Social Darwinism and the language of racial oppression: Australia's stolen generations.

Social Darwinism and the language of racial oppression: Australia's stolen generations. Introduction THE LONG HISTORY of racial oppression in Australia has untilrecently been ignored almost entirely by historians and the public alikeinside Australia Inside Australia is a weekly documentary series, produced and broadcast by the Special Broadcasting Service. See alsoList of Australian television series External linksInside Australia Website as well as around the world. The history of the 19th and 20th centuries provides numerousexamples of institutionalized in��sti��tu��tion��al��ize?tr.v. in��sti��tu��tion��al��ized, in��sti��tu��tion��al��iz��ing, in��sti��tu��tion��al��iz��es1. a. To make into, treat as, or give the character of an institution to.b. racial oppression that led to greattragedy. Societies around the world devised and sanctioneddiscriminative dis��crim��i��na��tive?adj.1. Drawing distinctions.2. Marked by or showing prejudice: discriminative hiring practices. policies that ranged from the stratification of societyand apportioning ap��por��tion?tr.v. ap��por��tioned, ap��por��tion��ing, ap��por��tionsTo divide and assign according to a plan; allot: "The tendency persists to apportion blame as suits the circumstances"of resources on the basis of race, to systems ofslavery, to campaigns of genocide. The most familiar examples includethe enslavement en��slave?tr.v. en��slaved, en��slav��ing, en��slavesTo make into or as if into a slave.en��slavement n. of African peoples by Europeans and Americans during the17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, the genocide of native inhabitants :This article is about the video game. For Inhabitants of housing, see Residency Inhabitants is an independently developed commercial puzzle game created by S+F Software. DetailsThe game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. ofthe Americas by European settlers, the Holocaust, and the South Africansystem of apartheid. In recent years, details have emerged regarding the succession ofAustralian government policies designed to precipitate the extinction ofAboriginal peoples on the island-continent. Perhaps the best-documentedexample of the systematic oppression of Aborigines aborigines:see Australian aborigines. by white Australiansis the forced removal of mixed race children from their families forplacement in institutions and foster-homes for the purpose of their"absorption" or "assimilation" into white society.The policies of forced removal produced what Australians refer to as the"stolen generations" of thousands of indigenous children whowere subjected to varying degrees of cultural "re-education,"isolation, and in many cases physical and emotional abuse at the handsof white missionaries and foster families. (2) These policies, which at various times anticipated both thebiological and cultural extinction of Australia's indigenouspopulation, were rooted in the collective abstractions of white Europeansettlers regarding race. These abstractions had grown out of theexperiential phenomena of 19th century industrialization industrializationProcess of converting to a socioeconomic order in which industry is dominant. The changes that took place in Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and 19th century led the way for the early industrializing nations of western Europe and and colonialexpansion, framed by a scientific and philosophical environment thatincluded the publication of Darwin's theories on natural selectionand Smith's model of laissez-faire capitalism. These factors cametogether in the broad concept of Social Darwinism social DarwinismTheory that persons, groups, and “races” are subject to the same laws of natural selection as Charles Darwin had proposed for plants and animals in nature. that applied thelinguistic framework of Darwin's biological theories to the realmof human social relations, both to describe the world as experienced bywhite settlers and to justify the policies and practices of racialoppression against Australia's indigenous peoples The term indigenous peoples has no universal, standard or fixed definition, but can be used about any ethnic group who inhabit the geographic region with which they have the earliest historical connection. . In this essay, I will examine the case of Australia's"stolen generations" from the perspective of general semantics gen��er��al semantics?n. (used with a sing. verb)A discipline developed by Alfred Korzybski that proposes to improve human behavioral responses through a more critical use of words and symbols. as originally developed by Alfred Korzybski Noun 1. Alfred Korzybski - United States semanticist (born in Poland) (1879-1950)Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski, Korzybski in his 1933 work Science andSanity and later interpreted by Samuel Bois in The Art of Awareness.First, I will summarize the concept of "abstraction" centralto