THE ABORIGINES AND THE OUT-BACK

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30146, 1 June 1963, Page 3

THE ABORIGINES AND THE OUT-BACK

[Reviewed by B.N.C.]

Crocodiles And Other People. By Douglas Lockwood. Rigby Ltd., Adelaide. 222 pp.

Before the arrival of the first white settlers, the aboriginal population of Australia was not less than 251,000. In 1947 it had fallen to 47,000, and there are even fewer today. That has been the terrible result of the disruption of tribal life and the alienation of tribal land. No wonder Mr Lock wood pleads so feelingly for understanding of the remaining aborigines. Fortunately, the last few years have produced a little more hope for them. “In the Northern Territory, at least, the drift towards extinction has been arrested, and the population is well established along the road to eventual assimilation. Fullblood aborigine children have shown that they are eager to learn and it is in the field of education that I believe most worth-while progress is being made,” Mr Lockwood writes.

“For the first time, educationists have found evidence of a will among the natives to improve themselves. More than 1600- black children are now attending 27 staffed schools, which approaches that of the segregated white school population of just over 2000. “This progress in toe schools has been won against tremendous odds. At first it was depressingly slow,, because the native children had no home environment to help them with their lessons. They had never been required to count, for instance. A native child could distinguish between one kangaroo and ’two-feller,’ or perhaps as many as ‘five-feller’ kangaroo.

“A tribe in Arnhem Land has dialect words for figures up to five, but after that they’re lost. Up to 10 is generally a ‘little mob,’ between 10 and 20 a ‘little bit big feller mob,’ more than 20 is a ‘big mob.’ and 100 or so is ‘properly big feller mob’ ”

The aborigines’ pidgin English, a delightful medium by which the nat ve and white people manage to get by in conversation —although with the odd misunderstanding—forms the basis of many of Lockwood’s • more humorous passages. A native charged in the Darwin police court with drinking liquor denied the allegation although the police statement said he smelt strongly of liquor. The matter was cleared up by the accused. however, when challenged in court: “Me tell you true-feller. Me no more bin 'drink grog. Only beer.” Or the case of the aborigine who volunteered to a police officer that sasparilla killed, a fellow native whose death the officer was investigating There had been a “properly number one party” the night before at which the natives had consumed methylated spirits. "Allabout, everyone,” got very drunk but the dead

man, “a properly clever fellow,” no more liked the taste of meths so put sarsparllla with it. “Look at him now, dead finish. Sarsparilla kill him,” the native repeated. Lockwood’s book deals not only with the aborigines. It is a highly readable story of out-back Australia. It is an exexciting and authentic picture of life in the Northern Territory, by a highly successful journalist and author, whose stories have won several international prizes, both for their literary merit and their unique subjects. Mr Lock wood has been for more than 15 years the Darwin correspondent of the

“Melbourne Herald.” He is responsible for getting the news in an area of half a million square miles, onesixth of Australia. It is a sparsely-populated region in which, as Mr Lockwood says, “anything is more than likely to happen, and the extraordinary is a normal pattern of life.” Crocodile and buffalo hunts and the trapping of wild horses in company with hardened professionals in one of the wildest regions of the world are some of the extraordinary adventures that have come his way. He gives absorbing accounts also of the operations of the flying doctor service in the outback, of native mission stations, and aborigine art and tribal rituals. He explains also how a waillaby made front-page newspaper headlines a few years ago by shooting a man with his own rifle.

The author’s stories range from the bizarre to the humorous. His book, which is well illustrated, is assured of success.