George Taplin

While conforming to the contemporary missionary philosophy of 'Christianise and civilise' Taplin learned the Ngarrindjeri (Narrinyeri) language, interested himself in their customs and beliefs, and wrote extensively of their society and culture.  In addition to his evangelical Lessons, hymns and prayers for the native school at Point Macleay: in the language of the lake tribes of Aborigines, called Narrinyeri (1864) and Native book of worship (1874) Taplin published The Narrinyeri: an account of the tribes of South Australian Aborigines inhabiting the country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the lower part of the River Murray: their manners and customs …(1874, with a second revised edition 1878, and reprinted in The Native tribes of South Australia ... edited by J.D. Woods, published in 1879).  He also edited The Folklore, Manners, Customs, and Languages of the South Australian Aborigines, which incorporated information gathered on many of the tribes of the colony in response to an official circular of 1874.  His grammar of the Narrinyeri language, the first to appear since H.A.E. Meyer's pioneering 1843 Vocabulary of the language spoken by the Aborigines of the southern and eastern portions of the settled districts of South Australia ..., was included as an appendix to this work, which appeared shortly after Taplin's death in June 1879.

The manuscript of Taplin's 'Vocabulary and grammar of the language of the aborigines who inhabit the shores of the Lakes and lower Murray' (1867) is held in the Barr Smith Library's Special Collections, and Taplin's diaries for 1859-1879 and other papers are held by the Mortlock Library, State Library of South Australia (PRG 186/1)