moved to the city in search of jobs, knowing that they have aunts or older married siblings with whom they can live until they achieve economic independence, would have moved less readily or perhaps not at all had their kinsmen not preceded them. But this study has also shown that considerable numbers of Aborigines move to the city without the assistance of kinsfolk: many new-comers to Adelaide have no relatives there. This apparent contradiction arises because the majority of the latter are involuntary migrants. They have migrated to the city not because they wanted to, but because they had to. Earlier chapters in this book have detailed the numbers who have been forced to migrate and examined their reasons for coming. The chapter dealing with welfare services discussed the circumstances of children brought to the city for placement in institutions or foster homes. Some have been directed to the city by court action; others have come because the arrangements were made for them by a welfare officer or missionary. Some of these children have relatives in the city whom they can visit but the majority arc not so fortunate. The welfare services act as substitutes for kinsmen in many cases. Adults as well as children may come to depend upon a welfare officer or a particular agency for assistance of various kinds. So many Aborigines suffer from economic and social handicaps that they often require additional help. If this is not forthcoming from within their own family grouping or their network of kinsfolk, then welfare officers might be called upon for guidance and material assistance. This study has shown that medical reasons assume major significance in the movements of Aborigines to the city. Almost all of those who come to Adelaide for hospitalisation do so involuntarily, because the majority cannot be treated in their home regions. Some have relatives in the city who will visit them and give them support and may even encourage them to remain in Adelaide after their treatment has been completed, but others come alone, and lack either friends or relatives in the city. These Aborigines may have no visitors during their period of hospitalisation. 258 CONCLUSION

The general economic forces of mechanisation and declining agricul­ tural markets which have caused rural depopulation in South Australia have inevitably affected Aborigines. Many young men and women in particular have migrated to the city in search of work which can be found no longer in rural areas. Although economic motives have often reinforced their decision to migrate they arc voluntary arrivals in the sense that neither legal pressure nor medical necessity has caused their movement. They can choose the time of their coming and their location in the city. The majority make the home of a kinsman their first stopping- place. Another chapter in this book has dealt with persons who have been convicted by a local court and sentenced to imprisonment, or to detention in a reform school, in Adelaide. Many former offenders remain in the city after release from prison. But because of their social backgrounds and the enforced reasons for their migration, the process of their becoming adjusted to city living is fraught with many difficulties. It is often very hard for them to find homes or jobs and as coloured ex-prisoners they are seldom accepted by society in general. The previous chapter discussed the importance of education in inducing Aborigines to move to the city and showed the kind of general educa­ tional opportunities available to Aborigines both in the city and in the rural areas. It showed that many young people are encouraged to shift to Adelaide to raise their educational levels and thus to enhance, later, their opportunities for employment. Whatever the underlying reason for his movement to the city, an Aboriginal, like any other migrant, needs some assistance during his initial settling-in period. He is fortunate if he has relatives who are already well established, for they can often give him both emotional and material support. But there are many who receive no such help: either they have no kinsmen in the city or those they have arc also in need of assistance and in no position to help newly arrived kin. Placed in that situation, newcomers find the city to be a lonely and difficult place. In some instances these people join together for mutual support. The growth of the Aboriginal clubs is partly due to the initiative of those Aborigines who understand the need of their fellows for friendship and assistance. There are other factors too in the growth of Aboriginal associations in the city. Aborigines have become increasingly aware of themselves as a separate and identifiable group within the Australian community. Moreover the mass media has brought them awareness of other coloured peoples in similar situations throughout the world. They have come to CONCLUSION 259 realise that they are no longer a dying minority, that they have become a people increasing in numbers and political importance, and that their circumstances have close emotional—if not political—parallels with those of black people overseas. This growing awareness of their separate identity has led some Aborigines to form groups wherein they can share their common ideas and feelings. Such groups have arisen in Adelaide only since the early 1960s. They had their forerunners in associations organised by Europeans, like the Aborigines Advancement League, but only during the last decade have the all-Aboriginal clubs arisen. Only Aborigines are permitted to become full voting members of these organisations. They arc a reflection of the growing sense ol Aboriginal identity which the urban environ­ ment seems to force upon their members. The associations have faced many problems. The latent conflicts between different Aboriginal communities are brought into sharp focus when persons drawn from different areas attempt to work together in one association in the city. Some of the conflicts have their roots in the long distant past when Aborigines from one area feared those from a distant one. Some of the tensions result from the more recent rivalries between one reserve and another wdien reservations were competing for allocations from very meagre government grants. Each of the Aboriginal associations in Adelaide has at times almost collapsed because of the disruptive effects of conflict between the various member factions. Possibly the greatest amount of tension arises between those who have come from a southern reserve with its strong kinship ties and regional loyalties, and those, usually northerners, who were removed at an early age from their kinsmen and reared by white persons in children’s homes or by individual families. The latter Aborigines lack a body of kinsmen on whom they can depend, not only for economic assistance, but also for a bloc of votes at a meeting. The fact that some groups, like the Aborigines Progress Association and the Council for Aboriginal Women, have survived disruptive struggles is an indication of the extent to which such bodies are needed in the Aboriginal community. Indeed this kind of association has been the only source of effectual assistance known to some Aborigines. The associations function both as social clubs and as welfare organisations. The Aborigines Progress Association, for example, organises football matches, youth clubs, and general sports days. The Council for Aboriginal Women employs a social worker and a welfare visitor to help those in greatest need. In addition, these associations have begun to play an 2Ö0 CONCLUSION increasingly important political role. In matters affecting Aborigines, few political or administrative decisions are now made without at least some consultation with these Aborigines’ groups. And they have shown to an increasingly larger white audience that Aborigines can run their own affairs efficiently and intelligently. Containing few educated members, commanding only limited resources, and hindered by internal conflicts, the voluntary associations have been able to assist in the adjustment of only a minority of Aborigines who have moved to the city. To help the majority would be a mammoth task, and well beyond the resources of small voluntary groups. Whether the new welfare structure just coming into operation as a result of the amalgamation of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Depart­ ment of Social Welfare will be able to deal with the situation has yet to be seen. The magnitude of the problem is certainly increasing and not diminishing as Aborigines migrate to the city in ever growing numbers. The involuntary migrants, who come because of ill-health or because they are declared neglected children or because of a criminal offence requiring long-term imprisonment, need considerably more assistance than they have received in the past. For them, life in the city during their term in an institution may be difficult and after release may become even hazardous. They reveal the widely observed results of institutionalisation: reduced initiative, withdrawal symptoms, and inability to adjust to life in ordinary society. Therefore, the incidence of relapse and recommittal to an institution may be very high amongst them. More intensive programs are required to prevent this recurrent pattern. It is surprising that there have not been developed rehabilitation pro­ grams which make use of the extant features of Aboriginal society. Since the early days of colonisation European authorities have tried to break up the Aboriginal family and to weaken the influence of kinship networks and obligations. Yet these structures have persisted in spite of the onslaught. Why is it that they are not recognised and their positive values used in the development of group-centred welfare programs? Since European individualism, embedded in our welfare approach, has failed so dismally, has not the time come when we should explore, with Aborigines, the practicality of using and developing their existing systems of kinship networks in mounting a more realistic welfare program? The city now offers an environment, in both physical and social terms, suitable for experiment in this field. The stream of migrants, voluntary as well as involuntary, will continue to swell. Since the rural recession shows no sign of abating, the employment opportunities afforded by the CONCLUSION 2ÖI city will be more attractive than the limited job prospects of country areas. Furthermore, the young adults who wish to escape from the restrictive pressures of the reserve or the social disadvantages of life on the town fringe will continue to find the city attractive, irrespective of their reactions to economic forces. This study has shown that the city offers many advantages to Abori­ gines. Although the changes forced upon them by urbanisation may be traumatic for many, indeed for the majority, it seems evident that the greater opportunities which arc provided in all socio-economic fields in the city far outweigh the painfulness of change. The study has shown that the majority of Aborigines in the city are better housed, better educated, better employed, in better health, and less liable to mental illness or criminal behaviour, than are their rural counterparts. It is, therefore, predictable that the urban movement of Aborigines will not only continue but will gather momentum. However, to say that city Aborigines are better off than rural Aborigines is not to say that they are adequately housed, well educated, fully employed, or properly cared for either medically, legally, or socially. For this study has also shown that, whilst Aborigines fare much better in the city than in the country, they still suffer disadvantage in almost every respect by comparison with the general population. The city offers a more suitable environment in which to close this historic gap between Aboriginal and European opportunities than the reserve or small country town could ever provide. Aborigines form such a small minority of the total population of the city that Europeans do not fear them: they do not see them as posing any kind of social or economic threat. The situation is not always similar in the rural com­ munity where, in some areas, Aboriginal minorities have grown to significant proportions. In those rural centres where they pose a real threat, the white residents react by doing all in their power to keep the Aborigines at a lower social and economic level. But the situation in the city is different. There, prejudice against them, at least in overt forms, is negligible. In the city, most white people never come into contact with Aborigines, and if they do, they are often unaware of the Aboriginal identity of the passer-by. Many people cannot dis­ tinguish the light-coloured city Aboriginal from Greek or Italian immigrants. Furthermore, the city contains many white persons who try to help Aborigines to achieve social and economic equality with the general population. But even the best informed of these well-wishers finds it 2Ö2 CONCLUSION hard to understand what integration means to the Aboriginal community. Aborigines want integration in terms of being economically and socially accepted as an identifiable group. They wish to be recognised and accepted as Aborigines: as persons of equal status but having a different cultural history from other Australians. For them equality will be achieved only when their difference is acknowledged without condescen­ sion. Europeans, on the other hand, tend to think of integration in terms of absorbing the Aboriginal into the general community and thus getting rid of his distinctive identity. When Aborigines in Adelaide first started to form separate associations they were criticised by those white people who considered that such separation would lead to racial conflict. Black power activities overseas had received so much publicity that many Europeans felt that any movement, exclusively Aboriginal, would not be in the best interests of racial harmony. These Europeans failed to realise that in this period of transition, when Aborigines are trying to change their social and economic status, they need the emotional support of their fellows. The changes they are striving to make are too difficult to accomplish alone and unaided: indeed, those changes can only be successfully attempted by Aborigines acting together. The consistent approach, therefore, in any welfare action could well be to help Aborigines to consolidate the kinship ties and networks already in existence. In addition, greater encouragement might be given to the Aboriginal organisations which act as kin substitutes for those who have no relatives in the urban area. The city appears to offer Aborigines the kind of economic and social environment in which they can achieve self-sufficiency and equality, on their terms, for perhaps the first time since European colonisation. APPENDIX I

