Goodness! I am impressed, Mr. Robinson. You are turning savages into respectable citizens.' 'In London, I hear, they’re dressing orangutans like lords and ladies and teaching them to read,' Sir John mused. Mathinna didn’t know what an orangutan was, but she’d heard talk of savages around the elders’ campfire—British whalers and sealers who lived like animals and sneered at rules of common decency. Lady Franklin must be confused. Robinson gave a short laugh. 'This is a bit different. The Aborigines are human, after all.
-- Lady Franklin, Sir John, Narrator as Mathinna, Robinson (Prologue)

Importance: This quote addresses the cultural relativism at play in the novel. Mathinna’s perspective allows the reader to combat the British notion that the Aborigines are inferior to human beings. Sir John likens assimilation of Aborigines to that of orangutans, inferring that they are apes. By this logic, neither apes nor Aborigines can achieve the status of “respectable citizens...