Robert Lawlor Tells a 'White' Lie

A casual browse through almost any bookshop reveals a growing interest in Aborigines and their cultures, not because of their importance and significance in their own right, but because of their perceived utility in satisfying Western needs and desires. There is hardly a complaint, problem (be they personal or symptomatic of wider issues) or variant of spiritual questing to which elements from Aboriginal cultures have not been applied. Although this work comes wrapped in the spirit of 'good intentions', the constructions of Aborigines the authors employ rarely escape the crude notion that they remain a people from and of the past. In this article I look at one of the more popular books that perpetuates this myth, but my primary focus is on how the author misleadingly substantiates his portrayal of Aboriginal peoples. The book poses as a work of serious‚ÄövÑvÆif not anthropologically original‚ÄövÑvÆscholarship.