the field of general semantics and discuss the evolution ofcollective abstractions into the umbrella "worldview world��view?n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung.1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. " of acultural group. I will then examine the semantic foundations of SocialDarwinism in the context of 19th century scientific and social thoughtand its emergence as the dominant collective abstraction of Europeansettlers encountering indigenous peoples in "new" lands.Finally, I will apply this framework to the practice of forced removalof Aboriginal children in Australia during the 19th and 20th centuries. Worldviews and the Process of Abstracting Alfred Korzybski often encapsulated the main idea of abstracting asformulated in the discipline of general semantics by stating that"the map is not the territory, and the map does not represent allof the territory." Samuel Bois defined "territory" as"what is going on" (WIGO WIGO What Is Going On? ), the realm of external phenomenaexperienced by an individual. (3) The "map" is theindividual's "abstraction" of that experience. InBois' elucidation of general semantics, individuals are"semantic transactors" that interact with their environment onmultiple levels simultaneously. As we transact semantically with WIGO,we draw on recollection of past experiences and expectations about thefuture to create abstractions that "register only features that arerelevant to our needs, our purposes, or our habits." (4) In thenext step in the abstracting process, we use words or symbols tocommunicate about our experiences. As Bois states, this involves furtherreduction of experiential detail, as we select symbols that representonly certain elements of our initial abstraction from WIGO. This processcan involve many more steps so that what an individual says is actuallyan abstraction of an abstraction of an abstraction, and so on. Thus, themap (what we say) is not the territory (WIGO), but only those elementsof our experience that we selectively communicate. Korzybski held that humans' status as "time-binders"sets them apart from other life forms and that it forms the basis forthe structure of culture. (5) By accumulating abstractions over time anddrawing further abstractions from that collective body, individualsactually create their own realities or "worlds." Bois statesthat the nature of abstracting is such that the worlds of twoindividuals will never perfectly overlap, although it is possible forindividuals to share some meaning: "In human affairs, it is thesharing of values and common adherence to their requirements that makeunderstanding and cooperation possible." (6) The sharing of valuesamong individuals occurs as they use symbols in interaction with oneanother, exchanging their higher-order abstractions of experience. In this sense, the discipline of general semantics envisionsculture as a framework of shared meaning arrived at through symbolicsocial interaction, a perspective that shares certain elements with agroup of theories that conceptualize con��cep��tu��al��ize?v. con��cep��tu��al��ized, con��cep��tu��al��iz��ing, con��cep��tu��al��iz��esv.tr.To form a concept or concepts of, and especially to interpret in a conceptual way: meaning as socially created, suchas Mead's symbolic interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a major sociological perspective that is influential in many areas of the discipline. It is particularly important in microsociology and sociological social psychology. and Bormann's theory ofsymbolic convergence. (7) Bormann's concept of rhetorical vision,defined as "a unified putting-together of the various scripts thatgives the participants a broader view of things" (8), isparticularly complementary. Rhetorical visions based on shared fantasiescan form the basis of what Bormann calls a "rhetoricalcommunity," much in the same way that the general semantics notionof shared abstractions can become the basis of culture throughtime-binding. This concept could provide general semantics with a usefulhandle on the social mechanism by which time-binding coalesces intoconsistent patterns over time. Culture, then, in a general semantics sense, can be viewed as thecollective abstractions of a group of time-binders based on the symbolicsharing of individual and sub-group abstractions over the course ofgenerations. As Bois argues, these collective abstractions in turnbecome a filter for future semantic transactions of group members,affecting the content and structure of future individual and collectiveabstractions. (9) In this way, culture is a "worldview" orperspective on WIGO and influences both collective and individualbehavior. While worldviews typically change at the gradual generationalpace of time-binding, Bois discusses "conceptual revolutions"that result in a dramatic reformulation of collective abstractions onthe basis of radical changes in the ways in which humans experienceWIGO. (10) Social Darwinism as a Minor