RACE DYING OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 130, 3 June 1936, Page 11

RACE DYING OUT

AUSTRALIAN BLACKS A POLICY NEEDED — I DR. THOMSON'S REPORT (From "The Post's" Representative.) ' SYDNEY, May 22. Paddling down the Roper River ' (North Australia) in a dug-out canoe leaking badly and manned by two men, an old woman, a young woman, and a child and four dogs, and loaded with gear, walking for more than 200 miles in rough jungle in seven days, living with the natives, burdened with no other luggage than a toothbrush and a sheath knife, making a fish spear of pieces of wire only to lose it when a large fish carried it off, crossing crocodile-infested rivers on a few sticks tied together with bark, these are some of the adventures which Dr. Donald Thomson, Melbourne anthropologist, tells in simple and straight-forward language in his official report to the Commonwealth Government on his patrol in Arnheim Land. He places.no special emphasis on them; there were part of his job.; fir. Thomson found that, even in this remote and comparatively untouched corner of the Australian, continent, the native population is dying out rapidly. Extensive tracts of country which formerly supported a large • population are already completely depopulated. He states definitely that, unless something positive is done without delay, the fate of the natives is sealed. Even in the Arnheim Land native reserve the natives have greatly decreased and are declining rapidly in numbers. BLUE MUD BAY TERRITORY. There were, for instance, formerly eight clans in the territory round Blue Mud Bay. Today two of these clans are extinct, and all the others are below strength. These people are at .least three-eighths oil the way to extinction. Children were found to be progressively fewer with the approach to the fringe of civilisation. Dr. Thomson suggests that the retention of the whole native culture .should be adopted as a policy in the administration of the native tribes at least until the fate of the detribalised and semi-detribalised natives has been determined by the establishment of a settled policy. Each year adds to the difficulty of preserving the culture of the few remaining tribes. "The road to progress of the white man in the Northern Territory is paced with the tombstones of the aborigines," writes Dr. Thomson.

He lays down, among other things, the following points as essentialabsolute segregation within Arnheim Land; the nomadic habits of these native* must be regarded as an essential part of their culture, and the collecting of tribal natives into compounds or institutions should be prohibited. If it is desired to teach Christianity to them, the teacher or missionary must visit them in own country, not gather them about a station or mission school; patrols should move about Arnheim Land to protect the natives from interference .or exploitation and the patrols should be entrusted to men fitted for the work temperamentally, as well as by special qualifications; the system by which .police constables act 'as protectors should be abolished; a settled uniform policy should be adopted for the treatment of the whole of the aboriginal population of Australia. A Department of Native Affairs, staffed by men selected solely for their special qualifications and sympathies fitting them for dealing with natives, should at once be established. COASTAL EXPLOITATION. It is urged jhat no exploitation of the reserve by. trepangers or others operating along the coast should be allowed until a survey has been made and a permanent patrol established to administer justice and to safeguard the natives. It is stated that the alien crews of trepanging vessels have been using the natives in their operations. Unless proper control is established, trouble will recur. Dr. Thomson suggests that the three sons of Wongo, whose tribe murdered several Japanese trepangers several years ago, should be sent back from their Darwin prison to Caledon Bay, where 1 he had established the most friendly relations with their father.

Dr. Thomson found that while cannibalism was fairly general throughout Arnheim Land, it was solely of a ceremonial type; the natives do not. cat human flesh because they are hungry or on account of meat deficiency. Like other Australian natives, the Arnheim Land aborigines had an elaborate and prolonged funeral ritual.