Concrete Aboriginal

{{Short description|Type of lawn ornament}}

{{Use Australian English|date=October 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2018}}

A Concrete Aboriginal, also known as a Neville, is a lawn ornament once common in Australia.{{cite web|last=Stronach|first=Gregor|title=Racism set in stone?|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-11-19/38332|work=The Drum|date=19 November 2008|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=2 June 2018}}{{cite news|title=Balingup artist a finalist in national award|url=http://www.donnybrookmail.com.au/story/228509/balingup-artist-a-finalist-in-national-award/|accessdate=25 January 2014|newspaper=Donnybrook-Bridgetown Mail|date=31 July 2012}} The ornament is a concrete statue depicting an Aboriginal Australian, generally carrying a spear and often standing on one leg.{{cite news|last=Mountjoy|first=Donnie|title=Not In My Front Yard, please|url=http://blogs.smh.com.au/radar/archives/2005/11/not_in_my_front.html|accessdate=24 January 2014|newspaper=Sydney Morning Herald|date=15 November 2005}} The statues were once common in Australia but rarely seen since the 1980s.{{cite news|last=Corbett|first=Jeff|title=Bring back Neville|url=https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/447713/bring-back-neville/|access-date=24 January 2014|newspaper=Newcastle Herald|date=28 September 2009}}

{{quote|The concrete Aborigine is, at its very core, a symbol of a much simpler time; an Australia that was as unashamedly kitsch as it was unaware of the cultural and political significance of something that, by today's standards, is so brutally offensive the very idea of someone trying to resurrect it as an art form would most likely prompt indignant squealing from the more progressive corners of society.|Gregor Stronach}}

The fashion for keeping a concrete Aboriginal in the garden was satirised in the Australian 1980s situation comedy 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.{{Citation | author1=Kirkpatrick, Peter John | author2=Dixon, Robert, 1954- | title=Republics of letters : literary communities in Australia | date=2012 | publisher=Sydney University Press | isbn=978-1-920899-78-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HPCfs-FIxJkC&q=concrete+aboriginal+neville+bonner&pg=PA112|page=112 }}