The major Acts from which the authority for Aboriginal administration in South Australia has been derived. Many of these Acts have had subsequent amendments and several have been repealed. 4 and 5 William IV C95 of 1834, the Foundation Act (British Parliament). Act no. i of 1839, an Act to regulate the sale of alcohol. 5 and 6 Victoria C 36 of 1842, an Act to regulate the sale of Waste Lands (British Parliament). Ordinance no. 12 of 1844, an Ordinance to provide for orphan and destitute Aboriginal children. Ordinance no. 3 of 1848, an Ordinance to facilitate the admission of unsworn evidence from Aborigines. Act no. 5 of 1857, an Act to regulate the sale of Waste Lands. The Waste Lands Alienation Act, no. 18 of 1872. The Waste Lands Alienation Amendment Act, no. 22 of 1874. Game Act, no. 21 of 1874. Crown Lands Consolidation Act, no. 86 of 1877. The Crown Lands Consolidation Act, no. 393 of 1886. The Crown Lands Interpretation Act, no. 422 of 1887. The Crown Lands Act, no. 444 of 1888. The Pastoral Act, no. 585 of 1893. The Aborigines Act, no. 1048 of 1911. Aborigines (Training of children) Act, no. 1565 of 1923. Evidence Act, no. 1907 of 1929. Licensing Act, no. 2102 of 1932. Aborigines Act, no. 2154 of 1934. Aborigines Act Amendment Act, no. 14 of 1939. Aboriginal Affairs Act, no. 45 of 1962. Prohibition of Discrimination Act, no. 82 of 1966. Aboriginal Lands Trust Act, no. 87 of 1966. APPENDIX II

The scale of rents applicable at the time of the survey is given in the 1966-67 report of the Housing Trust as follows: Six-roomed house, double unit $4.75-$8.75 Five-roomed house, double unit S4.25-S8.00 Four-roomed house, double unit S4.00-S7.50 Five-roomed timber frame, single unit S6.50-SH.00 Four-roomed timber frame, single unit $6.00-$9.00 Six-roomed solid construction, single unit $11.50-$13.50 Five-roomed solid construction, single unit S8.00-S13.00 Four-roomed solid construction, single unit S7.25-S11.50 APPENDIX III