Conceptual Revolution Bois discusses three conceptual revolutions that took place overthe course of Western cultural development. (11) The first was the Greekconceptual revolution of approximately 650 to 350 BC, driven by the workof the great Greek philosophers, including Socrates, Plato, andAristotle. Bois identifies the "revolution of classicalscience," lasting from about 1500 to 1700 AD and comprising theRenaissance and the birth of modern science as the second conceptualrevolution. Among the giants of the second conceptual revolution weresuch scientific and philosophical minds as Kepler, Galileo, Newton,Descartes, and Bacon. Bois believed a third conceptual revolution wasunderway when he wrote the first edition of The Art of Awareness in themid-20th century. This revolution, flowing from the work of Einstein,Freud, Russell, von Bertalanffy, and others, consisted of the radicalrestructuring of the scientific framework that emerged during thepreceding centuries. Bois argues that these conceptual revolutions share four basicelements: 1. a "radical change in the methods of thinking andvaluing;" 2. a concentration of great thinkers; 3. the emergence of a "codifier cod��i��fy?tr.v. cod��i��fied, cod��i��fy��ing, cod��i��fies1. To reduce to a code: codify laws.2. To arrange or systematize. , or system builder This article's grammar usage needs improvement. Please edit this article in accordance with Wikipedia's . , who madeexplicit the methods of thinking that were characteristic of theage;" and 4. the appearance of "new terms See suggestions for new terms. in the generalvocabulary." (12) While Bois provides an innovative framework for understanding thenature of cultural change, his predominate focus on scientific andphilosophical achievements is to some extent inconsistent with theabstraction-based model for cultural development discussed above. If wemaintain that culture is composed of the collective abstractions thatresult from the shared meaning generated through social interaction, aperiod of dissemination of the new symbols of a conceptual revolutionshould be factored into the Bois model. The problem could be addressed by the addition of a fifth elementthat incorporates the emergence and application of a new worldview inthe sphere of economic, political, and social relations through theinteraction of individuals and groups using the new symbols of theconceptual revolution. The Roman Empire could be viewed as fulfillingthis need for the Greek conceptual revolution, because the Roman systemin many ways grew out of the intellectual framework established byearlier Greek philosophers. Likewise, the worldview of the second conceptual revolution onlytook root outside the realms of science and philosophy in the rapidpolitical, social, and economic change of the early and middle portionsof the 19th century. Based in large part on the technological advancesproduced by the second conceptual revolution, the industrial revolutionswept away existing social structures, enabling emerging empires inEurope and around the world to acquire and control the resources nowvital to the growth of wealth. Gone were the values and symbols of thefeudalistic feu��dal��ism?n.1. A political and economic system of Europe from the 9th to about the 15th century, based on the holding of all land in fief or fee and the resulting relation of lord to vassal and characterized by homage, legal and military worldview based on patronage, protection, and divine right divine right,doctrine that sovereigns derive their right to rule by virtue of their birth alone—a right based on the law of God and of nature. Authority is transmitted to a ruler from his ancestors, whom God himself appointed to rule. ,replaced by the new concepts of free will, competition, andresource-based power. At the same time, Charles Darwin was extending the new science tothe realm of biology with his theory of evolution and natural selection,first presented comprehensively in his 1859 work "On the Origin ofSpecies." While there is significant debate regarding the extent towhich Darwin considered the principles of natural selection applicableto human endeavor, terms such as "survival of the fittest" andthe "struggle for existence" were associated in publicdiscourse with the social theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, HerbertSpencer, and Ernst Haeckel Written by ajmanitara Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (February 16, 1834 — August 9, 1919),[1] also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist. , which ranked human races in a sort ofevolutionary hierarchy. (13) Whatever Darwin's intent, the ideas in his writings mingledwith the WIGO of the 19th century and with the various theories ofinherent racial superiority popular at the time, leading to thedevelopment of Social Darwinism. Hawkins defines the worldview of SocialDarwinism as "an abstract configuration of interlinked ideas abouttime, nature, human nature, and social reality" (14) centered on