Wooden sculpture of a human male collected by Berndt, 1946–7 by Leigerang Dalawongu people, north-east Arnhem Land courtesy Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre National Museum of Australia

‘Cluttering up the department’ Ronald Berndt and the distribution of the University of Sydney ethnographic collection

by Geoffrey Gray

Abstract we should not revisit the issue of how the ANRC collection was made, the way it was The issue of ownership of cultural objects broken up and distributed, the circumstances collected by fieldworkers sponsored by around its distribution and the question of the Australian National Research Council ownership — does it reside with the collector, (ANRC) between 1926 and 1955, when the the institution housing the collection, or ANRC was replaced by the Academy of the funding body? This paper traces Ronald Science, is now in a sense passé, as these Berndt’s attempts to assert ownership collections have been broken up, and now over part of the collection housed at the reside in diverse centres both nationally and University of Sydney, at the two moments of internationally. This does not mean that its redistribution, 1957 and 1980. reCollections: Journal of the National Museum of Australia September 2007, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 153–79 Introduction

Scattered among the ethnographic collections of several Australian and overseas museums are a large number of objects originally collected between 1927 and 1956 by anthropologists sponsored by the Australian National Research Council (ANRC). These expeditions covered many parts of northern Australia, particularly the north-west Kimberley in Western Australia, Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory and Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland. Some material was also obtained from the Territory of New Guinea. The material collected was by no means confined solely to Ronald Berndt at his desk Berndt Museum of Anthropology these areas but it is from them that the bulk of the collection was made. The collection reasons, among which were a claim of was housed in the rooms of the Department moral ownership and the need to have of Anthropology at the University of these objects available for his research and Sydney. In 1949 the ANRC transferred teaching purposes at the University of ownership of the collection to the University Western Australia. As a result of his tenacity of Sydney, where most of the objects were in asserting some control and ownership housed until they were distributed to other over the collection at the two moments of its institutions in the mid-1950s. redistribution, there is a paper record which The story of the how the collection offers an insight into the history of this was disbursed is seemingly well-known collection.1 among curators and anthropologists. Some have described the distribution as The ANRC an act of vandalism. But the evidence of impropriety is anecdotal — there is little At the end of the First World War, Australia hard evidence to back it up. This paper resumed international scientific activities addresses the charges by reconstructing with the formation in 1919 of the ANRC. the history of the collection. I focus on This was intended to be Australia’s link shifts in perceived ownership of the Sydney with the newly established International University ethnographic collection, mostly Research Council, which it officially joined barks from Arnhem Land, made by Ronald in the following year.2 Australia was one and Catherine Berndt between 1941 and of 16 countries invited to participate 1949. Ronald Berndt attempted to claim in the international body, on condition ownership of these materials when it became that it had an organisation capable of apparent that the collection housed at the representing it internationally. The ANRC University of Sydney, especially those items was an independent scientific body he and Catherine had collected, was to be with membership limited to 100 leading distributed by the incoming professor, JA scientists, making it an influential body with Barnes. Ronald Berndt advanced several government.3

154 ‘Cluttering up the department’ Anthropology as an academic discipline unenforceable nature of the contract without was not formally established in Australia the cooperation of the researcher; the other, until 1925, with the establishment of a implicit in this particular clause, is the idea Chair of Anthropology at the University of of a national collection. Sydney. AR Radcliffe-Brown, foundation It was not only material culture that was professor, arrived in Sydney in July the collected by these early anthropologists following year. Research in anthropology under the auspices of the ANRC.5 Besides was initially funded by the Rockefeller orthodox ethnographic research, which Foundation, and distributed by the ANRC consumed the bulk of the funds, researchers on the advice and recommendation of were sent to make observations on an expert committee, the Anthropology ‘Aborigines and mixed-bloods on a native Committee, headed by the University of reserve’; funds were also awarded for the Sydney’s Professor of Anthropology and ‘tabulation and statistical treatment of comprising members drawn from each state anthropometric data’ that was collected, and the Commonwealth. for example, by W Lloyd Warner in the From 1927, when the first Northern Territory; and, for a physiological anthropologists were sent out under the investigation among Aborigines and auspices of the ANRC, they agreed to ‘mixed-bloods’ in New South Wales a number of conditions, one of which and Queensland, to the Department of governed the collection of material culture. Physiology at the University of Sydney. Section 3, Clause 12 of the conditions Other projects included support for an governing grants and fellowships awarded by unnamed medical student in the Department the ANRC states: of Anatomy at the University of Sydney Any complete field research in ‘making anthropological observations and ethnology will normally include securing a large series of casts of teeth for the collection of objects of the purpose of study’, including funds for ethnographical interest. Any object apparatus for more exact study of crania.6 collected shall be the property of Professor J Shellshear from Hong Kong the ANRC. The fieldworker will University received funds to ‘visit the be expected to label and index the University of Sydney for 3 months in order collection. In general, permission to examine and report on the collection of will be granted to keep for himself, Australian aboriginal and Papuan brains in or to present to ethnological the Department of Anatomy’.7 museums, a limited number of The collection soon outgrew its duplicate specimens. He shall not, departmental premises and Radcliffe-Brown however, dispose of specimens for searched for an alternative site, raising the sale. If the recipient of the grant possibility of a national museum. This wishes to make a collection for some proposition was raised in 1923 at the Pan museum, he must obtain permission Pacific Science Congress where it was beforehand from the Committee for proposed that the federal government be Anthropological Research.4 persuaded ‘on the need for the formation All grantees and fellows gave a signed of a Federal Museum of Australia and its undertaking to observe these conditions. Territories, and the immediate necessity There are two matters of interest for the for securing specimens, historical and purposes of this paper: one is the virtually ethnological, while they are yet available’.8