The Honourable Mr Justice Chamberlain made the following remarks on sentencing six Aborigines, Skinny Jack, Lennon, Lovcgrove, Carroll, Allsopp, and Murray, on 13 July 1964, Adelaide. ‘These six prisoners have pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder one Chimney Evans. The deceased was an aboriginal native, as are all six defendants. It is accepted that some five years ago the deceased had stolen certain sacred relics of his tribe and sold them to a tourist. This was a serious offence, for which, under tribal customary law, the offender was liable to be put to death. The deceased appears to have been aware of this danger, and to have accordingly kept out of the reach of the tribal executioners, by living under white protection at Coober Pedy. There, however, he appears to have acquired a reputation for aggressiveness and violence, particularly in drink. On March 2nd of this year, the prisoner Murray had been to the pictures with his wife, and when he returned to his humpy he found the deceased, with a number of others, drinking and behaving offensively. Later in the night the deceased came to the humpy alone and abused Murray, and as I gather, made overtures to his wife, and eventually pulled down the supporting post of the humpy. Murray quietened him with several blows on the head from a steel auger used for mining. Following this, the six defendants met and decided that Evans was to be put to death, and the sentence so imposed was carried out by strangling him with a rope as he lay in a drunken sleep in his car. The evidence does not reveal who actually applied the rope, but all six defendants had agreed to what was to be done and five of them were present. The only one absent was Lennon, who is said to have been a tribal elder, and who therefore would have spoken with considerable authority at the meeting. I have been urged to impose more or less nominal sentences for a number of reasons. The first I accept; namely, that the accused are all reputable, ordinarily law-abiding people. But the main contention is that they acted in accordance with tribal laws, and that particularly the younger ones may have been in a serious position if they had refused to agree to a decision of the elders of the tribe. This may be true enough, but there is a limit to which this Court can accept it as an excuse for what is after all a very serious crime. No doubt tribal justice may be administered amongst the tribes in their native habitats, in ways in which white authorities may be well advised not to interfere. But where the aborigine comes 266 APPENDIX III within white influence he must learn to obey white man’s laws, and if tribal elders do not understand this they must be taught it in no uncertain terms. They must learn that whatever their own customs, they must obey, first and foremost, the law of the land. Those most anxious to see the aborigines assimilated into our civilisation should be the most ready to acknowledge that their first lesson should be to obey our laws. In accepting the contention that this was in effect nothing more than the carrying out of a sentence imposed in accordance with tribal law, I am giving the prisoners the benefit of the doubt rather than acting on what, to ordinary people, would be the commonsense inference. To ordinary people it would seem odd that the authorities of the tribe should have waited until the deceased had given serious personal affront to Willie Murray to do what they could have done equally well at any time within the last four or five years. This does not mean that I have not made allowance for the matters urged on the prisoners’ behalf. Indeed if they were white men convicted of a similar crime they could expect sentences many times as severe as those I am about to impose. Moreover, I would have expected the charge to be murder and not merely conspiracy to commit it. It is extremely difficult to apportion the responsibility for this crime, but I think I can properly make allowance for the youth of the prisoners Allsopp and Love- grove, who are stated to be only partially initiated members of their tribe, and therefore likely to be very much under the dominion of their elders. It is of the first importance, however, that they and others in their position should understand that no orders from their own people can justify them in committing a crime. The only other distinction I make is on account of the time already spent in custody. In all cases I have allowed for the fact that the deprivation of their liberty may well have an unusually adverse effect on these prisoners. 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Aboriginal, definition: Aborigines’, 15, Aboriginal opinion, see attitudes; con­ 22, 75, 76-7; author’s, 2-3, 15; official, sultation with Aborigines 16,61,62, 64, 65, 138 Aboriginal self-identity: resurgence of Aboriginal administration (S.A.): history sense of, 29, 46, 48, 258-9; supportive of legislation, 50-68, 87-8; history of function of, 173, 262; see also kinship policy and practice, 36-49; see also Aboriginal traditional culture: European Aboriginal Affairs (S.A.), Department misconceptions, 37, 45, 52, 58, 173; of; assimilation, policy; legislation loss, 2, 13, 43, 45, 52, 210, 242; (S.A.), Aboriginal; Northern Territory retention, 32, 45, 46, 53, 55, 56, 67, Administration, S.A. branch; Pro­ 77, 169, 173-4, 255; see also Aboriginal tector of Aborigines; reserves; welfare law; social change; traditionally officers; welfare services for Aborigines oriented people Aboriginal Affairs Act (S.A.), see Aboriginal Women, Council for, see Aborigines Act (S.A.) Council for Aboriginal Women of Aboriginal Affairs (S. A.), Department of: South Australia as Aboriginals Department (1911-62), Aborigines Act (S.A.): 1911, 45, 54, 55, 61, 63, 64, 74; as Department of Abori­ 60-3, 263; 1923, 62, 263; 1934, 263; ginal Affairs (1962-71), viii, 17, 18, 47, 1939, 62, 65, 263; as Aboriginal 48, 64-6, 74, 77, 78, 82, 107, 117, 134, Affairs Act 1962, 62-6, 74, 263; 175, 178-84, 193, 240, 243, 260; count exemptions, 62, 65 of Aborigines (1966-7), 77, 79, 134-5, Aborigines’ Advancement League (S. A.), 137-40, 143, 145; see also Aborigines 18, 259 Protection Board Aborigines’ Progress Association (S.A.), Aboriginal associations, 106, 258-60, 262 vii, 106, 258-60 Aboriginal dependence, 4, 49, 55, 65, 85, Aborigines Protection Board (1911-62), 193; on welfare assistance, 60, 176, 62, 64, 74; as Aboriginal Affairs Board 180-4, 186, 190, 211-13 (1962-71), 64, 65; see also Aboriginal Aboriginal Education Foundation of Affairs (S.A.), Department of South Australia, 244 Abschol, 243 Aboriginal groups, see kinship; regional accommodation, see blight and Aborigi­ groupings of Aborigines; names of nal housing; children’s homes; particular groups, e.g. Point McLcay employment of Aborigines; foster group homes; fostered children; gaol; home Aboriginal independence, 4, 49, 75, 193, ownership; hospitals; hostels and 219, 256; from welfare assistance, 3,17 boarding houses; housing; Housing Aboriginal Lands Trust, 57 Trust, South Australian; relatives Aboriginal Lands Trust Act (S.A.) 1966, adaptation to European society, 2, 3, 45, 57, 66, 263 68, 84-5; see also Aboriginal traditional Aboriginal law, 68, 222-3, 229, 265-6 culture; social change; sophistication, Aboriginal leadership, 66, 246; sec also levels; traditionally oriented people; Aboriginal associations urbanisation 27 6 INDEX