abelief that the superiority of certain races over others was the resultof natural evolutionary processes. Based on their certainty about thesuperiority of Western culture, European and American social theoristsplaced fair-skinned people at the top of the evolutionary ladder. Thosewhose culture differed most from their own (e.g., Australian Aborigines Australian aborigines,native people of Australia who probably came from somewhere in Asia more than 40,000 years ago. In 2001 the population of aborigines and Torres Straits Islanders was 366,429, 1. ,the Veddahs of Ceylon) were identified as the least evolved and destined des��tine?tr.v. des��tined, des��tin��ing, des��tines1. To determine beforehand; preordain: a foolish scheme destined to fail; a film destined to become a classic.2. for extinction. (15) I do not intend to imply that Social Darwinism was the dominantcollective abstraction of Western culture during the 19th century. Itwas, however, an influential "rhetorical instrument" forcultural abstraction, according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. Hawkins' analysis: ... as a world view, Darwinism is a powerful rhetorical instrument. Its persuasive and flexible rhetorical resources derive from the existence of indeterminacies within the world view itself, i.e., openness and even ambiguity over the precise meaning either of certain key terms or over how they are to be related to other terms. (16) The ambiguity of Social Darwinism as a worldview made it adaptableto a range of descriptive and prescriptive functions. Hawkins refers tothis paradox as the "janiform quality" of Social Darwinism,allowing it to serve simultaneously as a foundation for understandingethnic stratification as a naturally occurring phenomenon, and as theframework for policies designed to enhance the status of one race or torestrict the development of another. (17) This duality of Social Darwinism was abundantly evident in thecolonialism of the 19th century. (18) As the European powers (and, to alesser extent, the United States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. ) established colonies in Africa, Asia,the Americas, and the Pacific, they came in contact with a broad rangeof cultures they deemed to be inherently "inferior" to theirown. Social Darwinism and its symbolic elements constituted a worldviewthat provided both a basis for contextualizing the cultural variancethat European colonists encountered across their empires, and ajustification for the policies and practices of subjugation SubjugationCushan-rishathaim Aramking to whom God sold Israelites. [O.T.: Judges 3:8]Gibeonitesconsigned to servitude in retribution for trickery. [O.T.: Joshua 9:22–27]Ham Noahcurses him and progeny to servitude. [O. ,exploitation, and, in many cases, mass murder of indigenous peoples.Symbols such as "savage" and "sub-human" used tolabel indigenous populations were abstractions that incorporated aSocial Darwinist understanding of the alleged similarity betweennon-white races and "mere animals" in evolutionary terms. Suchabstractions clearly included an assumption that the rules governinginteraction with indigenous peoples were different from the rulesgoverning "human" relations in the "civilized"world. Often, European colonizers felt they were merely fulfilling theirdestiny as members of a superior race, obligated ob��li��gate?tr.v. ob��li��gat��ed, ob��li��gat��ing, ob��li��gates1. To bind, compel, or constrain by a social, legal, or moral tie. See Synonyms at force.2. To cause to be grateful or indebted; oblige. by fate to rule overthe inferior black races of the uncivilized world. Hawkins quotesFrederick Courtney Selous, a British colonialist instrumental in theestablishment of Rhodesia, to illustrate this point: Therefore Matabeleland [a part of the future colony of Rhodesia] is doomed by what seems a law of nature to be ruled by the white man, and the black man must go, or conform to the white man's laws, or die in resisting them. It seems a hard and cruel fate for the black man, but it is a destiny which the broadest philanthropy cannot avert, whilst the British colonist is but the irresponsible atom employed in carrying out a preordained law--the law which has ruled upon this planet ever since, in the far-off misty depths of time, organic life was first evolved upon the earth--the inexorable law which Darwin has aptly termed the Survival of the Fittest. (19) This text reveals a direct connection not only with the collectiveabstraction of Social Darwinism and Darwin's symbolism, but alsowith the inevitability of scientific processes in general, another keyelement of the second conceptual revolution of Western cultural history.