ABSTRACT
This chapter examines initiatives undertaken by the Country Women's Association (CWA) of New South Wales, a significant provider of community services in rural areas since its formation in 1922, to fulfil its mandate to assist all country women regardless of their social location. From 1956 to 1972, the CWA attempted to overcome racial segregation and to incorporate Aboriginal women into rural society through the operations of an Aboriginal CWA branch formed on a government-controlled reserve, Boggabilla Aboriginal Station. Deep acceptance of class and race-based stratification foiled CWA efforts to promote social mixing, or, where branches and groups attained a measure of success, this achievement threatened to disrupt or undermine the core beliefs avowed for the association. Recruitment and retention of new and younger members became a persistent theme in CWA publications echoing widely circulating narratives of rural decline. Any elision of social difference relied heavily upon the capacity of the CWA rest room to create geographies of inclusion.
