Surviving the Whiteman's world : adult education in Aboriginal society

Abstract

This thesis is an exploratory study in field of Aboriginal adult education. It seeks to place activity in theoretical perspective and to offer a model of an education that can assist Aboriginal people to move towards realization of their central aspirations.The theoretical framework for study is developed in Chapters Two and Three. Through an examination of Weberian categories of class, status, and party. Aboriginal people are located in Australia as an underclass in a stratified society. Related concepts of ethnicity and power are examined and theories of state reviewed, since it is argued that relationship between tribal Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people is in large measure determined by state.Theories of sociocultural change are presented and applied to an analysis of adaptations that Aboriginal cultures and society are undergoing. The concept of a permanent identity system is elaborated and implication drawn that retention of a collective identity through adherence to meanings contained within a system of symbols, is a possible goal for Aboriginal people.The study adopts a critical perspective. The data were collected through a qualitative participant - observation methodology and supported and extended by structured and unstructured interviews. The theoretical formulations through which these data were analyzed derive from general body of critical sociological thought.The nature of contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people is given a specific setting in Chapter Four through an examination of history of contact of Warlpiri people with whites. This section contextualizes study and explains in part, development of relationships that exist in contemporary setting. Those relationships are examined in Chapter Five through a critical ethnography of Lajamanu, a Warlpiri community in Northern Territory where research was conducted. Two key issues are considered in Chapters Six and Seven, aspirations and autonomy. In keeping with critical perspective, much of data consist of Aboriginal people speaking about their lives and their world.The central aspiration of Lajamanu Warlpiri is drawn out and shown to be a desire to live within family, under the Law, free from domination by white people. This aspiration is held throughout their community, but young people especially are being prevented from realizing this goal by forces that originate within encroaching white world. In final two chapters several forms of adult education are analyzed and a model of an adult education that seeks to free people from various social structural constraints is developed in contrast to those forms of adult education that are centered on training and adjustment to status quo. A set of nine principles for Aboriginal adult education is derived from theory and these structure model. It is argued that while model is radical to extent that it seeks to increase control Aboriginal people have over their lives and seeks to help them move towards fulfilling their own aspirations, it is nonetheless a model of education that stems from logic of policy of self-management for Aboriginal people, as advocated by conservative governments throughout Australia.