ABSTRACT
Australia’s population is culturally diverse, but dominated in terms of power, status, population characteristics and size by its Anglo- based community. Among its major ethnic groupings, Australia’s Aboriginal population has declined in relative size to the point in the mid-1980s where it appears to be about the same size as, for example, the Italian-based group. Thus, from being the sole inhabitants of the Australian Continent, Aboriginals now compete for resources, power, status and cultural identity with numerous ethnic minorities as well as with the dominant Anglo-based group. The period of subjugation is frequently characterized by military defeat, disintegration of many structural and cultural elements, material poverty, disease - especially exotic disease, and a falling birth rate. Contact with traditional cultural artifacts and the skilful ways these may have been used in the pre-colonial environment may be part of the instrumental means of embarking on cultural reaffirmation.