Geoffrey Gray 155 By the end of July 1929, Radcliffe-Brown This was a ‘collecting’ enterprise in noted that ‘[a]t a very reasonable estimate, which material culture was but a part. these collections are worth well over £1000. There were, however, two difficulties in They have been offered to the Australian implementing Radcliffe-Brown’s grand Government in order to form the nucleus scheme: first, insufficient government of a national collection, but no decision has funding and support; and second, the yet been reached on the question of the physical difficulty of transporting the proposed museum at Canberra; meanwhile material from missionaries, patrol officers, the problem of the proper storage and care anthropologists and others concerned with of these collections is becoming increasingly ‘Native Administration’ in Papua and New difficult’.9 Guinea in particular. The failure to obtain The plan for a national museum was part sufficient funding ensured it was stillborn. of a wider agenda to establish a Bureau of The collection remained in the department. Ethnology which Radcliffe-Brown hoped Anthropologists’ collecting would alleviate many of the difficulties To a wider public, displayed artefacts he was experiencing with the ANRC.10 provide a window into Indigenous life. His intention was that the Department of How many visitors to museums have Anthropology should become a: read any of the articles and books of bureau of [ethnology] on all matters the collecting anthropologists which set relating to the native populations of out the lives of people from whom these Australia, New Guinea and Melanesia; artefacts were collected? In contrast to the the collection and collation of all public visibility of the collecting enterprise information from printed sources displayed at museums, the mechanics of to be commenced at once; the New collecting can be seen as a by-product of Guinea and Papuan administrations anthropological research and certainly not to be asked to make available copies central to the research enterprise. Collecting of all reports dealing with the natives, and collections of material culture, their received from district officers, with purpose and intended and unintended effects particulars in each case as to the name have been discussed and analysed by many of the officer, date of report, division scholars, including the anthropologist James and locality and name of tribe; the Clifford.12 He argues that ethnographic information collected in this and other collecting ‘implies a rescue of phenomena ways to be filed in a manner that will from inevitable historical decay or loss. The facilitate reference by persons seeking collection contains what “deserves” to be information as to any tribe or native kept, remembered, and treasured. Artefacts custom; co-operation in the work of and customs are saved out of time’.13 the Anthropology Department to be arranged with the islands under I do not wish to dwell on this. The point the High Commissioner of the I seek to emphasise and underline here Western Pacific, work in Polynesia to is that, in contrast to their thorough and be maintained through the Bernice methodical explication of issues such as Bishop Museum of Honolulu and kinship relations, totemism, and ceremony the American Museum of Natural (ritual), anthropologists — at least those History, and, if possible, contact to be working in Australia and sponsored by established with Japan in relation to the ANRC — have rarely left us complete ethnographic work in Micronesia.11 information about their processes in

156 ‘Cluttering up the department’ collecting cultural objects. The acquisition and from this they translate all their of cultural objects in the field is rarely values. I saw a pig the other day sold described, except in field notebooks or for, at this rate, £18. And a bride costs personal correspondence. Even then it is upwards of £60.19 not always clear from whom the objects In 1936 gifts were presented to were purchased, how the purchase was informants on Nauru Island on behalf of understood by the various parties in the Camilla Wedgwood, who had studied the transaction, the actual items of exchange, the effects of European culture on native life at nature of the exchange, and so on.14 This has the request of the Nauru Administration.20 been exacerbated by the loss or deliberate These gifts included a pencil to the destruction of field notebooks of a number interpreters, silk and cotton goods, a scarf, a of researchers such as Lloyd Warner, Ralph fountain pen and books. It is unknown how Piddington, Gerhardt Laves and Ursula these gifts were selected, or what people McConnel, all funded by, and sent out under thought of them.21 It was a very formal 15 the auspices of, the ANRC. exchange, and distanced from the event. Some examples highlight how gifting In contacts between Europeans and and collecting accompanied anthropological Aboriginal Australians, the usual mediums research, and how the process of collecting of exchange for information and the 16 so often remains tantalisingly unknown. acquisition of ethnographic material were The Australian anthropologist Ian Hogbin, flour, tea, sugar and tobacco, although working on Ontong Java in the then British tobacco appears to be a universal item of Solomon Islands Protectorate, exclaimed to exchange for all services.22 Ursula McConnel, a friend: seeking reimbursement for unexpected field Wait till you see my lovely mask which expenses, pointed out to the secretary of the I brought [bought?] for a dress shirt. ANRC that she incurred: I could only get it in exchange for a a good deal of expense not foreseen dress shirt as the owner would not in making my estimates. Men in the 17 take tobacco. vicinity of the mission expect the We may wonder what Hogbin was doing mission wage and rations and tobacco with a dress shirt in the field! And what was for daily information. I have had to employ a great many informants. the attraction for the seller of the mask? In the bush one does not have to We will not find an explanation in his field give either rations or money but just notes, as Hogbin destroyed them. He, like presents and tobacco. Hence an extra other anthropologists, including the Berndts, expense in flour, rice, tea and tobacco had material specially made: ‘I have yet to ... wages as compared with previous get several artefacts … which are still in field trips.23 the process of being made’.18 Later, when working in Guadalcanal, he commented: Clothing was also used as a medium of exchange. Ronald Berndt, when at Ooldea I am making a good collection, but Soak in 1941, asked JB Cleland, chairman of unfortunately the stuff is frightfully the Aborigines’ Protection Board of South expensive — £1 each for spears, 10/- Australia, for some clothing: and 15/- for shields etc. The reason is that the natives established 5/- as The aborigines are showing me a the value of a string of shell ‘money’, series of ceremonies for which I

Geoffrey Gray 157 promised them some old clothes — I spear throwers and circumcision am obtaining some from my people knives, and Yuari has promised to and relatives — if you have any that secure these for us in due course.26 can be spared I will be most grateful.24 Elkin, who was at La Grange Bay in Clothing, flour, tea, sugar and tobacco late 1928, noted that on the second day he were not the only items of payment. was there, ‘the men took me to their sacred The University of Adelaide Board for ground to show me their sacred objects and Anthropological Research used what to sing me sacred songs … They also brought were referred to as ‘buck currants’ to pay me various curios’.27 He made no further informants. Ronald Berndt had undertaken mention of whether he was given the curios, a short expedition with the University Board traded them, or if they were gifted. to Ooldea Soak in August 1939 when he first saw buck currants used a form of payment. Ronald Berndt and Catherine Cleland had made an arrangement with the South Australian Dried Fruit Board to supply Berndt inferior grade currants and sultanas, labelled Ronald Berndt left school in 1930 aged 14 ‘Not Fit for Human Consumption’, to pay years.28 His father, recognising that his son Aboriginal informants on the expeditions was not happy at school and probably ill- of the University Board and the museum, fitted to follow his own career as a jeweller, often joint expeditions. When Ronald encouraged him to attend the South and Catherine Berndt were at Ooldea Australian School of Mines and Industry between July and November 1941 they used where he completed, in 1933, a course on buck currants to pay informants. Ronald ‘bookkeeping, business correspondence and commented to Cleland, when asking for typewriting’.29 He was a close friend, from his further supplies, that he found the ‘natives schooldays at Pulteney Grammar, of James were most pleased with the currants’, which Vandeleur (Jim) Wigley, who was to become 25 were ‘much appreciated’ by the informants. a companion on some of his early forays into Ralph Piddington and Gerhardt Laves, Aboriginal Australia (Wigley accompanied who followed both AP Elkin, the first ANRC Berndt to Murray Bridge in 1939,30 and researcher, and Stanley David Porteus, joined him again at Daly River in late 1945). the Australian racial psychologist and Wigley left school at about the same time educationalist, into the field at La Grange as Ronald Berndt and attended the Millard Bay in north-west Western Australia, were Grey Art School in Adelaide.31 After they left confronted with the problem of too many school, it seems that Berndt and Wigley did objects being brought into trade. Piddington, odd jobs here and there and pursued their who made two trips to La Grange, the first various interests together. What Berndt did in in 1930 and the second in the latter half of the five years between 1934 and 1939, when 1931, noted: he enrolled in a pre-undergraduate Diploma the people were eager to bring us of Commerce course at the University objects for the collection, which is of Adelaide and was appointed honorary growing rapidly owing to the fact that assistant ethnologist at the South Australian Yuari [described as the local headman] Museum, is to date largely unknown. uses his official position to pillage It was through Ronald Berndt’s father, the sacred storehouse. We have now described by Jim Wigley’s brother Bill several specimens of everything except as an ‘eccentric jeweller’ who collected

