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Theodor George Henry Strehlow (6 June 1908 – 3 October 1978) was an Australian
anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and v ...
and linguist. He notably studied the
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
(Aranda, Arunta)
Aboriginal Australians 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 Island ...
and their language in
Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...
.


Life


Early life

Strehlow's father was
Carl Strehlow Carl Friedrich Theodor Strehlow (23 December 1871 – 20 October 1922) was an anthropologist, linguist and genealogist who served on two Lutheran missions in remote parts of Australia from May 1892 to October 1922. He was at Killalpaninna Missio ...
, Lutheran pastor and
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, since 1896, of the
Hermannsburg Mission The Hermannsburg Mission (german: Hermannsburger Mission) was founded as the Hermannsburg Mission Centre (''Missionsanstalt Hermannsburg'') in 1849 in Hermannsburg, near Celle, North Germany, by Louis Harms. In 1977, the independent mission soc ...
, southwest of
Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
on the Finke River. (Carl was also a gifted
linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingui ...
who studied and documented the local languages, and Ted later built upon his work.) Strehlow was born, a month premature, at Hermannsburg, the native place name being Ntaria. He was raised trilingually, speaking, in addition to English, also
Arrernte Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia. It may refer to: * Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?) * Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
with the Aboriginal maids and native children, and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
with his immediate family. After a family visit to Germany when he was three years old (1911), he returned with his parents, and grew up parted from his four elder brothers and a sister, Frederick, Karl, Rudolf, Hermann and Martha, who were raised in Germany. He studied both Latin and Greek as part of his home school
curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
.


Education and early career

When Strehlow was 14 years of age his domineering and charismatic father contracted
dropsy Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...
and the story of the transport of his dying father to a station where medical help was available was recalled in Strehlow's book ''Journey to Horseshoe Bend''. The tragic death of his father marked Strehlow for life. He left Hermannsburg for secondary schooling at Immanuel College, a boarding school for country boys of German stock, in
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
. He was top of the State in Latin, Greek and German in his final year Leaving Certificate examinations in 1926, and thus won a government
bursary A bursary is a monetary award made by any educational institution or funding authority to individuals or groups. It is usually awarded to enable a student to attend school, university or college when they might not be able to, otherwise. Some awa ...
to study at the
University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...
. At university Strehlow eventually enrolled in a joint honours course in
Classics Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classi ...
and English, graduating in 1931 with Honours in both. With support from his tutor, and from both
A. P. Elkin Adolphus Peter Elkin (27 March 1891 – 9 July 1979) was an Anglican clergyman, an influential Australian anthropologist during the mid twentieth century and a proponent of the assimilation of Indigenous Australians. Early life Elkin was born ...
and
Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. Life Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived the ...
, Strehlow received a research grant from the
Australian National Research Council The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...
to study Arrernte culture, and to that purpose returned to his home in
Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...
which was stricken by four years of drought and disease that had carried off many people, and emptied the land of
wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted fo ...
. The tribes of Central Australia had already become the object of worldwide interest through the joint work of exploration and ethnographic enquiry undertaken by Baldwin Spencer and Frank Gillen, whose researches exercised a notable impact on both
sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
and anthropological theory, in the works of Émile Durkheim and
James G. Frazer Sir James George Frazer (; 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion. Personal life He was born on 1 Janua ...
, and on psychoanalysis, in the thesis proposed by Sigmund Freud in his Totem and Taboo. One of Freud's disciples,
Géza Róheim Géza Róheim ( hu, Róheim Géza; September 12, 1891 – June 7, 1953) was a Hungarian psychoanalyst and anthropologist. Considered by some as the most important anthropologist-psychoanalyst, he is often credited with founding the field of ...
, had actually conducted fieldwork while based in Hermannsburg among the Arrernte in 1929. His first major informants, old and fully initiated men, were Gurra, from the northern Arrernte, and Njitia and Makarinja from Horseshoe Bend, later to be joined by Rauwiraka, Makarinja, Kolbarinja, Utnadata and Namatjira, the father of the famous painter of that name. Mickey Gurra (Tjentermana), his earliest informant and last of the ''ingkata'' or
ceremonial A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular ...
chiefs of the
bandicoot Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipelago ...
totem centre known as ''Ilbalintja'', confided in Strehlow in May 1933 that neither he nor any of the other old men had sons or grandsons responsible enough to be trusted with the secrets of their sacred objects ( tjurunga) (many of which were being sold for food and tobacco as the native culture broke down), together with the accompanying chants and ceremonies. They were worried that all their secrets would die with them. Several, such as Rauwiraka, confided to Strehlow their secret knowledge, and even their names, trusting him to conserve the details of all their sacred lore and rites. He was considered a member of the Arrernte people, by dint of his ritual adoption by the tribe. In the following two years, covering more than 7,000 gruelling miles of desert to witness and record Aboriginal ways, Strehlow witnessed and recorded some 166 sacred ceremonies dealing with totemic acts, most of which are no longer practised. His academic stature firmed with the publication of ''Aranda Traditions'' (1947). This work had been assembled in 1934 but Strehlow delayed publication until all his informants were dead.


