The New Hungarian Quarterly, 1982 (23. évfolyam, 88. szám)

Halász Zoltán: Terra Australis

i 5o THE NEW HUNGARIAN QUARTERLY The 45-year-old Willmot proudly told me that he was a full-blood aboriginal bom on a small island off the coast of Queensland, that he was a drover in his youth, driving huge herds from the cattle stations towards ports and abattoirs. On the way he was once seriously injured. During the eighteen months of hospitalization he learnt to read and write, and felt an irresistible urge to continue his studies. He received a state scholarship and, since he was not really articulate in English, he began with mathematics. He matriculated at Newcastle University in N.S.W. and graduated in physics. “Look here,’’ Willmot told me, “the state subsidy we were recently granted is only part compensation for the past and for social handicaps we still labour under. Just imagine, when the first Europeans landed, Australia had 300,000 inhabitants, all aboriginals; today there are about 160,000 of us—only half the number. You may figure out what has hap­pened in two centuries.” Indeed: theirs was a bitter lot. There were times, in Tasmania, when the indigenous population was wiped out methodically, none live there today. In other parts of Australia half of those who have been left live in towns, the other half have withdrawn to underpopulated areas and live in tribal organizations, hunting, fishing, collecting. Since 1968 the Federal government makes regular yearly grants to promote the education of ab­originals and to improve their health and housing. “In my view,” says Eric Willmot, “both attitudes are right: to preserve ancient modes of life and traditions, establishing tribal communities a long way from the white civilization, as well as wishing to take part in modern civilization in such a way that in the meantime one preserves the ancient culture of our people with its own features. I for one have opted for the latter, as more and more young people have done since. Today we have a good number of educationalists, historians, and artists; but there is un­fortunately little progress in the technical field.” There Wilmot shows his own modesty. In 1981 he won the Australian title of inventor of the year with his construction of a new type of gear-box, and he represented Australia at the international show of inventions in Geneva. Of course, this is only one side of the coin, the great mass of aboriginals still do not really live in idyllic conditions. The Aboriginal Land Rights Bill proposed by Whitlam’s Labor government in 1975 was put through Parliament by the Fraser government in 1976, yet in many instances ab­originals still have to go to the law to fight for their rights. Their folk-art is highly appreciated, but much water will still flow down the river Murray before the man in the street will have shed all his prejudices against the black people. “We have plenty of time,” says Wurbilil, the painter who

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