(20) While the link to the Darwinist worldview may be less obvious inother texts from 19th century colonialism, symbols borrowed fromDarwin's work in the field of biology infused the language andthought of European imperialists of the period. (21) Australia's Stolen Generations Prior to the arrival of Europeans on Australia's shores, theAboriginal people had called the continent home for over 40,000 years.Great cultural diversity existed among Aborigines, with hundreds oflanguages and dialects in active use by the 19th century. Aborigines leda nomadic See nomadic computing. lifestyle of hunting and gathering and roamed great distancesacross the harsh Australian landmass land��mass?n.A large unbroken area of land.landmassNouna large continuous area of landlandmass? in search of food and water. The settlement of Australia by white British colonists began inearnest during the early 1800s. (22) Settlers arriving in the secondhalf of the century brought with them the Darwinist worldview, acollective abstraction that had a significant influence on theirsemantic transactions with the WIGO in their settlements, particularlytheir interactions with Australia's indigenous peoples. (23) Muchof the early history of white contact with Aborigines was not unlikethat between European settlers and indigenous populations in theAmericas and Africa. Large numbers of Aborigines were slaughtered inearly conflicts with settlers, particularly along Australia'seastern coast in what would become the states of New South Wales New South Wales,state (1991 pop. 5,164,549), 309,443 sq mi (801,457 sq km), SE Australia. It is bounded on the E by the Pacific Ocean. Sydney is the capital. The other principal urban centers are Newcastle, Wagga Wagga, Lismore, Wollongong, and Broken Hill. ,Victoria, and Tasmania. Countless others succumbed to diseases againstwhich they had no immunity. As white coastal settlements began to takehold and prosper, the tide of settlement moved further inland, pushingAborigines off ancestral lands deeper into the desert-like Outback. Toward the end of the 19th century, the new Australians began toconsider ways of dealing with the "Aboriginal problem." (24)As most whites of the period defined it, the "Aboriginalproblem" consisted mainly of how to treat children of mixed race,part Aboriginal, part white, commonly called "half-castes" bywhite Australians. From the perspective of Social Darwinism, many whitesdismissed full-blooded Aborigines as destined for extinction due totheir allegedly inferior genetic make-up. According to Beresford andOmaji, the prevailing view was "driven by racial ideology.Indigenous races were widely thought of as irredeemably inferior beings;their very blackness signifying their membership of [sic] a separatebranch of humankind." (25) White settlers believed full-bloodedAborigines could easily be dealt with by isolating them on"stations" (akin to North American North Americannamed after North America.North American blastomycosissee North American blastomycosis.North American cattle ticksee boophilusannulatus. "reservations")where they would gradually die out. Of greater concern were the "half-castes" who "werewidely thought to present the worst characteristics of both races."Here, the abstractions of Social Darwinism mingled with abstractionsabout racial traits to produce a general fear among whites that"this 'half-caste' race would breed up to become a socialmenace." (26) This perceived threat was a different sort of problemthat precipitated a more active intervention on the part of whiteAustralians. The solution, devised informally at first and later enshrined inlaw, was to forcibly remove "half-caste" children from theirAboriginal families and place them in missions or white foster families.This policy, known originally as "absorption" and later as"assimilation," was originally intended to integrate"half-caste" children into white society, albeit on theperiphery, in two distinct ways. First, white Australians believed thatseparating "half-caste" children from all contact withAboriginal culture and raising them as "white" would lead themto turn their backs forever on "savage" ways and embrace whitesociety. (27) While the Social Darwinist worldview implied that"half-castes" would be unable to overcome genetic shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw.Shortcomings may also be: Shortcomings (SATC episode), an episode of the television series Sex and the City to the extent necessary to be truly successful in white society, even amarginalized existence on the fringes of the white system was deemedpreferable to the Aboriginal environment. The second element of the "absorption" policies was moreliteral. According to Social Darwinism and its cousin, eugenics eugenics(yjĕn`ĭks), study of human genetics and of methods to improve the inherited characteristics, physical and mental, of the human race. , thegenetic traits of a "superior" race would dominate those of an"inferior" race in mixed race individuals. (28) Advocates of"absorption" believed that Aboriginal blood could be"bred out degenerated.See also: Bred " of "half-castes" if they were permittedto marry and have children only with whites. In this way, the physicaland biological symbolism of the word "absorption" incorporateddirectly important