Adelaide: Aboriginal concept, 14-15; Barwick, Diane E., 142, 154, 163, 165, migration to, 1, 4, 5, 15, 17, 19, 33-5, 191, 256, 267 71-94; Statistical Division, 14, 28, 30, Beasley, Pamela, 10, 154, 267 108, 137,138,139, 140; study location, Bcaujeu-Garnicr, J., 9, 267 1, 4,14, 27-35; population, Aboriginal, Beckett, Jeremy R., 90, 267 15-16, 72-3, 80-4, 133-46, 149-54; Beijer, G., 9, 11, 267 population, European, 29-31, 134-46, Bennett, J.F., 37, 267 149-53; see also distribution of Aborig­ Bennett, J.H., 203,237, 269 ines; housing Berndt, C.H., 36, 222, 267 Adelaide-born Aboriginal group, see Bcrndt, R.M., 36, 191,222, 267 Central group Biddle, Ellen, 10, 273 Adelaide Children’s Hospital, 4, 19, 195, birth rate, 141-2, 192 197 blight and Aboriginal housing, 99, 102, Adelaide Gaol: Aboriginal admissions, 103-4, 105, 128-31 229-33 Bordertown, 91 adopted children, 96, 107, 119, 120-1, Bocrec, R.M., 33, 267-8 122, 129, 131, 140, 175 Brccse, G., 10, 268 age and sex structure, Aboriginal, 135- Broom, Leonard, 254, 268 49; and distribution, 111-13; and BullJ.W ., 40, 268 education, 246-9; and employment, Burnard, Sally, 36, 268 205-10; and fostered children, 184-6; Bury, N.R., 37, 268 and health, 198-200; and offences, Buxton, G.L., 44, 51, 268 adult and juvenile, 231-5; and welfare services, 181-2; European structures Calley, M.J.C., 163, 249, 268 compared, 135-46 camps, Aboriginal, 3, 11, 34 alcohol and alcoholism, see drinking Cawte, J.E., 202, 268 Amata (government station), 47, 48, 224, census and enumeration: 1921, 29; 245 1961, 14, 28; 1966, 14, 16, 28, 29, 134, Ancich, Mary, 10, 267 138-41, 151; counting of Aborigines, Anderson, Nels, 11, 267 67, 68, 71, 73, 77, 134, 138-40, 205 Angas, George French, 40, 267 Central group, 76; distribution in aridity and settlement, 31-2, 44, 45, 55, Adelaide, 109; education, 252-3; em­ 56 ployment, 216-17; fostered children, Ashford House, 19, 195 186-8; health, 200-1, 203; housing, assimilated Aborigines, 3, 46, 62, 119, 121-2, 129-30; marriage and kinship, 120-1; see also integrated Aborigines 171-2; offences, 230-2, 235-6; welfare assimilation, policy: 19th century, 39, services, 182-4 44, 60; 20th century (practice), 74, 78, central place theory, 79 82-3, 93, 154, 186, (theory) 58, 63, 64, chain migration, 74, 83-4, 257 67; see also integration, policy; Chamberlain, Justice, 223, 265-6 segregation, policy Child Guidance Clinic (Adelaide), 195, attitudes: Aborigines towards Euro­ 197 peans, 45, 46, 49, 66, 85, 134, 232: children’s homes, 18, 87, 91, 93, 95, Europeans towards Aborigines, 37-8, 96-7, 119, 122-4, 164, 175, 177-9, 182, 40,45,48,49,53, 58,60,66,77,91,134. 184-90, 237, 252, 257, 259 173 Christian missions, see missions Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, city: attraction for Aborigines, 1, 12,75, vii, viii, 211 79,86, 204, 260-1; role in social change, 10-14, 49, 255,260-2; see also Adelaide; social change; urbanisation; urban Banton, M.P., 255, 267 migration Barnard, Marjorie, 38, 267 Clark, Manning, 40, 268 Barry, Justice, 223-4 Clcland, J.B., 40, 268 INDEX 2 7 7