Travel and academia

Soon after, in 1949, he received an
ANU , image=Detail, upper part, Kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125-1104 BCE. British Museum.jpg , caption=Symbols of various deities, including Anu (bottom right corner) on a kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125–1104 BCE , ...
fellowship, which, though, as he soon found out, carried with it no prospect for an academic career in
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ...
, enabled him to complete further studies in the field, and travel to England for research. His sojourn left him disappointed, both with England, and with many of its leading anthropologists, such as
Raymond Firth Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behaviou ...
and J. R. Firth, who in his view failed to extend to him the support and interest his research required, since they were critical of his lack of formal anthropological credentials. He toured the continent and lectured, with considerable success, in France and Germany, and met up with his siblings and mother in
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
. He gained recognition for the linguistic work which his father had begun. After the war, in 1946, he was appointed lecturer in English and Linguistics, and then
Reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
in Linguistics at Adelaide University in 1954, and became a full professor when awarded a personal
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in linguistics in 1970. In 1978 Strehlow received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Humanities at
Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...
, Sweden.


Max Stuart case

In 1958 a nine-year-old girl, Mary Hattam, was found raped and murdered on the beach at Ceduna. The police subsequently arrested an Aboriginal man, Rupert Max Stuart, for the crime. Stuart was convicted and condemned to death in late April 1959. The case quickly assumed the character of a ''
cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
'' as civil rights groups questioned the evidence based solely on a confession made to the police which the prosecution and officers affirmed had been taken down word for word. The verdict was
appealed In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
, went to the High Court and the Privy Council in London and concluded with a review by a Royal Commission. Strehlow's involvement came after a
Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
who was convinced of Stuart's innocence asked him for an informed judgement on the language of the evidence by which the Aborigine had been convicted. Strehlow, it turned out, had known during his days as a
Patrol Officer A patrol is commonly a group of personnel, such as law enforcement officers, military personnel, or security personnel, that are assigned to monitor or secure a specific geographic area. Etymology From French ''patrouiller'', from Old Fre ...
at Jay Creek both Stuart's grandfather, Tom Ljonga, and Stuart himself. Ljonga had been his trusted companion through many long journeys through the Central Australian deserts. Four days before the appointed hanging, Strehlow, with the Catholic chaplain, interviewed Stuart at
Yatala prison Yatala Labour Prison is a high-security men's prison located in the north-eastern part of the northern Adelaide suburb Northfield, South Australia. It was built in 1854 to enable prisoners to work at Dry Creek, quarrying rock for roads and co ...
. In the subsequent review process, Strehlow testified several times on what he saw as the incompatibility between the English of the confession and the dialect
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
Stuart used. Familiar with white men in the Centre who had raped Aboriginal girls of that age, Strehlow did not think this crime fitted with Aboriginal behaviour. Stuart's conviction was upheld, but he escaped the
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...
.


Later career

In November 1971, after many years of difficulty due also to the special
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required to reproduce his text, he published ''Songs of Central Australia'', a monumental study of the ceremonial poetry of the Arrernte tribes. Although reviewed with condescending hostility in the
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, it was acclaimed by Australian experts like
A. P. Elkin Adolphus Peter Elkin (27 March 1891 – 9 July 1979) was an Anglican clergyman, an influential Australian anthropologist during the mid twentieth century and a proponent of the assimilation of Indigenous Australians. Early life Elkin was born ...
as one of the three most significant books ever published on Australian anthropology. The last three decades of his life were intermittently troubled by the question of the ownership and custodianship on the objects, and records on the Aboriginals which he had accumulated during his fieldwork over a long career. The Government and two universities, who had subsidized his labours, and, towards the end, a younger generation of Aranda people on the Land Rights Council, believed they were the proper bodies for taking over the care and housing of this extensive material. Strehlow felt a personal responsibility for this material, as the man exclusively entrusted by a generation of elders with myths and songs, their secret knowledge and ceremonial artifacts, and held a grievance for what he considered to be the shabby treatment he had received during his life by the establishment. He set difficult and exacting conditions through many negotiations, and when the issue came to a head, determined to will his private collection to his new family, who would house and conserve it in their own home. Strehlow justified his retention of these objects by the personal expense he had laid out, and by the fact, he insisted, that they had been formally handed into his care by 'surrender ceremonies'. In an apparent paradox, once the Lutheran mission at Hermannsburg had sufficient confidence in the Christianised native community to accord them autonomy, and yield church leases on the area to their Aboriginal congregation, many local natives moved out, claimed their ''tjurunga'' rights to the land, and began to re-celebrate the older ceremonies. In his final return to the area, he was surprised to discover that his 'twin', Gustav Malbunka, who had once saved his life, and who had not only renounced his culture but become an
evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual exper ...
preacher, was capable of singing ''tjilpa'' ( totemic quoll) verses that once formed a key part of rituals that Strehlow thought were extinct. The culture, even among Christian converts, had been secretly passed on.