elements of Social Darwinist worldview. The symbolic abstractions of Social Darwinism and racial prejudiceare dramatically evident in many official government texts from theearly 20th century in Australia. In 1904, a royal commission appointedby the Governor-General of Australia The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia. He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth. investigated growing concerns aboutthe "Aboriginal problem." (29) The head of that commission,Dr. E.W. Roth, summarized its conclusions by saying that "if [the'half-castes'] are left to their own devices under the presentstate of the law, their future will be one of vagabondism vag��a��bond?n.1. A person without a permanent home who moves from place to place.2. A vagrant; a tramp.3. A wanderer; a rover.adj.1. and harlotry... and [they] will spend their lives in goal or as prostitutes ifnothing is done with them." (30) Roth and his commission advocatedgovernment intervention to protect "half-caste" children fromtheir own bad breeding, and their suggestions were embodied in the 1905Aborigines Act, which gave state governments "the power of legalguardianship over Aboriginal children ... and empowered government toforce fathers of 'half-caste' children sent to missions to payfor their children's upkeep." (31) For more than three decades, "half-caste" children wereforcibly removed from their families, often grabbed straight from theirmothers' arms, and transported directly to government and churchmissions. In 1937, the six Australian states convened a conference tomore thoroughly codify codifyto arrange and label a system of laws. the policy of "absorption." Theunanimous resolution of that conference provides perhaps the clearestofficial statement of the nature and intent of "absorption:" The destiny of the natives of Aboriginal origin, but not of the full blood, lies in their ultimate absorption by the people of the Commonwealth, and [the Commission] therefore recommends that all efforts be directed to this end. (32) Interwoven in��ter��weave?v. in��ter��wove , in��ter��wo��ven , inter��weav��ing, inter��weavesv.tr.1. To weave together.2. To blend together; intermix.v.intr. in the symbolism of racial superiority inherent in theseand other texts is a paternalistic pa��ter��nal��ism?n.A policy or practice of treating or governing people in a fatherly manner, especially by providing for their needs without giving them rights or responsibilities. thread consistent with other colonialrhetoric. Whether or not white Australians acknowledged the emotionalpain experienced by both parents and children because of forced removal,they were convinced that any such hardship was better than thealternative of growing up as a member of an "inferior" raceand culture. Many white Australians were convinced of the generosity andmorality of "absorption" and "assimilation." This moral certainty moral certaintyn. in a criminal trial, the reasonable belief (but falling short of absolute certainty) of the trier of the fact (jury or judge sitting without a jury) that the evidence shows the defendant is guilty. can be seen symbolically in the transitionfrom "absorption" to "assimilation" and the use ofdifferent legal justifications for forced removal that emerged in thelate 1940s. The Holocaust, history's most catastrophic applicationof the Social Darwinist collective abstraction, forever renderedunacceptable the explicit use of racial "superiority" as thesymbolic basis for the oppression of ethnic or racial groups in Westernculture. As white Australians transacted with the experience of theHolocaust, it became clear that certain semantic and pragmatic changeswere necessary in Aboriginal policies to accommodate this transformationin collective abstractions. These developments led eventually to the repudiation of blatantlyauthoritarian measures in favor of terms and policies that emphasizedthe moral justification for forced removal. In the early 1950s, theChild Welfare Act replaced the 1905 Aboriginal Act as the legal basisfor removal of "half-caste" children from their families. Thischange amounted to little more than a semantic substitution with littlepragmatic impact due to the enduring collective abstractions about race.White Australians continued to see Aboriginal culture as inherentlyinferior, making it relatively easy to argue that a"half-caste" child raised in a traditional Aboriginal culturalenvironment was subject to "neglect" and was therefore in needof removal. (33) Conclusion The story of Australia's "stolen generations" is avivid example of the gross injustices that have been committed withinthe framework of the Social Darwinist worldview. Collective abstractionsof racial "superiority" and their behavioral manifestationshave led to numerous great tragedies of similar dimension during the19th and 20th centuries, resulting in the displacement and death ofmillions of people. The dramatic events of the Second World War and theHolocaust seem to have so altered the "territory" inKorzybskian terms that the "map" of Social Darwinism appearsirreversibly discredited. Still, as I have argued here, change incollective abstractions comes slowly, as demonstrated by the lingeringpractice of forced removal of children in Australia, which actuallycontinued until the 1970s. Acknowledgement of the pain and suffering endured by the childrenof the "stolen generations" has come at an even slower place.