The Economic Status of Australian Aborigines

In recent years there has been a substantial growth in the literature of Auatralian Aboriginal Studies. While much of this has touched on past and present economic issues from a historical, political or social viewpoint, its result has been to emphasise the need for a synthesis of the available information on the economic status of Aborigines in Australia. This book provides a survey of studies so far made on various aspects of current Aboriginal economic life in different environments in Australia, and raises questions of economic policy which follow from their results. In this the authors break new ground in the breadth of their canvass and by their extension of issues previously limited to the realm of social welfare to that of economic policy. This book is prefaced by a brief description of the historical background to the Aboriginal ‘economy’, and introduced by an overview of the relatively unequal economic status of Aborigines in the Australian economy today. It then surveys the available information on the economic position of Aborigines in the different segments of society in remote and settled Australia in which they live: government settlements and missions; pastoral stations; decentralised communities; urban and rural communities; and the major urban areas. Finally some general economic issues are raised. Aspects of economic status surveyed in the various chapters include demographic and geographic features; health conditions; education facilities; employment; income, expenditure; housing; and the influence of prejudice on economic opportunity.