Death and legacy

Strehlow died of a heart attack in 1978, just before the opening of an exhibition of his collection of artifacts, while conversing with
Justice Kirby Michael Donald Kirby (born 18 March 1939) is an Australian jurist and academic who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from 1996 to 2009. He has remained active in retirement; in May 2013 he was appointed by the United N ...
and his friend and colleague Ronald Berndt on the extinction of the bilby (the key animal in the bandicoot ritual) by introduced rabbits, a metaphor for what was happening to the Aboriginal people and their culture with the spread of white civilisation. He was cremated. His career and his role as the custodian of Aboriginal secrets have been dogged by controversy. A decade later, negotiations between his widow and the Northern Territory government led to the finalisation of the purchase of most of the collection in 1987. It was described by John Morton as containing "some '700 objects' (largely secret-sacred), '15 kilometres of movie film, 7,000 slides, thousands of pages of genealogical records, myths, sound recordings' and '42 diaries', as well as 'paintings, letters, maps' and 'a 1,000-volume library.' " The Strehlow Research Centre at Alice Springs was established for the preservation and public display of these works. The collection is often accessed by
Arrernte people The Arrernte () people, sometimes referred to as the Aranda, Arunta or Arrarnta, are a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the Arrernte lands, at ''Mparntwe'' (Alice Springs) and surrounding areas of the Central Australia reg ...
as well as other Central Australian Aboriginal groups. Contemporary anthropologist Jason Gibson has shown how Strehlow's collection is actively used and interpreted by descendent Arrernte and Anmatyerr communities. He has also recorded how Strehlow is remembered and respected by some senior men as a 'ceremony man' while others feel betrayed by his use of their ceremonial material.


Marriages and children

He married twice, to Bertha James, in
Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (minin ...
, Adelaide, on 21 December 1935, with whom he had three children, Theo, Shirley and John, and to Kathleen Stuart in 1972, with whom he had a son, Carl.


Notable remarks

:
"There had been no kinder folk anywhere than the Australian natives."
:
"We have to train ourselves to look upon the land of our birth with the eyes, not of conquerors, overcoming an enemy, but of children looking at the face of their mother. Only then shall we truly be able to call Australia our home. Our native traditions can help us to become finer and better Australians."Barry Hill, ''Broken Song'', p. 473.


Bibliography

* ''Aranda Phonetics and Grammar'', with introduction by Professor A.P. Elkin (Australian National Research Council,
944 Year 944 ( CMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Byzantine forces are defeated by Sayf al-Dawla. He captures ...
* ''Aranda Traditions'' (1947) * ''An Australian Viewpoint'' (Printed for the author by Hawthorn Press, 1950) * ''Rex Battarbee'' (Sydney: Legend,
956 Year 956 ( CMLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Summer – Emperor Constantine VII appoints Nikephoros Phokas to commander of th ...
* ''Friendship with South-East Asia: a Cultural Approach'' (Riall Bros., Printers, 1956) * ''Nomads in No-man's-land'' ( Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia, 1961) * ''Dark and White Australians'' (Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia, 1964) * ''Assimilation Problems: the Aboriginal Viewpoint'' (Aborigines Advancement League Inc. of South Australia, 1964) * ''The Sustaining Ideals of Australian Aboriginal Societies'' (Aborigines Advancement League Inc. of South Australia, 1966, originally published: Melbourne: Hawthorn Press, 1956) * ''Comments on the Journals of John McDouall Stuart'' (Libraries Board of South Australia, 1967) *
Journey to Horseshoe Bend
' (1969) * ''Songs of Central Australia'' (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1971) * ''Central Australian Religion'' (Australian Association for the Study of Religions, 1978)


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * *


Further reading



F.J.A Pockley journal entry from 1933 January 23 with description of an encounter with Strehlow (includes photograph).
Journey to Horseshoe Bend
T.G.H Strehlow an account (in blog form) of his father's death in October 1922.


External links


Strehlow Research Centre
* Philip Jones
Strehlow, Theodor George (Ted) (1908–1978)
at ''
Australian Dictionary of Biography The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia ...
''
Mr Strehlow's Films
- documentary film 2001, 52 minutes, written and directed by Hart Cohen {{DEFAULTSORT:Strehlow, Theodor George Henry 1908 births 1978 deaths Australian anthropologists Linguists from Australia Australian Lutherans Australian people of German descent Linguists of Australian Aboriginal languages Linguists of Pama–Nyungan languages 20th-century anthropologists 20th-century linguists People educated at Immanuel College, Adelaide 20th-century Lutherans