(34) White Australians only began to openly discuss the history offorced removal of Aboriginal children and its human effects in the1990s. Much more research needs to be done in order to gain a fullerunderstanding of the implications of this difficult period inAustralia's history, but it seems that the vestiges of the SocialDarwinist worldview still hinder the ability of white Australians todeal honestly with the oppressive policies of previous generations andthe racism that still plagues Australian society today. That work remains to be done is evident from a general semanticsanalysis of current Australian racial policy. The Australian governmenttoday embraces "multiculturalism" as its collectiveabstraction related to race relations race relationsNoun, plthe relations between members of two or more races within a single communityrace relationsnpl → relaciones fpl raciales . (35) What white Australiansintend to convey through the symbolism of multiculturalism is a societywhere "diversity" is valued, even celebrated. The reality ofAustralian culture, however, seems much different.Empty CradlesNunga baby taken away'Where's my mama' hear him say'You takin' me to Goonyaland?'Carried and fed by white man's handGrowing up differentNever knowingAunts and uncles, cousins growingMama cries--Government paysChildren lost to city waysBut they'll returnwhen they grow oldand tell their childrenof lies been toldSo it won't happen againyou seeThe cradles outbackthat were left empty.--MANDY HUNTER-HEBBERMAN (1) NOTES 1. Commonwealth of Australia Commonwealth of Australia:see Australia. , Report of the National Inquiry in theSeparation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Torres Strait(tŏr`ĭz, –rĭs), channel, c.95 mi (153 km) wide, between New Guinea and Cape York Peninsula of Australia. It connects the Arafura and Coral seas. Islander Children from TheirFamilies. Sydney, New South Wales: Human Rights and Equal EmploymentOpportunity Commission (1997): Introduction to Pt. 5: "Services forThose Affected." 2. See various recent sources for detailed accounts of thetreatment of Australia's indigenous peoples by white settlers:Elder, Bruce. Blood on the Wattle wattle,in botany: see acacia. : Massacres and Maltreatment maltreatmentSocial medicine Any of a number of types of unreasonable interactions with another adult. See Child maltreatment, Cf Child abuse. ofAustralian Aborigines since 1788. Frenchs Forest, New South Wales Frenchs Forest is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Frenchs Forest is located 16 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of Warringah Council. :Griffin (1988); Hunter, Ernest. Aboriginal Health and History: Power andPrejudice in Remote Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press (known colloquially as CUP) is a publisher given a Royal Charter by Henry VIII in 1534, and one of the two privileged presses (the other being Oxford University Press). (1993); Macintyre, Stuart. A Concise History of Australia The history of Australia began when people first migrated to the Australian continent from the north, at least 40,000-45,000 years ago. The written history of Australia began when Dutch explorers first sighted the country in the 17th century. . Cambridge,UK: Cambridge University Press (1999); Beresford, Quentin and Omaji,Paul. Our State of Mind: Racial Planning and the Stolen Generations.North Freemantle, Western Australia Western Australia,state (1991 pop. 1,409,965), 975,920 sq mi (2,527,633 sq km), Australia, comprising the entire western part of the continent. It is bounded on the N, W, and S by the Indian Ocean. Perth is the capital. : Freemantle Arts Centre An art center or arts centre is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for musical performance, Press(1998); Chesterman, John and Galligan, Brian. Citizens without Rights:Aborigines and Australian Citizenship. Cambridge, UK: CambridgeUniversity Press (1997). 3. Bois, J. Samuel. The Art of Awareness: A Handbook on Epistemicsand General Semantics (4th Ed.). Santa Monica Santa Monica(săn`tə mŏn`ĭkə), city (1990 pop. 86,905), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1886. Tourism and retailing are important, and the city has motion-picture, biotechnology, and software industries. , CA: Continuum Press &Productions (1996). 4. Ibid, p. 78. 5. Korzybski, Alfred. Science and Sanity: An Introduction toNon-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (4th Ed.). Lakeville, CT:The International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company (1958). 