A Concrete Aboriginal, also known as a Neville, is a
lawn ornament
A garden ornament or lawn ornament is a non-plant item used for garden, landscape, and park enhancement and decoration.
History
Early examples of the use of garden ornaments in western culture were seen in Ancient Roman gardens such as those ...
once common in Australia.
The ornament is a concrete statue depicting an
Aboriginal Australian
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...
, generally carrying a spear and often standing on one leg.
The statues were once common in Australia but rarely seen since the 1980s.
The fashion for keeping a concrete Aboriginal in the garden was satirised in the Australian 1980s
situation comedy
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
''
Kingswood Country'', where the lead character referred to his concrete Aboriginal as "Neville".
The name "Neville" was thought to be a reference to
Neville Bonner, the first Aboriginal Australian to sit in the
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...
.
See also
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Lawn ornament
A garden ornament or lawn ornament is a non-plant item used for garden, landscape, and park enhancement and decoration.
History
Early examples of the use of garden ornaments in western culture were seen in Ancient Roman gardens such as those ...
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Lawn jockey
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Cigar store Indian
The cigar store Indian or wooden Indian is an advertisement figure, in the likeness of a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American, used to represent tobacconists. The figures are often three-dimensional wooden sculptures measuring fr ...
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Blackamoor
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Garden gnome
Garden gnomes () are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures based on the mythological creature and diminutive spirit which occur in Renaissance magic and alchemy, known as gnomes. They also draw on the German folklore of the Dwarf ...
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Jew with a coin
References
Culture of Australia
Garden ornaments
Anti-indigenous racism in Australia
Gardening in Australia
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