Colebrook Home, 76, 91, 121, 252 Downing, J., 224, 268 colonisation and the Aborigines: Colon­ drinking, 42, 227-8, 229, 242; and crime, ial Office, 39, 42, 53; Governors’ 231-3, 235, 238, 239, 242, 265; Instructions, 39, 42, 51, 61; policy and prohibition, 59, 62, 64, 232, 263 practice, 38-9, 41-3, 44, 50, 51, 59 Duncan, A.T., 245, 268 committed children: as involuntary Dunn, E.M., 37, 268 migrants, 87-9, 91-3, 257; age and Dunn, S.S., 253, 268 regional groupings, 184-90; sec also fostered children; neglected children Commonwealth Constitution, 67-8; sec economic situation, 12, 27, 207, 209-10, also referendum 213, 221, 228, 257, 261 Commonwealth Office of Aboriginal education of Aborigines: and crime, 231, Affairs, viii, 57, 180, 244 241-2; and employment, 12-13, 207, Commonwealth Social Services, 176-7 214-15, 216-17, 249-51; general dis­ Concordia College, 252 cussion, 243-54; limitations and op­ confidentiality, 19-20 portunities, 12-13, 198, 203, 219, 221, consultation with Aborigines, 68, 260 224, 226, 243, 245-6, 248-9; migration corrective institutions, 5, 19, 111, 119, role, 5, 17, 87-9, 93, 175, 186, 237, 257, 122-4, 210, 260; see also gaol; reform­ 258 atory Education Department (S.A.), 245-6, 254 Council for Aboriginal Women of South Edwards, Lindsay D., 191, 268 Australia, vii, 106, 259-60 Eggleston, Elizabeth M., 222, 224, 268 Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance Elizabeth, 28, 100, 102, 106-7, 113 1939 (N.T.), 223 employment of Aborigines: and accom­ crime, see offences modation, 119, 120, 122, 124-7, 131; Crown land, 52-7, 60, 75 and education, 248, 249-51; general Crown Lands Acts (S.A.): 1877, 54, 263; discussion, 204-21; migration role, 4, 1886, 56, 263;1888, 263 64, 75,86-7, 89,91-4,95,175,204, 210, cultural change, see social change 257, 258, 260-1; opportunities, 12, 33, cultural distance, see race relations; 34, 44, 56, 64, 65, 163-4, 198, 203, 204, sophistication, levels 246, 260-1; see also uncmployables; unemployment Darwin, 33, 183 Encounter Bay (mission), 43, 47 Davenport (government station), 47, 48 Epstein, A.L., 255, 268 death rate, 4,44, 73,141-2,191,192,196 Ernabella (mission), 46, 47, 245 delinquency, see offenders, juvenile European settlement, spread, 32, 36-9, demographic analysis, 4, 115, 133-58; 44, 45,50,51,53, 54, 55 see also age and sex structure, Aborig- Evidence Act 1929-57 (S.A.), 223, 263 nal; birth rate; death rate; marital Eyre, Edward John, 40, 222, 268 status; population Eyre Peninsula, sec West Coast density, sec households; housing; over­ crowding deserted wives, 4, 175 family, Aboriginal: disintegration of, destitute children, see neglected children 162-3, 185-90, 199-200, 202, 225, 235, discrimination: policy, 55, 61-4, 65, 66, 242, 260; patterns and ties, 4, 12, 16-17, 68, 223-4; practice, 34, 75, 87-8, 91, 19, 21-2, 56, 119, 149, 161-5; size, 142, 98, 204, 227, 261, 262 143, 156-8; see also kinship; marriage disease, 40, 45; see also health and ill- Finniss Springs (mission), 46, 47 health Fitzgerald, P., 37, 268 distribution of Aborigines, 4, 18, 95-114, Forster, Anthony, 41, 269 117; see also housing foster homes: location, 96, 105, 106, 107, domestic workers, 11,120,127,129, 212, 129; migration role, 87, 91,93,95,175 251; see also employment of Aborigines 180, 257 278 INDEX fostered children: government policy, Hindmarsh, Governor John, 39, 59, 64, 63, 178-9, 193; numbers, 119, 120, 222 122-3, 124-5; social factors, 124-5, 164, home ownership, 115, 119, 121-2, 124-7, 184-90, 237, 259 132 Foundation Act 1834 (S.A.), 39, 51, 263 hospitals, 4, 19, 97, 194-5; Aboriginal fringe dwellers, 3, 34, 191 patients, 111, 119, 122, 124-5, 196- full-blood Aborigines, 2, 32, 61, 63, 64 203, 257; reasons for admission, 192-3, 210; see also health and ill- health; medical centres; names of Gale, Fay, 37, 47, 48, 53, 78, 91, 94, 106, particular hospitals, e.g. Adelaide 110, 125, 142, 191, 203, 210, 213, 237, Children’s Hospital 269 hostels and boarding houses, 18, 120, Game Act 1874 (S. A.), 263 122, 124-5, 127, 131 gaol: Aboriginal admissions, 122-4, 196, households: composition, 21-2, 99, 107, 210, 226-42; Aboriginal attitudes to, 113,119-20,131,165,173; size, 99,107, 225-6; see also Adelaide Gaol; cor­ 113, 119-20, 131-2, 173; see also over­ rective institutions; Yatala Labour crowding Prison housing: detailed analysis, 115-32; dis­ Gawler, 14, 28 tribution, 95, 96-9, 102-8; migration Gawler, Governor George, 39 role, 5, 34, 74, 93, 115, 117, 175, 256; Gerard: as government station, 48, 86; types, 86, 98-9, 102-8, 115-18, 127-31, as mission, 46, 47, 86, 188; see also 203; see also blight and Aboriginal Upper Murray group housing; employment of Aborigines; ghettoes, 95, 107, 173 foster homes; home ownership; rela­ Glensidc Hospital, 19, 195, 197 tives; Housing Trust, South Australian Gibbs, R.M., 36, 41, 269 Housing Improvement Act 1940-1961 Gibson, Jennifer, 15, 269 (S.A.), 117 government policy on Aborigines (S.A.), Housing Trust, South Australian, 74, see Aboriginal administration (S.A.) 98-9," 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 113, government stations, see reserves; names 117-18, 131, 264 of individual stations, e.g. Gerard Hugo, Graeme, 9, 270 Gregor, A.J., 227, 232, 237, 269 humanitarian influence, 38-42, 45, 46, Grey, Governor George, 42, 222, 269 51, 53, 65 Gunton, J.D., 243, 269 Huntingdon’s Chorea, 188, 202-3, 237 Hunter, Guy, 10, 270

