IMITATING WHITE MEN

Evening Star, Issue 22595, 12 March 1937, Page 10

IMITATING WHITE MEN

BLACKS WITHOUT AN AIM Small bands of blacks, clad in the ragged, cast-off clothes of white men, may be seen any day in the Darwin aboriginal compound, or in any centre of civilisation in the Northern Territory. They sit cross-legged in a circle in the shade thrown by galvanised iron huts, playing some queer gambling game with a greasy pack of cards or with little stones like marbles (writes N. C. Hardy, in the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’).

Each has his little stake to gamble with—a small pile of cut-up pieces of plug tobacco, probably a few small coins, and other odds and ends of useful things. They are enthralled by gambling games, and will gamble the shirts off their backs. Everything goes into the pool. For the most part they are serious and silent and absorbed in the game, but occasionally sudden bursts of highpitched laughter announce some incident in the game. Other blacks he about dozing in the shade out of the terrific heat. Bands of luhras may also bo sitting about gambling, while piccaninnies, more active, will be playing with .dogs or engaged in a ball game or with sticks.

At remote police stations or telegraph station in the territory there are small groups of aged and decrepit aboriginal men and women, some blind or deaf or diseased, or all three. They are the “ aged and infirm, and are cared for by the Government, on whose behalf the police or telegraph men supply them with rations, blankets, and clothes to keep their miserable bodies alive. It is a pitiable sight to see them waiting, cringing in the dust for their food.

On the stations or farms young aboriginal men, expert bushmen and horsemen, help to run the cattle or peanut industry. They are happy and carefree. Their dependents, lubras, children, and older members of the tribe, hang about the homesteads, and, if not employed in some form or other, live in then disreputable camps close by. The stations, by employing the young males of the tribes and thus depriving the others of their food supply, are obliged by law to feed their dependents. These descriptions show briefly how the black population of the Northern Territory, which outnumbers the white by four to one, lives in contact with civilisation. These sights may be seen by any traveller, and many a worse side to their lives may he seen as well. The great majority of the 18,000 to 19,000 blacks in the territory are in contact with civilisation, and more are coming .into touch every year. Is this the best that civilisation can do for them?

In their native element, the bush, the blacks are amazingly efficient at securing food for their tribes, but they feel an irresistible urge to drift towards settlement, instead of moving to more remote parts as settlement encroaches. They accept life in the settlements willingly, although it breaks up their tribal life and leaves them as weak dependents on the whites. The attraction is probably that of obtaining food without the extreme difficulty of hunting for it.

WEARING SPECTACLE FRAMES. They ape the white men, but acquire nothing of their culture, and lose their own. They succeed only in imitating dress, habits, and speech. I have seen blackfellows wearing spectacles, from which they have taken the lenses, because the glass interfered with their remarkably keen eyesight. Dr Donald Thompson, one of Australia’s foremost anthropologists, who is now Jiving amongst the natives in Arnhem Land, describes the study of their complex tribal organisation, ceremonies, and languages as a “ nightmare.” Yet in civilisation a child could exploit their simplicity. Their lives are full'bf contradictions. A blackfellow and a lubra went to the superintendent of the Darwin compound, and declared that they wanted to get married, “all the same white, fella.” Some questions by the superintendent elicited from _ the blackfellow that }ie had had no wife before in his tribe. The lubra stated artlessly that she had not been married before, but' had three children—two black and a half-caste.

• The superintendent produced a ready-reckoner from his office, muttered a few words over them, and told them they were married. They went away quite happy.

Although he is supreme in the inhospitable northern bush, living his nomadic existence, the aboriginal is really a sub-normal typo in civilisation. A white man with his small capacity to learn and earn his living would have to be looked after. Apart from some of the mission stations, which aro endeavouring to attract blacks away from civilisation, there is no move to preserve the tribal organisations. Of the hundreds of blacks who drift into and out of Darwin each year, most are employed by the townspeople as domestic assistants. There is also a considerable black population permanently in Darwin. Their employment is controlled by the Aboriginal Department of the Interior. After obtaining a license from the department, the employer is obliged to pay blackfellow or lubra 5s weekly. Of this, 3s each week is paid to the black as “cash alonga hand,” while 2s a week is paid into a trust fund, which he has with the Aboriginal Department. The trust fund accumulates until the black decides that he is sick of working and wants to “go bush ” or “go walk-aßout.” In other words, he wants to return to his beloved bushland for a time and hunt his food, but he will invariably return. Then he can have his money to buy a few necessary things. The blackfellow is free to come and go anywhere in the Northern Territory as "he pleases. No hand can be raised to prevent him. Station owners cannot hunt him off their properties. Theoretically he owns the land. However, he must obey the white man’s law, and stealing or spearing cattle is heavily punishable.

CARE-FREE SERVANTS. I have seen housewives in Darwin nearly faint when their black servant on a steamy hot day mopped his perspiring forehead or neck with a tea towel while wiping dishes, or picked the towel up from the floor with his toes, -where he had dropped it. Some lubras are fairly good camp cooks, especially if they have been brought up by station women. The employer is obliged to feed his blacks by law, and to clothe them “ adequately,” and also to supply them with an issue of tobacco. They have enormous appetites, and if food supplies are generous, invite their relatives in for meals. All smoke tobacco or chew it. Both men and lubras smoke pipes. A few “ roll their own ” cigarettes. When given clothing they are

just as likely as not -to lose it in a gambling game the same day. Any form of clothing will be wox - n by the blacks except shoes. They prefer to go barefooted, although t black stockmen on the stations wear’ riding boots when on horseback. They sleep in their clothes, without shelter, during wet weather, with detrimental results to their health. It is hard to understand why employers should be compelled to clothe blacks when it is obvious that they would bo healthier if their clothing was strictly limited. Blacks are not allowed within the town of Darwin at night—a measure which was adopted to prevent exploitation of the women, opium smoking, and drinking. All blacks in the town are supposed to be in the aboriginal compound after dark. However, they are allowed to attend the local picture show on two nights a week by special permission of the Chief Protector. The front portion of the theatre is set apart for them. They are particularly fond of pictures with plenty of action, such as American western pictures. They shout and whistle when one of these pictures is about to be shown. It is fascinating to watch these Stone Age natives at a picture show. Although the proprietor takes special measures to prevent the blacks bringing their dogs into the theatre they are so attached to their pets that they smuggle them in by hiding them inside their clothes. The programme is frequently disturbed by a dog fight. A number of galvanised iron huts were erected in the compound to provide shelter for the blacks in wet weather, but they preferred to build disreputable humpies on the compound beach out of odd bits of galvanised iron, petrol tins, and timber. I was present recently when the authorities decided to tear down these humpies and make the blacks return to the huts. When they were torn apart many aged men and women, who were nothing more than skin and bone, were discovered. The following day the blacks had erected their humpies again, and were living in them quite contentedly.