A Concrete Aboriginal, also known as a Neville, is a
lawn ornament
Lawn ornaments are decorative objects placed in the grassy area of a property.
Common lawn ornaments
Animal forms: animal statues such as frogs, turtles, rabbits, deer, flamingoes and ducks are cast in plastic or cement.
Bathtub Madonna: a st ...
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, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
, 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, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
Kingswood Country
''Kingswood Country'' is an Australian sitcom that screened from 1980 to 1984 on the Seven Network. The series started on 30 January 1980 and was a spin-off from the sketch on comedy program ''The Naked Vicar Show'' that had featured Ross Hig ...
'', where the lead character referred to his concrete Aboriginal as "Neville".
The name "Neville" was thought to be a reference to
Neville Bonner
Neville Thomas Bonner AO (28 March 19225 February 1999) was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia. He was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy ...
, the first Aboriginal Australian to sit in the
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...
.
See also
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Lawn ornament
Lawn ornaments are decorative objects placed in the grassy area of a property.
Common lawn ornaments
Animal forms: animal statues such as frogs, turtles, rabbits, deer, flamingoes and ducks are cast in plastic or cement.
Bathtub Madonna: a st ...
*
Lawn jockey
A lawn jockey is a statue depicting a man in jockey clothes, intended to be placed in front yards as hitching posts, similar to those of footmen bearing lanterns near entrances and gnomes in gardens. Because of the prevalence of black lawn jo ...
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Cigar store Indian
The cigar store Indian or wooden Indian is an advertisement figure, in the likeness of a Native American, used to represent tobacconists. The figures are often three-dimensional wooden sculptures several feet tall – up to life-sized. They are ...
*
Blackamoor
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Garden gnome
Garden gnomes (german: links=no, Gartenzwerge, lit=garden dwarfs) 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. T ...
*
Jew with a coin
The Jew with a coin (, also little Jew (), or lucky Jew ()) is a good luck charm in Poland, where images or figurines of the character, usually accompanied by a proverb, are said to bring good fortune, particularly financially. For most Poles ...
References
Australian culture
Garden ornaments
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