Hägerstrand, T., 9, 269 illiteracy, 224, 240, 250 Harre, John, 155, 270 immigrants, European, 10, 15, 31, 34-5, Hasluck, Paul, 58, 270 98, 106, 261 Hassel, K„ 36, 270 Indulkana (government station), 47, 48 Hauser, Philip P„ 10, 270 Inglis, J., 16, 37, 270 half-castes, 59, 60, 61; see also mixed- Inglis, K., 224, 270 blood people injustices to Aborigines, see law and health and ill-health, 190-203; degrees of justice ill-health, 4, 94, 184, 196, 198-9, 201, institutions, see children’s homes; com­ 203, 210; migration role, 4, 17, 19, 73, mitted children; corrective institutions; 88-9, 91-2, 94, 143, 191-3, 197, 201, gaol; hospitals; medical centres; re­ 257, 260; social factors, 191-3, 198, formatory 203, 210, 237; see also disease; medical integrated Aborigines, 3, 46, 59, 262; see services also assimilated Aborigines Hefford, R.K., 31, 270 integration, policy, 46, 66-7; see also Henderson, R.F., 214, 270 assimilation, policy Hillcrcst Hospital, 19, 195, 197 intermarriage, 142, 154-8, 170-4, 202 INDEX 279 isolation of Aborigines, 1, 2, 32, 36, 37, law and justice: application of British 44, 45, 46, 55, 79, 121, 122, 134, 161-2, law to Aborigines, 41-2, 222-4; 171, 176, 186, 202; see also protection, detailed discussion, 222-42; difficulties policy; segregation, policy and injustices, 39-43, 44, 223-6, 265-6; see also legislation (S.A.), Aboriginal Law Society of South Australia, 228 Jcffcott, Sir John, 38, 41 leasehold land, see Crown land Johnston, R.J., 9, 270 legal assistance, 228 Jones, F. Lancaster, 95,138, 139, 142, 143, legal status of Aborigines, 39, 41, 51, 59, 145, 191, 270 64, 65, 222-5, 226,^263; of Aboriginal Jose, David G., 191, 270 children, 60, 64, 87-8 juvenile Courts Act 1965-1966 (S. A.), 224 legislation (S.A.), Aboriginal: history, 2, juveniles, see offenders, juvenile 39-41, 49, 50-68, 222-5; land legisla­ justice, see law and justice tion, 50-7; social legislation, 57-68, 87-8; see also law and justice Lewis, L, 210, 269 Kalokerinos, A., 191, 270 Lewis, Ian, 191, 267 Killalpaninna (mission), 44, 47 liberalism, see humanitarian influence Kingston, 91 Licensing Act (S.A.) 1932, 62, 64, 263 kinship: and accommodation, 98-9, 115, Lickiss, J. Norelle, 10, 191, 232, 233, 270 119-20, 122-7, 129-31, 163, 256; and distribution, 108-11; general descrip­ McKnight, T., 31,271 tion, 13, 17, 161 -74/255, 260, 262; McPherson, D.A., 227, 233, 237, 271 groups, 17-18, 22, 75-7, 164, 188, 259; Makin, C.F., 176, 271 and marriage, 153-4, 167-74; migra­ Maori, 121, 155, 235 tion role, 4," 5, 74, 86-93, 95, 161, 163, marital status: Aboriginal, 149-58; 165, 192, 256, 257, 258; obligations Aboriginal and European compared, and reciprocal demands, 12, 83-4, 163, 149-53; and distribution of Aborigines, 165, 173, 237; see also family, Aborig­ 111-13 inal; marriage; regional groupings of Marree, 79, 85 Aborigines; relatives marriage: Aborigines in Adelaide, 145, Koonibba: as government station, 47, 149-56, 167-74; Aboriginal and Euro­ 48, 123, 162; as mission, 44, 46, 47; sec pean compared, 149-53; breakdown of also West Coast group traditional marriage, 152-4, 162, 169; Kopperamanna (mission), 44, 47 de facto, 153-4; and distribution, 111- Kriewaldt, M.C., 222, 223, 270 13; divorce, 153-4; see also family, Kuper, Hilda, 10, 270 Aboriginal; kinship Kupcr, Leo, 10, 270 Martin, Jean L, 15, 271 masculinity ratios, 144-6 Masterman, G.G., 214, 271 labourers, 5, 11, 33, 205; sec also employ­ medical centres, 4, 19, 88, 96-7, 194-5; ment of Aborigines see also health and ill-health; hospitals; land alienation, 50-2, 57 names of particular medical centres, land allotment, history, 51-7 e.g. Minda Home land rights: loss, 39-40, 44, 50, 52, 53, medical services: centralised nature, 4, 54-5, 56; recognition, 2, 39, 42, 51, 88, 91, 191, 193, 201; description, 52, 53-4, 56, 57 193-7; government provision, 45, land sales: regulation of, 51, 52, 53; 65, 193-5; migration role, 5, 19, 88-9, Wakefield’s scheme, 38 91-2, 94, 148, 175, 180, 191-4; on Landlord and Tenant (Control of Rents) missions and reserves, 60,193,203,291; Act 1942-1961, 117 see also hospitals; medical centres landlords, 11,98, 99 Mcggitt, M.J., 222, 271 lands, Department of, 56 Meinig, D.W.,51,271 280 INDEX mental illness: migration role, 4, 88, 201; Northern (S.A.) group, 76; age and sex provision for, 19, 195, 196-7; social structure, 148-9; distribution in factors, 153, 185-6, 192-3, 202, 210, Adelaide, 109-10; education, 252; 227 employment, 216-17; fostered child­ Metge, Joan, 10, 271 ren, 186-8; health, 200-2; housing, migration: of Aborigines, see rural 121-3, 130; marriage and kinship, 168— depopulation, urban migration; over­ 72; migration role, 76, 78, 79-85, 88- seas to Australia, see immigrants, 91,166-7,187; offences, 236-7; welfare European services, 182-4 Milich, C„ 36, 271 Northern Territory Administration, S.A. Minchan, Hans, 41, 271 branch,17,83,85,177,180-4, 240 Minda Home, 19, 195 miscegenation, 42, 59, 62, 154-8, 170-4, 236; sec also mixed-blood people offences: migration role, 5, 87-9, 91-3, missions: and education, 245, 246; and 230, 258; social factors, 153, 188-90, employment, 162, 218-19; history, 210, 227, 231-3, 236-9, 242 40, 43, 44-7, 162-3; isolation and offenders, adult: extended discussion, protection role, 1, 2, 36, 44-6, 54-5, 222-42; movement to Adelaide, 5, 19, 60, 61, 237; migration role, 4, 11, 78, 87-9,92-3,260,285; social and regional 80-6, 121, 165; and offences, 237, 227; backgrounds, 188-90, 224-6, 231-42, see also names of individual missions, 265-6; see also corrective institutions; e.g. Finniss Springs gaol Mitchell, J. Clyde, 14, 271 offenders, juvenile: extended discussion, Mitchell, R.F., 57, 68, 271 224-5, 231-8, 240-2; movement to mixed-blood people, 2, 16, 63; see also Adelaide, 4, 88-9, 93, 175, 258; social miscegenation and regional backgrounds, 18, 176, mobility: physical, 10, 11, 12, 123-7, 188-90, 236, 240; see also corrective 239-40; social and economic, 10-13, institutions; reformatory 214-16, 219-20 Oldham, W., 37, 51,53, 272 Montgomery, P., 232, 271 Olsson, Gunnar, 9, 272 Moodie, P.M., 191, 271 Oodnadatta, 3, 46, 47, 76, 79, 85 Moore, H.P., 38, 271 Ooldea (mission), 46, 47 Moorhouse, Matthew, 42 Ordinance to facilitate the admission of morbidity, 192, 203; see also health and unsworn evidence from Aborigines ill-health 1848 (S.A.), 59, 263 Morrill, R.L., 10. 271 Ordinance to provide for orphan and Morris, Norval, 226, 271 destitute Aboriginal children 1844 mortality, see death rate; health and ill- (S.A.), 59, 60, 61,263 health orphans, Aboriginal, 59, 60, 63, 263; sec motivation: educational, 251, 253-4; also committed children occupational, 216-17 Ostapchuk, Valentina, 37, 142, 169, T il Mount Gambier, 31, 78 overcrowding, 11, 125, 131-2, 173, 192; Murphy, Rhoads, 13, 255, 272 sec also household size