158 ‘Cluttering up the department’ Aboriginal artefacts,32 that Wigley became unfortunate that there is not some interested in such material and started person who could collect such collecting it. John Wilson, a friend of drawings from various areas … It is a Wigley and one of Berndt’s first students pity that something of this kind could at the University of Western Australia told not be done before it is too late.38 me that Berndt collected Japanese toggle After his first field trip to Ooldea as buttons (presumably netsuke) and miniatures, part of an expedition with the University and had an overall interest in ‘aesthetic of Adelaide Board for Anthropological 33 matters’. When Berndt was appointed Research, in August 1939, Ronald Berndt in May 1939 to the position of honorary was gripped by the idea of becoming an assistant ethnologist at the South Australian anthropologist. But he had no formal Museum, he had to give an undertaking that qualifications in the discipline. Encouraged 34 he was not a collector himself. In their by JB Cleland and T Harvey Johnston, both introduction to Going It Alone?, a festschrift members of the University of Adelaide honouring the Berndts, Robert Tonkinson Board for Anthropological Research, he and Michael Howard state that Ronald visited professor of anthropology at the Berndt started reading ethnology as a result University of Sydney, AP Elkin, at the end of his interest in his father’s collection of 1939, and enrolled in the following year’s of artefacts. What ethnology he read is Diploma of Anthropology course. This was unknown, but he revealed in an interview open to missionaries, colonial administrators conducted in 1975 that as a young man he and others who showed an interest in read Herodotus, Josephus, Edward Gibbon, anthropology, and could be taken either as a James Frazer and Alfred Cort Haddon, the graduate course or an entry course, without Cambridge zoologist and anthropologist, as prerequisite formal qualifications.39 35 well as the novelist Rider Haggard. Catherine Webb, who enrolled at the At the South Australian Museum, University of Sydney on 25 November 1940, Berndt came under the influence of CP had arrived from New Zealand, having 36 Mountford. Mountford was a collector of completed a Certificate of Proficiency in Aboriginal material culture and most likely anthropology at the University of Otago introduced him to the idea of obtaining under RD Skinner. She and Ronald Berndt 37 crayon drawings on brown paper. In early met soon after her arrival, and ‘it did not 1945, when Ronald and Catherine Berndt take long for the budding anthropologists to were at Birrundudu in the central north-west realise the extent of their common interests Northern Territory, we obtain a glimpse of and ambitions’.40 the use of crayon on brown paper and the After their research at Ooldea the number of crayon drawings collected by the Berndts completed the necessary work to be Berndts: awarded the Diploma of Anthropology; it As a sideline, we obtained a series was a joint thesis which was later published (several hundred) of adult drawings as A Preliminary Report of Fieldwork in the (lumber crayon and pencil on Ooldea Region, Western South Australia. From brown paper); many of these are there they went to Murray Bridge and extraordinarily good (although not continued, with support from the ANRC, of course, in the style of Albert with research on culture contact and change Namatjira), and all show excellent in South Australia, later published as From prospects for development. It is Black to White (1951) and A World That Was

Geoffrey Gray 159 (1993). Between August 1944 and May idea of their own importance’.44 There is 1946 they were employed by Vestey Bros, much in this vein in their correspondence undertaking research into conditions of with EWP Chinnery, director of the Aboriginal labour on Vestey cattle stations, Northern Territory Native Affairs Branch, which was published, finally, in 1987, asEnd and Elkin. They nevertheless stayed at of an Era.41 Yirrkala, moving to other areas as the Ronald and Catherine Berndt worked situation required. Their main purpose was together; she investigating women and to study the social anthropology of northern he men. They were the husband and wife Arnhem Land, ‘paying special attention to team Elkin had been hoping for for years.42 social organization, social life, ceremonial life Ronald Berndt was the more assiduous and and art’.45 enthusiastic of the two about collecting In 1942 the retail department store David material culture, which is unsurprising, as Jones, in Sydney, mounted an exhibition of Aboriginal art, at that time, was essentially primitive and Aboriginal art. In his foreword the concern of the men. Catherine was more to Fred McCarthy’s Australian Aboriginal interested in language and other intellectual Decorative Art, which predated the exhibition pursuits, which complemented Ronald’s by some four years, Elkin wrote: work. In correspondence with Elkin in The growing interest in and particular, Ronald often referred to the appreciation of primitive art in collections he made while working in the general and of aboriginal art in field as his, rather than Catherine’s: in all particular has a very important discussions relating to the return of selected human, as distinct from scientific, items in the material held at the University implication. It is gradually causing of Sydney, Ronald staked a claim for his persons who otherwise would either ownership rather than joint ownership. ignore or despise the aborigines to realize that a people possessing Arnhem Land and making a an art which is full of traditional meaning as well as expressive of collection many interesting motifs is much When Ronald and Catherine Berndt went higher in the human scale than had to Arnhem Land in September 1946, they been previously thought. The average white person is not impressed by were among the first anthropologists to work totemism, kinship and sociological there. W Lloyd Warner had been there in studies of aboriginal life, but a simple the late 1920s and Donald Thomson in the presentation of a native people’s art mid-1930s and again during the war. The is something which he can appreciate. Berndts arrived at Yirrkala, their main base, I am hoping that this introduction to soon after the Royal Australian Air Force had the decorative art of the Australian pulled out and the air base was abandoned. aboriginal … will contribute materially The effect of the Air Force base manifested to the appreciation of the Australian itself, in the eyes of the Berndts, in the aborigines both as a people possessed sophisticated tastes of the local Aboriginal of artistic powers, and as human people in the matter of food. The demand personalities. Moreover, in so far as for tobacco and food was ‘at times almost we let the aborigines … know our overwhelming’.43 They described the people appreciation, we shall help them to at Yirrkala as ‘very grasping … with a great get rid of that feeling of inferiority

