Word Territory: Recording Aboriginal Language with R. H. Mathews

R. H. Mathews was an Australian-born surveyor who from 1893 until his death in 1918 published prolificacy in anthropology. Much of his work describes the long-settled districts of southeast Australia. This article concerns Mathews’ documentation of Indigenous languages, a major theme of his work. It examines the conceptual and methodological framework that influenced his linguistic studies, and considers the interactions between the anthropologist and the people who tutored him in their languages. This attempt to contextualise Mathews’ ethnography is influenced by the desire of contemporary Aboriginal communities to engage his work in projects aimed at linguistic or more general cultural rejuvenation. This article has been peer-reviewed.