Native Location (mission), 43 part-Aboriginal, see mixed-blood people neglected children, 4, 18, 60, 61,66, 175, Pastoral Act (S.A.): 1893, 263; 1936- 188-9, 242, 260; see also committed 1969, 54 children Pastoral Board (S.A.), 56 Nepabunna (mission), 46, 47 pastoral industry, 39, 51, 55, 56 Nimmo Report, 176, 213-14, 272 pastoral lease and Aborigines, 53-6 North West Reserve, 56; sec also Amata paternalism, 61-3, 65, 84-5, 87-8, 162-3, Northcote Home, 195 176 INDEX 281

Pearson, G.G., 64, 272 protection, policy, 42, 43, 45, 57-8, 60-3; pensions, see social services see also isolation of Aborigines; Pike, Douglas, 38, 272 segregation, policy Plomely, N.J.B., 38, 272 protest movements, Aboriginal, 48, 49 Point McLeay: as government station, 2, 4,17, 22, 46, 47; as mission, 43, 47 Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 19, 194-5, 197 Point McLeay group, 75, 76, 78; age and questionnaires, use, 21 sex structure, 147, 149; distribution in Adelaide, 109-10; education, 246, 252; race relations: history, 36-44, 50, 55, employment, 216-17; fostered child­ 59-60, 63, 171-2; present day, 2, 11, ren, 186-8; health, 200-3; housing, 121- 48-9, 91, 98, 154-6, 172-3, 261-2 3, 129-31, 256; marriage and kinship, rainfall (S.A.), 31-2 162, 166-72; migration role, 78, 80-6, random sampling, 15, 16 89-91, 166-7, 256; offences, 236-7; rations, 43, 45 welfare services, 182-4 records of Aborigines, 17-20 Point Pearce: as government station, 2, referendum: 1944, 68; 1967, 16, 50, 67, 4, 17, 22, 46, 47; as mission, 44, 47 68, 177 Point Pearce group, 76, 78; age and sex regional groupings of Aborigines: structure, 142,147, 149; distribution in definition, 75-8; migration role, 77-86, Adelaide, 109-10; education, 246, 252; 257; see also kinship; names of partic­ employment, 216-17; fostered child­ ular groups, e.g. Central group, West ren, 186-8; health, 200-1; housing, Coast group 121-3, 130-1; marriage and kinship, reformatory, Aboriginal admissions, 162, 166-73; migration role, 78, 80-6, 225-7, 233-8, 258 89-91, 166-7; offences, 236-7; welfare relatives: accommodation and hospital­ services, 182-4 ity, 10, 11, 75, 98-9, 108-11, 113, 115, police, 21, 231 119-20, 122-7, 129, 163, 165, 201, 240, Poonindie (mission), 43, 47, 169 256-7; migration role, 5, 74, 86-93, population: European, 14, 29-31, 140; 163, 192, 256: see also family, Abo­ Aboriginal, 138-40, (decrease) 40-2, riginal; kinship 60, 67, (distribution) 45, 71, 78, 80-1, rent, 11, 99, 117-18, 119, 125, 132, 264; 100-6, (increase), 4, 5, 46, 48, 63, 68, see also accommodation; housing 73-4, 142; Aboriginal and European ‘Report on the Metropolitan Area of compared, 134-53; see also age and Adelaide’, 31, 102, 103, 104, 115-16, sex structure, Aboriginal; birth rate; 128, 272 death rate; marital status Report on the Metropolitan Adelaide Trans­ population movements, see rural de­ portation Study, 31, 272 population ; urban migration reserves: controls, 61, 64, 65, 75, Port Adelaide, 28, 98," 100, 102, 103, 84-5,126, 261; demographic influence, 104-6, 108,109 46,48, 110; education, 218-19, 246; Port Augusta, 31, 75, 76, 79, 85,197, 225 health, 193, 201; history, 27,42,43, 48, Port Lincoln (mission), 43, 47 49, 53, 55, 56-7, 60, 65, 188, 258; poverty: Aboriginal, 42, 45, 59,176, 191, housing, 126, 131; isolation, 10, 12, 29, 192, 194, 214, 227, 253; destitute 32,36,43,45,46,74,142,161,171,176, children, 42, 59, 63, 175, 179, 263 202, 237; kinship centres, 75-6, 161-5; press and Aborigines, 2, 14, 40 migration role, 1, 2, 4, 11, 29, 34, 64, Price, C.A., 74, 257, 272 75, 78, 79, 80-6, 121, 230; offences, Prisons Department (S.A.), 19 226, 231, 236-7 Prisoners’ Aid Society, 18 Roberts, S.H., 51,272 Prohibition of Discrimination Act 1966 Robinson, M.V., 228, 272 (S.A.), 66, 263 Roper, T., 254, 272 Protector of Aborigines, 42, 45, 52, 59, Rose, Arnold M., 10, 272 60, 61, 62 Rowlev, C.D., vi, vii, 37, 272 282 INDEX