160 ‘Cluttering up the department’ for which contact with us has been crayon drawings on brown paper responsible.46 which they obtained. An unexpected find was that of pottery made on As the anthropologist Nicholas Thomas the mainland of Arnhem Land by points out, the language may be dated, but the Macassans with the help of the Elkin’s argument is extraordinarily prescient, Aborigines. The first indication of foreseeing it as he did as something ‘we’ this came in their song cycles.49 could do for ‘them’. It is unlikely that Elkin imagined the extent to which self- Catherine commented to a friend: affirmation would empower Aboriginal [The] difficulty is to stop the natives communities.47 I argue that Elkin saw … (the men, that is) … from making Aboriginal art as a means to counter white … our wooden figures … — we can Australia’s colour prejudice by showing a only pay for and transport a certain shared (universal) humanity. The extent number. We haven’t seen anything like to which Elkin influenced the Berndts, them among the aborigines before, and how far they appreciated the complex and some of them are really good. potential of Aboriginal art at the time, is Of course they aren’t polished, and unclear. However, the Berndts echoed Elkin’s are rather crudely done in comparison sentiment when they wrote in 1950: with specimens from New Guinea etc. but they make a good collection Aboriginal art need not be allocated just the same. Some are small figures, to the shelves of the past … It can 2–3 feet high; and some are heads, and should, take its place alongside or skulls. They are all either carved other great schools of art, and or painted, or both, and we are quite be incorporated in our general attached to them. They need a certain 48 appreciation for its own worth. amount of attention on account of the damp heat — they grow In a report to the ANRC, Elkin described mould, if not watched; they are an what the Berndts had collected during their elaboration of the carved grave-post, first expedition to Arnhem Land: so that the natives have never given These included not only bark much thought to their preservation, paintings from Oenpelli and the and commonly used ‘green’ ‘sappy’ north east corner with their different wood.50 styles but also the rare painted, sacred stones of the former region, They were certainly excited by what they and the hitherto unknown wooden, had collected, telling Chinnery: carved human figures from Yirrkala. we have boxes of bark drawings In addition, they obtained long song and carvings — the latter are really cycles dealing with works of art which interesting, and I hope you will have a throw light on contacts of Aborigines chance of seeing them. Some are just with the people of Indonesia and heads, others the full human figure, the Torres Strait Islands. They also carved and painted, and some with obtained a very fine collection of detachable hair of ‘bush’ string. They artistically made magical objects are apparently a result of Macassan together with texts associated with and Malayan influence, and quite their use of these. Another interesting unlike anything we’ve seen before: piece of work was the collection of they differ from the grave posts of

Geoffrey Gray 161 Melville Island, although we have seen discovered in 1946–7 in far north- roughly-carved heads on grave posts eastern Arnhem Land … Until their at Millingimbi. Altogether we have discovery it was always supposed about four or five tons of stuff, which that our aborigines knew nothing of we’ll have to send by boat — the the art of carving human figures in estimates for road and rail run into at the round. … Their discovery is of least a couple of hundred pounds, and first rate importance’ … Mr Berndt we can’t stand [afford] that (they want described how he and his wife came £100 just as far as Mt Isa!) Passengers by the carvings. ‘We camped for many aren’t allowed on the east-bound boats months near the tribes … learned as yet, so we’ll be going overland.51 their language, studied their customs and mythology, employed them as The Berndts were keen to leave hunters, ate their food — wallaby, Yirrkala,52 but did not want to leave any emu, fish, and berries — and at last ‘of their boxes (the carvings, bark drawings gained long-coveted permission to etc) … They are too precious to leave attend their secret ceremonies. We behind for the missionary to load on to the knew these extremely secret statues Mission boat when it comes round; so we could not be bought or sold, but are staying here to see that it is safely done, by showing an interest in them the and finishing off our work in readiness for time came when were offered some departure’.53 By the end of July, Catherine specimens as a gift. We, in our turn, ‘could rejoice’ that they were ‘away from responded in native fashion with gifts Yirrkala at last, and very thankful for it’. of our own — flour, tea, sugar and The wooden figures about which tobacco … Similar statues have not been discovered by white men before Catherine expressed such excitement were because as soon as they have been exhibited in 1949 at David Jones Art Gallery. used for religious and ceremonial A newspaper at the time emphasised the purposes they are put into wells and importance of the figures in a report headed gradually rot away. They are never left ‘Weird Aboriginal art: Young scientists’ find’: lying about.’54 Weird aboriginal carvings caused In a direct reference to the 1948 a scientific sensation when they were unveiled at an exhibition in Australian and American National David Jones Art Gallery … Sydney Geographic Arnhem Land Expedition under anthropologists say they represent the CP Mountford, Elkin told the reporter: most remarkable ‘find’ in Australia ‘even the biggest American and for a quarter of century. They were Australian expeditions failed to locate brought to civilisation by two young them. It took two young people, scientists — husband and wife — living among the native tribes for who lived with the aborigines for something like 18 months … to win months to gain their confidence. The the confidence of the tribal head statues are the only carved human men, that they were admitted to their figures ‘in the round’ ever brought secret totem ceremonies. In this way out of mysterious Arnhem Land [the Berndts] became the first white and … their existence was a well people to see these unique sculptures kept scientific secret … AP Elkin … and the manner in which they were said: ‘These remarkable statues were used in aboriginal ritual ceremonies’

162 ‘Cluttering up the department’ ‘These carvings stirred scientists’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1949, p. 7

