Transforming the notion of the urban aborigine

The 'urban Aborigine' has been a problematic figure in Australian social policy, because of the tension between his/her cultural status (apparently assimilated) and his/her politicised cultural identity (defiantly resistant to assimilation). This paper focuses on a moment in Australian history when a reformist intelligentsia was compelled to make better sense of the 'urban Aborigine', and on two intellectuals in particular: H. C. Coombs and Fay Gale. It then turns to the cultural practice of a particular sector of this intelligentsia - the urban Aboriginal painter - and shows how urban Aboriginal artists have sometimes addressed the problematic category 'urban Aborigine' by richly referencing icons of the 'traditional' in their paintings.