Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson, OBE (26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970) was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist who was largely responsible for turning the

Caledon Bay crisis The Caledon Bay crisis, refers to a series of killings at Caledon Bay in the Northern Territory of Australia during 1932–34, referred to in the press of the day as Caledon Bay murder(s). Five Japanese trepang fishers were killed by Aboriginal ...

into a "decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal-European relations". He is remembered as a friend of the Yolngu people, and as a champion of understanding, by non-Indigenous Australians, of the culture and society of

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

Early life

Thomson studied zoology and botany at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

. He also joined the

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU), now part of BirdLife Australia, was Australia's largest non-government, non-profit, bird conservation organisation. It was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native b ...

(RAOU) in 1917 and served it as Press Officer (1923) and as Assistant Editor of its journal the ''

Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus '' Dromaius''. The emu ...

'' (1924–1925). When he graduated in 1925 he joined the ''

Melbourne Herald ''The Herald'' was a morning and, later, evening broadsheet newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia, from 3 January 1840 to 5 October 1990, which is when it merged with its sister morning newspaper ''The Sun News-Pictorial'' to form the '' ...

'' as a cadet, also marrying Gladys Coleman in the same year. He then studied for a one-year diploma course in anthropology at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

, graduating in 1928, and then set off on an eight-month journey, working with and recording the Indigenous people of Cape York. On his return, he was falsely accused of dishonesty, because of the loss of some funds, which was later traced to fraudulent activity by a staff member of the Australian Research Council. This unhappy episode forever damaged his relationship with other anthropologists at Sydney. After another trip to Cape York in 1929, Thomson joined the

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research WEHI (), previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, and in 1932 joined the

as a research fellow, obtaining his PhD in 1934. Thomson lived at the property Worlingworth,

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of E ...

from the 1930s. The c1922 residence and surrounding farm site is considered historically significant and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Databases because of its association with Thomson.

Caledon Bay crisis

In 1932–33, as the Caledon Bay crisis erupted, Thomson offered his services to the Australian Government to resolve the crisis, and to the surprise of the government succeeded in doing so. His success had long-term ramifications for the relationship between

Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

and non-Indigenous Australians, and is regarded as the crowning achievement of his life. NTSRU

He formed a strong bond with the Yolngu people, studying their traditional use of the land in the Arafura Swamp and elsewhere. The story of Thomson's interactions with the northern Arnhem Land

Ramingining Ramingining is an Aboriginal Australian community of mainly Yolngu people in the Northern Territory, Australia, east of Darwin. It is on the edge of the Arafura Swamp in Arnhem Land. Wulkabimirri is a tiny outstation (homeland) nearby, and Mur ...

people is told through the eyes of the Indigenous people in Rolf de Heer's 2009 film ''Twelve Canoes''. In 1941 he persuaded the Army to establish a special reconnaissance force of Yolngu men known as the

Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit The Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit (NTSRU) was an irregular warfare unit of the Australian Army during World War II, composed mainly of Aboriginal people from the Northern Territory. Formed in 1941, the unit patrolled the coast of ...

, including tribal elder Wonggu and his sons, to help repel Japanese raids on the northern coastline of Australia. In 1943, as the war moved northward from the Australian coast, the unit was disbanded, and Thomson returned to the Air Force. He was badly injured in action in

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingd ...

, and spent the rest of the war in hospital before being discharged from the Armed Forces.

Thomson in Central Australia

In 1957, Thomson carried out the ''Bindibu (Pintupi) Expedition'' to the Western Desert to make contact with

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into ...

there. For some Pintupi, this was their first contact with Europeans. They were almost the last Indigenous Australian group with whom white Australians were to make contact with (the very last was a group of

in 1984). Thomson again demonstrated his excellent

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

skills. The photographs taken here, like those he took in the 1930s in Arnhem Land, have become invaluable historical records for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, particularly for the Pintupi. The Thomson Collection, which is currently held by

Museums Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage faci ...

, includes approximately four thousand black and white glass plate photographs. One of these photographs was of a group of ten men in their bark canoes on a swamp and was the inspiration for the title of a critically acclaimed film ''

Ten Canoes ''Ten Canoes'' is a 2006 Australian drama film directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr and starring Crusoe Kurddal. The title of the film arose from discussions between de Heer and David Gulpilil about a photograph of ten canoeists poling ...

''. The title of the film arose from discussions between co-director Rolf de Heer and the movie's narrator

David Gulpilil David Dhalatnghu Gulpilil (1 July 1953 – 29 November 2021), known professionally as David Gulpilil and posthumously (at his family's request, to avoid naming the dead) as David Dalaithngu for three days, was an Indigenous Australian actor ...

about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in 1936. Thomson lived with the Pintupi, and liked them, through much of the 1950s and 60s. He returned to the

and continued working there until his death in 1970.McEvey, A.R. (1971). Obituary. Donald Fergusson Thomson. ''

'' 71: 88 (See: http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU971088.pdf ) His ashes were flown to the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

and, accompanied in the plane by two of the sons of Wonggu, scattered over the waters of

Caledon Bay Caledon Bay is a bay in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia, at approximately 12.8° S, 136.5° E. It is perhaps most famous as the home of a group of Yolngu people who were key players in the Caledon Bay crisis The Caledon Bay ...

List of works

* Thomson, D. (1935). ''Birds of Cape York Peninsula. Ecological notes, field observations, and catalogue of specimens collected on three expeditions to north Queensland''. Government Printer, Melbourne. * Thomson, D.; & Peterson, N. (1983). ''Donald Thomson in Arnhem Land''. Currey O'Neil, South Yarra., * Thomson D. (1975). ''Bindibu Country''. Melbourne, Thomas Nelson,

Notes

References

External links

The First Reconciliation Act

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Donald 1901 births 1970 deaths Australian indigenous rights activists Australian anthropologists Australian ornithologists Officers of the Order of the British Empire WEHI alumni Arnhem Land 20th-century Australian zoologists 20th-century anthropologists People from Brighton, Victoria Scientists from Melbourne University of Melbourne alumni University of Sydney alumni University of Melbourne faculty