The outstation, or homeland movement as I prefer to call it, is, I believe, an Aboriginal response to the problems of contact and an attempt to evolve a lifestyle which preserves the essence of the Aboriginal way along with access to chosen elements from white society. In this description of the early outcomes of the homeland movement I have drawn upon the experience of many communities, extrapolating developments in their early stages where these appear capable of being sustained and likely to contribute to a lifestyle consistent with Aboriginal needs and desires. Inevitably, it is a picture based upon wish fulfilment, upon the expectation of increasingly effective adaptation by Aborigines and upon a political context in Australian society which ensures reasonable support for, and sympathy with, this Aboriginal initiative.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERN

Already it is possible to discern a geographical pattern in the distribution of the Aboriginal population within regions in which the homeland movement is permitted to operate. This pattern is based upon a series of focal settlements with populations of up to 1,000, linked with a set of decentralised homeland communities at varying distances of up to one hundred miles. Many of these homelands, in turn, have a surrounding periphery of their own smaller satellite locations.