… Professor Elkin disclosed that hundreds we have in our possession’.58 about 40 of the statues are ‘housed or They wanted to ‘give the anthropologist’s hidden’, as he put it, in the University attitude toward Aboriginal art’.59 They also of Sydney.55 raised the possibility of writing an article on ‘some unique moulded ochre heads done by In 1950 Clem Christensen, founder and Aborigines at Oenpelli’, which they later did.60 editor of the cultural journal Meanjin, was By concentrating on the Berndts in asked by Elkin if he would invite the Berndts Arnhem Land I want to bring to the fore to write a piece on Arnhem Land art. The two matters. First, the Berndts’ intensive Berndts were eager, informing Christensen engagement in the collecting enterprise: it that the ‘specimens of Aboriginal art is difficult to know just what they collected exhibited last year [1949] at David Jones’ art although more may be revealed when their gallery were collected by us in the course of field notebooks are released for scholarly our normal anthropological field work’.56 research in 2024.61 My second point is a Meanjin had carried a review of Elkin and contentious one: Who owned the collection the Berndts’ Art in Arnhem Land (1950) and made by the Berndts under the aegis of therefore Christensen sought something the ANRC and the University of Sydney, different.57 Ronald Berndt replied that they and later housed in the Department of would provide an article on the central Anthropology at the University of Sydney? western area of the Northern Territory: ‘We shall deal with some crayon drawings Cluttering up the department made by Aborigines with the minimum of contact; these show some very interesting In April 1956 Elkin wrote to Ronald Berndt features. They represent a selection of several that there was a French artist, Karel Kupka,

Geoffrey Gray 163 ‘studying aboriginal art from an artist’s point early 1951, described him as an ‘artist of of view’. Elkin asked Berndt whether there distinction from Europe’ who had not only were any: studied Aboriginal art in museums but had bark paintings in addition to those in also ‘spent several months amongst the local 63 the tall cupboard outside the lecture artists, observing them‘. He added that room door and the special cabinets up Kupka was concerned about the condition the passageway and, of course, any on of some of the barks, offering to spray them, display in the lecture room. Mr Kupka something Elkin believed should have been says the highest number he has seen done ‘years ago’.64 is 215. I had an idea that we had a Ronald Berndt had recently returned lot more. Are any still in cases nailed to Australia, having completed his PhD down; for example, I think there is at the London School of Economics. He a case of yours in the lecture room. moved almost immediately from Sydney to What would be in it? … There are two Perth to take up an appointment as senior boxes of yours in the lecture room lecturer in anthropology in the Department marked ‘personal’, so possibly they do of Psychology at the University of Western not contain bark paintings. I have an Australia. Catherine likewise had completed idea that one or both contain stone her doctorate, but had no academic position. objects — certainly they are heavy Ronald Berndt arrived in Perth on 12 March enough. 1956 and had barely settled in when the Elkin told Ronald Berndt that Kupka request from Elkin came. Elkin was due wanted to write a ‘simple story’ about to retire and was waiting for the arrival of Arnhem Land Aborigines, using bark JA Barnes, his successor as professor of paintings as the means of presenting it.62 anthropology. Ronald replied warily to Elkin: For Elkin this was a delicate situation: he ‘I should be pleased to contact this man if was aware that Berndt had collected most he so desires, although if he is looking at the of the material Kupka was interested in and barks simply as an artist would do there is wanted to support him; but he also wanted to little I could offer — except, of course, to support Karel Kupka, who saw these barks give what I could of the Aboriginal artists’ as art. To do this, Elkin acknowledged, would standpoint’. He was not convinced that require a lot of work on the part of Berndt: this could be done by ‘an artist without an Kupka ‘would need to have information anthropological background and without regarding the subject matter of each knowledge of the specific region to which painting’, which only Berndt could supply. the barks belong’. Rather it was, ‘most Elkin supposed that all Kupka might need certainly you, Warner or I … even McCarthy were a few lines that were normally attached or Mountford for that matter’ to write to each exhibit. On the other hand, Elkin was about ‘Arnhem Land Aborigines … using uncertain as to Berndt’s plans: ‘it may be that bark paintings as a means of presenting you will some day want to publish a full book his material’. If Kupka were to do this, on the bark paintings using all the material then he ‘would strongly suggest he have his you collected explaining them. If this is so material read through by you, and that due I do not know whether you should give the acknowledgments should be made to the information to Mr Kupka or not, although I Dept. of Anthropology, U of Sydney, for do not think his book would interfere with use of barks. … Already there are a couple any you might write’. Elkin met Kupka in of French and German popular works on

164 ‘Cluttering up the department’ Professor Elkin in his office, University of Sydney photograph by Axel Poignant Axel Poignant Archive, London the market which illustrate, among other 1. the N.E. Arnhem Land barks things, some of our bark paintings and should be located in the Dept. in the carved figures without any acknowledgments following places: in the special cabinet whatsoever’.65 in the hall and at the top of it; in the Ronald Berndt was both conciliatory and vestibule cupboards; in the glass cases insistent; he paid due deference to Elkin, in the lecture room; there are 3 or 4 yet was careful not to upset him by claiming in the bathroom against the wall. I was under the impression that there ownership, or making a territorial claim to were more than 215: I have no way of the material and denying Kupka access to checking this number at present, but the collection.66 Berndt explained that he when I do eventually receive my boxes planned to write up his research including (now on the way to Perth) and unpack a study on the barks, which were unlabelled them I can go through my Yirrkala 67 and uncatalogued. The following letter notebooks, since every one I collected gives an idea of how much of the Arnhem has been recorded, numbered and Land material was scattered throughout the appropriately annotated. This will department. It also hints at Berndt’s implicit reveal the number in the Department. belief that the material would stay at the Miss Jennifer Woods, who at one time department until he was ready to work on made a catalogue of these, should it. The material collected by the Berndts had also have noted the number in the been largely untended since 1950, when they possession of the Dept. A couple of had gone first to the New Guinea highlands dozen went to the Australian Museum; and then the London School of Economics also a couple, so I believe, went on loan to to complete their doctorates. He told Elkin: UNESCO. [GG’s emphasis] Let me mention, however, some of 2. The Western Arnhem Land barks. the points you bring up. Some on exhibition in the glass cases,

