It occurred to me that this was a really difficult chain to break. In a society where racist sentiments were still deep-seated in much of the white population, government policies were a blend of egalitarian reasoning, elements of paternalism and discrimination, and emancipation. On the other hand, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ seemed to be the predominant attitude among non-indigenous Australians. If you didn’t leave the cities, where well over half the country’s few million inhabitants lived, and you didn’t need to go into the Aboriginal ghettoes, you could just about live your entire life without meeting a ‘real Australian’.
I talked about all this to Jim Manning, a slim man full of energy who received me politely and began a friendly conversation in the little garden next to his house,
