MSS 572.994 B32l : Letters 1931-32 Ooldea ... to Professor Fitzherbert
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The Barr Smith Library recognises the moral rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the owners of their knowledge. To this end, Special Collections is digitising the Daisy Bates Papers in our collections to enhance access for people who cannot travel to Adelaide. Please be aware that this site may contain sensitive information, including the names and images of people who have passed away and which may sadden and distress some Aboriginal people. This site may also contain language and terms used by an author that reflect an inappropriate attitude due to the historical context in which these records were created.
Scanned from the originals held by Rare Books and Special Collections, MSS 572.994 B32l
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Browsing MSS 572.994 B32l : Letters 1931-32 Ooldea ... to Professor Fitzherbert by Title
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Item Restricted Letter to F.W.Eardley 29/7/31(2013-11-27)DBs letter 29/7/31 to FW Eardley, Registrar of the University of Adelaide, confirming that the U of A is now the repository of Central Australian aboriginal material. She states that she is ill but managing with help of the railway dining room to obtain food. She explains her ‘equipment’ and qualifications for collecting the vocabularies she has sent via Professor Fitzherbert to the University and recommends them as a basis for future field research. Her unpublished work on the History of the Native tribes of Western Australia, researched over 12 years, also contains much of interest for South Australia and other states as the state borders were not recognised by the aborigines and the new railways facilitated travel among groups in east and west. DB hopes that there will be a High Commissioner to ensure that the passing of the Australian aborigines will be as happy as possible. The Nullarbor Plain should become a planted ‘memorial’ so that future generations will have better memories of ‘these dreadful cannibals’.Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert , 21/8/31 and vocabularies.(2013-08-23)Daisy Bates sends Prof. Fitzherbert the Yulbari wongga or Coast speech, informants Minbunga and Minjia, from Fowlers Bay and Yuria etc.and discusses sending him further vocabulary from Uleru or Ayers Rock and Eucla areas.Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert 5/4/32 and vocabularies(2013-11-27)Daisy Bates sends Prof. J.A. Fitzherbert 11 pages of vocabulary from informants Gauera (f) and Bijarda (m) from north and west of Eucla, showing some similarities with Bibbulmun words and differences and connections with Eucla, Bight and north of Eucla.Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert 9/11/31 and vocabularies(2013-11-27)Eucla vocabulary (Jinyila wongga) 29 p. from several informants and 13 pages of miscellaneous notes, including a Eucla pedigree, songs, names of some Eucla natives and their waters, to complete Daisy Bates’ survey of vocabulary of SW edge of the Nullarbor Plain. There are some Bibbulmun words from the west, north and north east. People from Bight Head (Ilgamba) and Eucla (Jinyila) have, since white settlement, intermarried. There are accounts of cousin marriages and some physical deformities that result. DB expresses the need for a British gentleman to be High Commissioner of Australian aborigines, free of party and political restraint.Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert, 12/8/31 (incl. Ibari’s information)(2013-08-23)Daisy Bates sends Prof. Fitzherbert various vocabularies: Wirongu wongga informed by Binilya (9 p.) from Tarcoola area, Waldhadur or Mula wongga from Ibari (10 p.), Badu wongga from Bunjerin from Boundary Dam or Wardagana (1 p.) and Yulbari wongga from informants Ngindilya, Minbunga and Manjunya (3 p.)from the coast near Fowlers Bay. (25 p.)Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert, 13/9/31 and Vocabularies(2013-11-06)This letter describes the informant Wingarri and his language Wongaii wongga, the effects of cannibalism on the laws of the Bibbulmun groups, the decline and extinction of the Bibbulmun since white settlement and the impossibility of translating Christian texts into any of the languages or dialects DB has collected. She mentions Dunan wongga, a unique dialect near Capel River that no other people appear to understand. DB discusses the pronunciation of the vocabulary she has collected, and further, the social organisation and breakdown of the marriage laws she has observed and written about in reports now hard to source. Her 2 stolen inmas were returned but she continues with the Coventry rule until a 3rd article is returned. She finally mentions the loss of inhabitants in the Centre now trekking to white settlements and notes that some natives have reported that there are very few still ‘behind’.Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert, 28/7/31 and Vocabularies(2013-07-09)Letter to Professor Fitzherbert 28.7.31 regarding Bulu vocabulary from area covering Jurien Bay to Esperance and Eucla. Vocabulary of Bulu people.Item Restricted Letter to Fitzherbert, 7/9/31. Miscellaneous Uleru words and Yagganguri wongga.(2013-08-23)The letter discusses the vocabularies being sent; often many marginal notes collected and headed “Miscellaneous”. DB also mentions the support she has had in the past from the WA government. She writes that she has given up on attempts at creating genealogies but discusses the evolution of marriage laws of various groups in the Roebourne and Broome and compares them with the similarities found in Arrunda groups. She writes about a theft of inma or sacred objects from her camp and that she has sent the whole local group to Coventry, meaning that she does not speak to them, pay any attention to them or distribute any food or clothing as was her custom. This is to show that she is setting an example as an upright white person who considers stealing as beneath contempt.