Aboriginal Young People and Youth Subcultures (From Youth Subcultures: Theory, History and the Australian Experience, P 114-121, 1993, Rob White, ed. -- See NCJ-162536)

• NCJ Number: 162553
• Author(s): D Palmer; L Collard
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

An ethnographic study was conducted to explore how aboriginal young people in Australia articulated their daily experiences relative to substance use and the police.

Abstract

The study was initiated in response to the re-emergence of youth subcultures as a subject of academic and policy interest in Australia. Field work undertaken in early 1993 involved Nyungar youth who resided in a southern metropolitan region of Perth. Respondents were asked to talk about their cultural experiences, and their accounts indicated that previous research on youth subcultures made Nyungar youth invisible. It appeared that research interest in Nyungar youth and their cultural existence often embraced popular misconceptions in an uncritical way. This research over-emphasized substance use and criminal activities of Nyungar youth, denied contemporary aboriginality and cultural continuity, assumed Nyungar social disorganization to be the basis for youth problems, focused on activities of aboriginal young people living in rural and remote communities, individualized Nyungar youth from their families and communities, and assumed Nyungar youth experienced personal and social problems due to boredom and lack of meaningful things to do. The authors conclude that further research on Nyungar youth can provide additional information about the actual lives of these young people and can identify ways in which nonaboriginal young Australians are slaves to their own histories and traditions. 18 references and 1 photograph