Addressing the arrernte: FJ Gillen's 1896 Engwura speech

Jason Gibson*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    10 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper analyses a speech delivered by Francis James Gillen during the opening stages of what is now regarded as one of the most significant ethnographic recording events in Australian history. Gillen's 'speech' at the 1896 Engwura festival provides a unique insight into the complex personal relationships that early anthropologists had with Aboriginal people. This recently unearthed text, recorded by Walter Baldwin Spencer in his field notebook, demonstrates how Gillen and Spencer sought to establish the parameters of their anthropological enquiry in ways that involved both Arrernte agency and kinship while at the same time invoking the hierarchies of colonial anthropology in Australia. By examining the content of the speech, as it was written down by Spencer, we are also able to reassesses the importance of Gillen to the ethnographic ambitions of the Spencer/Gillen collaboration. The incorporation of fundamental Arrernte concepts and the use of Arrernte words to convey the purpose of their 1896 fieldwork suggest a degree of Arrernte involvement and consent not revealed before. The paper concludes with a discussion of the outcomes of the Engwura festival and the subsequent publication of The Native Tribes of Central Australia within the context of a broader set of relationships that helped to define the emergent field of Australian anthropology at the close of the nineteenth century.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)57-72
    Number of pages16
    JournalAustralian Aboriginal Studies
    Issue number1
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

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