6. Bois, Art of Awareness, p. 150. 7. Bormann, Ernest. "Symbolic Convergence Theory AboutSymbolic Convergence Theory (SCT) is a general communication theory. SCT explains that meanings, emotions, values, and the motives for action are in the rhetoric that is co-created by people trying to make sense out of a common experience, such as university life. : ACommunication Formulation." The Journal of Communication 35 (1985):pp. 128-138; Mead, George Herbert Mead, George Herbert(mēd), 1863–1931, American philosopher and psychologist, b. South Hadley, Mass., grad. Oberlin, 1883, and Harvard, 1888, and studied in Leipzig and Berlin. He taught at the Univ. of Chicago from 1894 until his death. . Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago:University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including (1934). 8. Bormann, "Symbolic Convergence Theory," p. 133. 9. Bois, Art of Awareness. 10. Ibid. 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid, p.10. 13. Alter, Stephen G. Darwinism and the Linguistic Image: Language,Race, and Natural Theology natural theologyn.A theology holding that knowledge of God may be acquired by human reason alone without the aid of revealed knowledge.Noun 1. in the Nineteenth Century. Baltimore: TheJohns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University,mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. Press (1999); Bannister, Robert C. SocialDarwinism: Science and Myth in Anglo-American Social Thought.Philadelphia: Temple University Press (1979); Hawkins, Mike. SocialDarwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945: Nature as Modeland Nature as Threat. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (1997). 14. Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p.17. 15. Hawkins, Social Darwinism; Shibutani, Tamotsu and Kwan, Kian M.Ethnic Stratification: A Comparative Approach. New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : The MacmillanCompany (1965). 16. Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p. 17. 17. Ibid. 18. Hawkins, Social Darwinism; Shibutani and Kwan, EthnicStratification. 19. Hawkins, Social Darwinism, p.205. 20. Bois, Art of Awareness. 21. Alter, Darwinism; Hawkins, Social Darwinism; Shibutani andKwan, Ethnic Stratification. 22. Many of the early white settlers in Australia were convictsfrom other reaches of the British Empire British Empire,overseas territories linked to Great Britain in a variety of constitutional relationships, established over a period of three centuries. The establishment of the empire resulted primarily from commercial and political motives and emigration movements , particularly Ireland.Ironically, their status as rejects from one culture did not reducetheir propensity to apply the Darwinist worldview in dealings withAustralia's indigenous peoples. In this case, the primacy of raceover individual characteristics in determining the worth of humans is instark evidence. 23. Beresford and Omaji, Our State of Mind. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid, pp.31-32. 26. Ibid, p.34. 27. Ibid. 28. Ibid. 29. Commonwealth of Australia, Report of the National Inquiry. 30. As quoted in Beresford and Omaji, Our State of Mind, p.35. 31. Ibid, p.37. 32. Ibid, p.30. 33. Commonwealth of Australia, Report of the National Inquiry. 34. Elder, Blood on the Wattle. 35. Chesterman and Galligan, Citizens Without Rights; Curthoys,Ann. "An Uneasy Conversation: The Multicultural and theIndigenous." In Race, Colour and Identity in Australia and NewZealand New Zealand(zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. , edited by J. Docker and G. Fischer, pp.21-36. Sydney, New SouthWales: University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales, also known as UNSW or colloquially as New South, is a university situated in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Press (2000); Elder, Blood on theWattle. JEFFREY R. DAFLER* * Jeffrey R. Dafler is a graduate student in communication at theUniversity of Dayton The University of Dayton is one of the ten largest Catholic schools in the United States and is the largest of the three Marianist universities in the nation. It is also home to one of the largest campus ministry programs in the world. in Ohio and a public relations public relations,activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most manager at NCR (NCR Corporation, Dayton, OH, www.ncr.com) A technology company specializing in financial terminal transactions, retail systems and data warehousing. Until the late 1990s, NCR was heavily invested in the hardware side of the industry, known worldwide as a major manufacturer of computers Corp.He is a former U.S. diplomat and served as Vice Consul vice consul?n. Abbr. VCA consular officer who is subordinate to and a deputy of a consul or consul general.vice-con at the U.S.Consulate General consulate generaln. pl. consulates generalThe consulate occupied by a consul general. in Melbourne, Australia, from 1992 to 1994.