essay

Aspects of the social history of Hermannsburg

heritage of namatjira : the watercolourists of central australia • Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Published In 1992 • Pages: [63]-96

By: Radford, Robin.

Abstract

This essay presents background information on the Finke River Mission at Hermannsburg, where the Aranda watercolorist Albert Namatjira lived for most of his life. Radford describes the many difficulties that the mission faced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in establishing itself in the area. Chief among the problems of the missionaries was acceptance by the aborigines, natural hazards such as disease and death in the hostile environment, the negative reaction of the White settlers to their presence, the anti-Germanism that endangered the mission during the two world wars, and the constant struggle for funding. Interesting vignettes are also presented on the missionary-antropologist Carl Strehlow and his role in missionary development, and on Baldwin Spencer, whose later writings on the eastern Aranda brought him world fame.

HRAF PubDate

1996

Region

Oceania

Sub Region

Australia

Document Type

essay

Evaluation

Creator Type

Historian

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

Analyst

John Beierle ; 1994

Field Date

no date

Coverage Date

late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries

Coverage Place

Hermannsburg, Northern Territory, Australia

Notes

Robin Radford

Bibliographical references are in document number 47

Not all of the plates mentioned in the text have been included

LCSH

Aranda (Australian people)