Royal Adelaide Hospital, 19, 194, 197 social clubs, Aboriginal, 14, 106 Royal Commission on Aborigines 1913— social equality, see discrimination; social 1915 (S.A.), 46, 53, 55 status, Aboriginal rural community, 1, 4, 11,12,13-14, 27, social revolution, 13, 14, 262 35, 74, 137, 143, 144, 146, 245 social services: payments, 12, 68, 209-10, rural depopulation, 1, 9, 27, 29, 33-5, 64, 211, 214; structure, 176-7 79, 94, 133-4, 204, 258; see also urban social status, Aboriginal, 1, 11, 12, 34, migration 162-3, 225, 232, 261-2 social welfare, see welfare services for Aborigines Saint Francis House, 76, 121, 252 Social Welfare (S.A.), Department of, Sawer, Geoffrey, 67, 273 17,18, 65, 66, 91,175, 180-4, 225, 260 schools, 18; see also education of socio-economic conditions, 192, 213, Aborigines 216, 220; see also health and ill-health; Scott, H.J., 45, 273 poverty Scott, P., 9, 273 soil fertility (S.A.), 31-2, 45 segregation, policy, 44-5, 46, 49, 55, Somerton Crippled Children’s Home, 58, 61-3, 80, 161, 218-19; see also 195 assimilation, policy; integration, poli­ sophistication, levels, 2-3, 77, 79, 224-6 cy; isolation of Aborigines; protec­ South East of S.A., 32, 78 tion, policy South East group, 76, 77-9; education, Select Committee on the Welfare of 252; employment, 217; fostered child­ Aboriginal Children, 1969 (S.A.), 66 ren, 186-8; health, 200; housing, 122, Select Committee on Aboriginal Lands 130; marriage and kinship, 168, 171; Trust BiU, 1966 (S.A.), 48, 57, 65 migration role, 78, 80-5, 91, 166-7; Select Committee of the Legislative offences, 236; welfare services, 182-4 Council of South Australia, 1860, 41, Southall, Aiden, 10, 273 43, 44, 48, 55 sport, 19, 87-90, 259 self-confidence, lack, see Aboriginal Spalding, Ian, 64, 273 dependence Stanner, W.E.H., 40, 173, 273 self-government (S.A. 1856), 42, 43, 44, state wards, see committed children; 53, 54 neglected children semi-skilled workers, 211-21, 250-1; see stations, pastoral, 2, 11, 79, 245-6 also employment of Aborigines stations (Aboriginal), government, see settlements, government, see reserves reserves sex ratios, see age and sex structure, statistical method, 15-16 Aboriginal statistics: problems in obtaining/using, sex roles, 162-3 16, 71, 138, 196, 205, 233-4; sources Sharp, I.G., 210, 273 and types, 14-20, 134-40, 196-7 Shearer, Ivan, 64, 273 Stow, J.P., 40, 273 Sheppard, J., 9, 273 Strehlow, T.G.H., 222, 273 skilled workers, 211-21, 246, 250-1; see Stuart, Cameron, viii, 225-6 also employment of Aborigines Stubbs, John, 189, 273 skin colour and visibility, 3, 15, 227, 231, Sturt, Captain Charles, 52, 53 242 sub-culture, Aboriginal, 2, 46, 162 Smailcs, P.J., 31, 102, 273 Smith, Hazel M„ 10, 273 Tatz, C.M ., 210, 253, 273 Smith, M.G., 10, 273 Tindalc, N.B., 36, 273 social change: due to Europeanisation, 4, Townsend House, 19, 195 37, 161-5, 173, 186, 190, 192-3, 210, traditional culture, sec Aboriginal tradi­ 222, 227, 228-9, 235, 249; due to urban tional culture migration, 1, 2, 4,10-11, 13-14, 35, 49, traditi nally oriented people, 2, 77, 79, 71, 134, 172-4, 188, 255, 260-2 202 INDEX 283

Umcewarra (mission), 46, 47 Waste Lands Acts: 1842 (Br.), 52-3, 59, unemployables, 210, 216, 220 60, 263; 1857 (S.A.), 53, 263; 1872 unemployment, 4, 205-7, 210, 211-21, (S.A.), 263; 1874 (S.A.), 263 250-1 Welch, JohnS., 191,270 United Aborigines’ Mission, 18, 86; welfare agencies, 17-18 see also names of particular missions, Welfare (N.T.), Department of, see e.g. Nepabunna Northern Territory Administration unskilled workers, 204-5,210-21,250-1, welfare officers, 21, 63, 85, 87, 93, 175, 253; see also employment of Aborig­ 257 ines welfare services for Aborigines, 17-18, Upper Murray group, 76, 78; distribu­ 175- 90; Aboriginal dependence, 60, tion in Adelaide, 110; education, 252; 176- 7, 180-4, 190, 211-13; history, employment, 216-17; fostered child­ 42-5, 52, 60-6; limitations, 233, 240, ren, 186-8; health, 200; housing, 122-3, 242, 260, 262; migration role, 4, 5, 130; marriage and kinship, 166-73; 92-3, 175, 257 migration role, 78, 80-6, 89, 166-7; West Coast, 33 offences, 236; welfare services, 182-4 W est Coast group, 76, 78; distribution in urban migration: analysis, 71-94; demo­ Adelaide, 109-10; education, 252; graphic results, 133-4, 142-4, 146-9, employment, 216-17; fostered child­ 153-4; increase, 1, 10, 27, 33-5, 71-4, ren, 186-8; health, 200; housing, 122-3, 94, 95, 255, 260-2; reasons, 3, 4, 5, 130; marriage and kinship, 168-73; 27, 29, 34, 48, 64, 74-5, 77, 86-94, 161, migration role, 78, 80-5, 89, 166-7; 165, 175, 191-3, 196, 204, 230, 255-8; offences, 236; welfare services, 182-4 time factor, 72-4, 82-5, 238-9 Whitelaw, A.J., 254, 273 urbanisation, 3-4, 9-14, 27-9, 49, 153-4, Whyalla, 31 158, 173-4. 190, 203, 230-2, 238-9, widows(ers), 4, 150-1 255-6, 261-2 Wilson, John, 163, 273 Williams, Michael, 33, 51, 274 voting rights, 43, 68 Wiltja hostel, 252 workforce, Aboriginal, 205-9; com­ Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 38 pared with European, 207-9; see also walk-about, 219-20 employment of Aborigines Walkerville (mission), 43 Wise, P.H., 191, 274 Walsh, Phillipa, 36, 273 Warrawee Convalescent Home, 19,195 Yatala Labour Prison, 5, 88, 223, 229, 233 Designed by Philippa Walker

Text set in 11 point Bembo one point leaded and printed on 85 gsm Burnie English Finish at The Griffin Press, Adelaide, South Australia Dr Fay Gale has lived for some years in Adelaide as a student and teacher, and is a senior lecturer in geography at the University of Adelaide. She began collecting material for this study in 1964. In 1971, for her work on Aboriginal women, she became the first Australian to receive the international Elin Wagner Scholarship for research into the role of women in society. In 1972 she was awarded a Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship for work in social welfare in South Australia. She is the author of A study of assimilation: part Aborigines in South Australia and (with Alison Brookman) Race Relations in Australia. She has also edited two volumes, Woman’s role in Aboriginal society and (with Graham H. Lawton) Settlement and encounter. Alison Brookman holds a Diploma in Anthropology from the University of Sydney and joined Dr Gale in 1966 as a research assistant sponsored by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

Printed in Australia Jacket designed by Philippa Walker Photograph by Professor W.E.H. Statuier ABORIGINES IN AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY

F. Lancaster Jones, The Structure and Growth of Australia’s Aboriginal Population

Ronald Taft, John L.M. Dawson, Pamela Beasley, Attitudes and Social Conditions

J.P.M. Long, Aboriginal Settlements: A Survey of Institutional Communities in Eastern Australia

C.D. Rowley, The Destruction o f Aboriginal Society

H.P. Schapper, Aboriginal Advancement to Integration: Conditions and Plans for Western Australia

C.D. Rowley, Outcasts in White Australia

C.D. Rowley, The Remote Aborigines

Fay Gale, assisted by Alison Brookman, Urban Aborigines

Australian National University Press ISBN 07081 0259 X