Geoffrey Gray 165 and a few in the vestibule cupboard, if I I was going to keep three NE Arnhem remember rightly. But a small collection land barks, and these are wrapped up (I don’t remember the number, but this above the cupboards in the vestibule could be obtained from my field note leading to your room: Jim Bell will show books) is packed away in the large box you. under the glass case in the lecture room: It seems to me, however, that 215 for this also contains some other objects. those barks available is a conservative Before we went to London I mentioned estimate, and I shall most certainly check to you that I was packing this collection numbers as soon as my note books are away, since I proposed to work on it at to hand. When I was in Sydney, you may the earliest opportunity. For this reason remember, I mentioned that I could I marked the box ‘personal’ and hold not find a small collection of stone the key — as you were retiring, I did tjurunga which I had brought personally not want an unauthorised person to go to Adelaide, and later had identified up through it. As soon as I can get over to at Oodnadatta, etc. Nor could I find Sydney for a fortnight or so, I intend to the Arnhem Land love magic seagull deal with it: I hope later to do a separate heads, and several hard wax ranga, with book on Arnhem Land painting, a defloration boomerang etc. I must go using this collection for illustrations. over the place with a tooth-comb when I would prefer, with your consent, that I can. These must not be allowed to this remain as it is. [GG’s emphasis] disappear, since they are quite valuable. Since this collection has remained 4. I too have been concerned with the virtually untouched it should be in depreciation of the paintings, and would good order. I would not like anyone appreciate it if Mr Kupka can preserve else to use the material — excepting, of them. McCarthy, though, knows what course, yourself. Mr Kupka should find is best to use since they sprayed the sufficient to interest him in the barks Museum collection. You may remember available, don’t you think. that we discussed this matter after the 3. Thus my box under the glass case barks arrived, but nothing came of it. in the lecture room contains the above 5. To compile a detailed annotation mentioned barks. There should be of each bark painting would be a big two other cases in the lecture room task. Each bark is numbered and all containing stone axes and other objects. the particulars are in my note books: it In the bathroom there are, among could, and in fact, should be done. I will smaller items, a large tin flour bin try to do it, but owing to my present containing a school essay survey and commitments cannot promise any various objects, and a large wooden box definite time. There should be a typed containing objects (yet to be sorted and copy lodged in the Dept., and in fact I classified): I marked these ‘personal’ should have done this myself years ago! so that they will have my attention when I get to Sydney again. There was As I say, I would like to use all the unfortunately no time to attend to them western Arnhem Land barks myself for when we were there in Feb. As far as I my proposed (?) study. On the other know there are no other bark paintings hand, I suppose Kupka will write his in the Dept., nor any in my possession: book whether or not we help him — I have none of my own. [GG’s emphasis] and it’s better to have some control over

166 ‘Cluttering up the department’ it. If he wants to get in contact with a collection of shields at Mitchell River and me I shall see what can be done in this she informed the secretary of the ANRC that direction. they ‘were purchased in 1931 with a special 6. It is true that Woodward-Smith grant from the ANRC and are of course the took about 50 coloured pictures of the property of the Council, and are on loan western Arnhem Land barks. Brown [to the Queensland Museum] — for display, took a number, too. These are, as you when space is available’ at the University of say, transparencies. I hold the collection Sydney.69 Berndt wanted only three barks for of these photos, which are at present his personal possession, from the collection packed in my London boxes. When I made by him and Catherine when they receive them, and if you still want them, were in Arnhem Land and, aware that the I can have prepared a full group of black material they had collected was owned by and white photos. the Department of Anthropology, he sought permission from Elkin. Some of the Arnhem Ronald Berndt hoped his explanation Land material had already been dispersed was of some help to Elkin, and again to the Australian Museum in Sydney and to reiterated his concern about the safety of UNESCO.70 Berndt sought only to retain the collection: the collection’s integrity (what he called its it would … most certainly be a terrible ‘safety’), as best he could, so that at some thing if any were missing from the time in the future he could return to Sydney collection or destroyed … I trust too to undertake further research, especially on that you agree with me about my (i.e. the barks. At this stage he had no plans to the Dept’s) box of western Arnhem ask Elkin if he could permanently transfer land barks in the lecture room. [GG’s some of the Arnhem Land material to Perth. emphasis] … Incidentally, I was hoping He acknowledged how difficult it would be that later I might hold over here to annotate each bark but seemed assured an exhibition of the bark paintings he would be able to do it when, and if, time contained in the box underneath the permitted. glass case in [the] lecture room: I would, of course, have to seek the permission of your Dept. for this — perhaps some time JA Barnes towards the end of the year, to stimulate interest, as the David Jones exhibition The arrival of the British social anthropologist did. [GG’s emphasis]68 JA Barnes put a new complexion on the collection and its retention in the This letter explains Berndt’s role in making department.71 Barnes later declared he had the collection and his recognition that it was moved Australian anthropology from being owned by the University of Sydney. There was a ‘regional backwater to bringing Australian no doubt, for example, that Ursula McConnel, ethnography firmly back into the mainstream who made a disparate collection which is of social enquiry’.72 Not all agreed with this, housed in four institutions — the South including the Berndts.73 Soon after Barnes Australian Museum, the Queensland Museum, arrived at Sydney, Berndt heard from Jim Bell, the Australian Museum in Sydney and the a tutor in the department, that Barnes was National Museum of Australia in Canberra — trying to persuade Mrs Nadel, curator at the recognised the ownership of the ANRC and Institute for Anatomy in Canberra, to take on the University of Sydney. McConnel made permanent loan some of the material exhibits

Geoffrey Gray 167 that, in Barnes’s words, were ‘cluttering up for their visit to coincide with the Australian the Dept’. The material was to be added Society of Anthropologists conference in May to the National Ethnographic Collection, 1957. He was also making arrangements with consisting then of material collected by some the University of Western Australia to assist of Australia’s earliest collectors of Aboriginal financially in transporting the selected items and Pacific material. These objects later to Perth.77 Berndt told the vice-chancellor provided the basis of the National Museum of the University of Western Australia that, of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait ‘owing to the appointment of a new man in Islander collections.74 Berndt was worried succession to Professor Elkin, the collection about what this might mean for the material of ethnological objects … was to be dispersed he and Catherine had collected. Berndt put in on permanent loan‘. his claim, not for ownership, but as custodian, Since we [he and Catherine] made and added a further plea to keep their Arnhem relatively large collections of Australian Land collection intact. Again he wrote to Aboriginal objects, bark paintings and Elkin, seeking his assistance: so on, particularly from Arnhem Land, I want to make quite sure that the it seemed to us that if the Sydney specimens I collected in Arnhem Land department was no longer interested and elsewhere (collected through the in them we should try to get a representative ANRC) are quite safe, and will not be selection here. [GG’s emphasis] … Barnes 78 dispersed. I wonder whether you would [had informed Elkin] that he was trying please be kind enough to take up this to lend to other institutions any objects matter with him [Barnes] and get some from the … collection of which they could make use, on the understanding assurance. I have written to you first, that if and when the Sydney University but if you think it necessary I shall write decided to found its own museum, the to Barnes himself, and/or to the Vice- objects could be brought back there. Chancellor [University of Sydney]. On That is to say, in his words, ‘the objects the other hand, if there is to be any will be on indefinite loan’ … [He told dispersal I think my Australian material Berndt he] would be very glad for you to should come to us in Perth. Further, take for use in Perth anything which you I would like an assurance that my box feel you could make use over there.79 under the case in which the Arnhem Land figures are exhibited, and several cases The objects Berndt had in mind were and items in the ‘bathroom’, are safe and a number of bark paintings from Western will remain untouched … I feel rather Arnhem Land, and a similar collection from strongly about it, and have no intention north-eastern Arnhem Land. Some of them of remaining quiet if the collection we are illustrated in Art in Arnhem Land.80 Berndt [he and Catherine] made are dispersed or again stated that he had ‘full particulars of given (on permanent loan or otherwise) to each [object] in my field note books’. He told another Institution. I think you will agree the vice-chancellor that if the university could with me.75 acquire: Elkin did speak with Barnes and arranged say, 25 to 30, if not more, they would for Berndt to make a selection.76 Berndt make an outstanding and unique hoped to make a visit to Sydney in mid- exhibition which could be assembled December 1956 but this turned out not to be within the University. Each is an possible; he and Catherine therefore arranged Australian Aboriginal masterpiece …

168 ‘Cluttering up the department’ In addition there are other objects — Berndt was somewhat aggrieved as he ‘had carved wooden human figures and so understood that I was to have first choice: on. I would suggest we also obtain a if the main ones have gone, I propose to selection of these, if Barnes is willing to have them back, if possible. It’s a sad thing part with them … not too many, but a breaking up a collection like this. But, of sufficient number of choice examples. course, a social anthropologist is not supposed to be interested in material objects — apart There is a clear recognition on the part of from his own’.86 Berndt that the University of Sydney could On 6 June 1957 Berndt informed the distribute the collection, in part or whole, as registrar at the University of Western Australia it wished. For Berndt to obtain a selection that he had made: required the support of the University of Western Australia and a willingness on the a selection of approximately 100 bark part of the university to ‘have these objects on paintings, some carved human figures, loan’.81 While supportive, the vice-chancellor painted skulls and other objects. This wondered where the collection would be collection is the one that will be on displayed.82 Berndt thought some of the permanent loan for the University of bark paintings could be displayed ‘in either Western Australia … I was pleased to be able to obtain almost a complete set Winthrop Hall or the main administrative of Western Arnhem Land paintings, block’, but he had not given this much making an outstanding collection; and in thought since his main objective was securing addition there is a series of a different 83 a part of the collection. The University of style from north-eastern Arnhem land. Western Australia agreed to pay Berndt’s The human figures are representative, return fare ‘and for expenses involved in but four of the best have gone to packing and transporting the collection to Canberra [to the Institute of Anatomy]. Perth’.84 Barnes wrote to Berndt on 16 November He had been assured, however, by Barnes regarding procedures. There were three that ‘these can be obtained for Perth if we conditions, supported by the registrar of the want them’.87 University of Sydney, and agreed to by the By mid-September the crates had been University of Western Australia: unpacked and the collection stored in a room in the Psychology Department; he made 1. We would like the material to be an inventory (see Table 1 below) — not as insured … detailed as promised, but sufficient for the 2. We will make a list describing the purposes of the University of Sydney.88 objects which we are loaning to you and Sydney was informed that all objects, a total will ask you to acknowledge that these of 244, had arrived safely in ‘relatively good are the objects that you have taken. condition’.89 3. We will ask you to agree to maintain In moving these objects from the the objects as nearly possible in the University of Sydney to the University of condition in which they were received.85 Western Australia, Berndt had secured some of the collection that he and Catherine had Berndt arrived at the Sydney department collected over the years. He had made a with some trepidation. Jim Bell had previously moral claim for ownership and this had been informed him that some of the ‘Arnhem recognised, albeit limited to a selection of land wooden figures have gone to Canberra’. objects. The bulk of the objects remained with

Geoffrey Gray 169 the University of Sydney to be distributed Sydney), as well as a few of the carved to other museums. Berndt was confronted human figures. The exhibition, Exhibition with a lack of permanent exhibition space, of Arnhem Land Aboriginal Paintings on Bark, a situation that was no better than that at was held in the large ground floor gallery. Sydney. In fact there was less space at Perth The museum published a catalogue which for exhibiting selected items. Much of the contained one or two illustrations, a reference material that Berndt chose for permanent to the organisation of the exhibition by the loan was without labels, but fortunately the Anthropology Section at the University of relevant information was in his notebooks. Western Australia and the museum, a brief He promised that he would label and describe history of the exhibits ‘from their collection all that he had chosen plus those items which to their arrival in the University of WA’, and remained in Sydney and those that had been an introduction to Aboriginal art written by placed on permanent loan to the Institute of Ronald and Catherine.90 In 1960–61 some of Anatomy in Canberra. the barks were included in another exhibition, Berndt kept faith with the University of Australian Aboriginal Art, that toured the Western Australia when he announced that capital cities.91 But the space at the University he planned to hold an exhibition of barks of Western Australia was virtually non- at the Western Australian Museum for three existent, and it was impossible to show the weeks from 11 December 1957. Fifty-five barks or any of the other ethnological objects barks were exhibited (most of them from on a more permanent basis.

Table 1: INVENTORY of Ethnological Objects on permanent loan from the University of Sydney, Department of Anthropology, to the University of Western Australia. Number 10 painted skulls from Millingimbi, Arnhem Land. 2 plain skulls (one from Manbullo, the other from Arnhem Land) 4 wooden skull models, painted (clan designs), N.E. Arnhem Land. 25 pottery sherds, varying sizes; from N.E. Arnhem Land. 12 orchid fibre and hair paint brushes; N.E. Arnhem Land. 1 stone axe, hafted; Arnhem Land. 2 small painted wax figures (male and female); N.E. Arnhem Land 1 wooden ceremonial object (yam) N.E. Arnhem Land. 1 wooden ceremonial object (fish) N.E. Arnhem Land. 5 wooden ceremonial objects (birds) N.E. Arnhem Land. 1 ceremonial emblem, with parakeet feather tufts —­ western Arnhem Land 1 paperbark banatia ceremonial beater — N.E. Arnhem Land. 2 small wooden bobbins, N.E. Arnhem Land. 1 incised ‘Macassan’ type pipe, N.E. Arnhem Land. 1 wooden ceremonial object — Western Arnhem Land. 3 wooden tjilbilba boards: Ooldea, SA (smaller one) 6 spearthrowers, Ooldea. 2 boomerangs, Ooldea. 2 wooden dishes, Ooldea. 1 long wooden didgeridoo, N.E. Arnhem Land. 6 wooden head-rests, Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. 18 carved wooden human figures, decorate: N.E. Arnhem Land. 2 wooden post-figures from Millingimbi, Arnhem land (one originally collected by [W Lloyd] Warner) 109 total number of objects

170 ‘Cluttering up the department’ PAINTINGS ON BARK North-Eastern Arnhem Land 67 Western Arnhem Land 68 Total 135

(All the above objects, excepting one as noted, and all the bark paintings, were originally collected by R and C Berndt in the course of anthropological fieldwork)92

Making a further claim for Chair of Anthropology, gave Mrs ownership Nadel (who was then Curator at your Institute, after the death In December 1982, some 25 years after he of her husband, Professor SF had made the selection from the Sydney Nadel) approval to take from the collection, Ronald Berndt wrote to the Department’s collections whatever Commonwealth Minister of Home Affairs objects she wanted. Professor and Environment, seeking the return of Barnes was, or appeared to be, quite some of the objects housed at the Institute uninterested in items of material of Anatomy, Canberra, which he claimed culture, and saw them as cluttering up were removed without his consent.93 He the Department. He had previously was more forceful about his ownership than assured me by letter that all items he had been in previous years; it was, he collected by myself would remain asserted, his collection. Berndt now made untouched, and kept until I could a clear claim of legal rather than moral come over to Sydney to go through ownership, and there was no one to challenge them, pack them and arrange to this: Elkin was dead and Barnes was out of have them trans-shipped to Perth. However, when I was eventually able the country. Berndt attached a letter he had to visit Sydney, I found that a large written in December 1980 to the director of number of my items had already been the ethnographic section at the Institute of taken to Canberra, and deposited at Anatomy.94 He had written to the Minister the Institute. The remaining part of as he understood that the ‘ethnographic/ my collections were taken to Perth. anthropological collections held by the Institute of Anatomy will be moved … to This version is at odds with that found the newly planned National Museum of in the archival record, detailed above. It Man in Canberra’; he wanted to ‘enquire shows that Berndt’s perception of the legal about material collected by myself during status of the Sydney collection had shifted fieldwork carried out under the auspices and also his views on the distribution of of the Department of Anthropology, selected items to both the University of University of Sydney’. He then detailed what Western Australia and the Institute of he called the ‘circumstances of the removal Anatomy. Berndt had visited the Institute of of my material’ from the Department of Anatomy a few years after the material had Anthropology at the University of Sydney: been transferred on permanent loan from This occurred in 1957, if I remember Sydney, when Helen Wurm was curator. At correctly, when Professor John that time he had sought to acquire ‘some Barnes, who then held the Sydney of the major objects which are particularly

Geoffrey Gray 171 associated with the material held in Perth a series of white clay and red-ochre returned to us’. He also pointed out how heads from western Arnhem Land poorly the material had been kept, and that a series of carved clapping sticks from ‘many of the labels which I attached in the the same area field when I collected these objects were just some small carved wooden objects lying there [at the University of Sydney]: it sections of a canoe which had drifted was an appalling shambles’.95 As we know to the Arnhem land coast97 from Elkin’s description, however, many of the objects never had labels or adequate As a reciprocal measure, as he had description. In the letter to the Minister, promised on other occasions, he was conscious of the need to show that the ‘prepared to annotate all other items deriving objects could be safely housed, he added from [my] collections and now held by the that the University of Western Australia Institute’.98 He informed the Minister that had an Anthropology Research Museum, ‘items lose a great deal of their value if with adequate facilities and a curator. It was not properly catalogued with all relevant established in 1976 (and renamed the Berndt information’.99 Museum of Anthropology in 1992, two The Department of Home Affairs years after Ronald’s death). This museum, decided the matter had to be resolved an improvement on earlier facilities, always between the University of Sydney as the remained a few steps behind the expanding owner of the collection and the Institute collection: it was then, as it was in 1957 and of Anatomy as the custodian of part of the as it is now, too small to show more than a Sydney collection. The acting head of the fraction of the collection.96 In his letter to Anthropology Department at the University the Minister, Berndt limited his request to a of Sydney, acting alone and probably few items, stating that he wanted to ‘explore unaware of the original circumstances, the possibility of certain objects which were saw no reason why the items should not originally collected by myself and previously be returned to Berndt.100 It was decided, lodged in the Department of Anthropology however, that for the transfer to take place, … being returned to me for re-integration the approval of the newly established Interim into our basic collection at the University of Council of the Museum of Australia (later Western Australia’. It was not his intention the National Museum of Australia) was ‘to seek the return of all my items — only needed. particular objects which may be correlated On 2 February 1983 the executive with what we now hold’. secretary of the interim council wrote to He was unable to describe each object the secretary of the Department of Home in detail at the time although he told the Affairs providing details of a conversation Minister he would do so later, as ‘all (or between a member of the interim council most) are recorded in my field note books’. and DJ Mulvaney, chairman of the Australian Most of those he had in mind came from Institute of Aboriginal Studies, who ‘was western and north-eastern Arnhem Land: happy to offer advice … and was aware of its long-standing history’. Mulvaney supported These are as follows: Berndt’s version of events, and concluded carved human figure from Yirrkala that he ‘saw no reason to doubt’ Berndt’s carved secret-sacred poles or posts claim that the collection had been disposed from Yirrkala of without his consent. Mulvaney added a

172 ‘Cluttering up the department’ (left to right) David Kaus, Ronald Berndt and Noel Keith, curator of the Australian Institute of Anatomy, at the institute in 1983 photograph by John Stanton Berndt Museum of Anthropology

pragmatic rider: not to comply with Berndt’s Conclusion wishes ‘may cause ill-feeling in the Museum world’. From Mulvaney’s point of view, the Ronald Berndt was often aggressive in establishment of a museum at the University manner and determined to prevail in matters of Western Australia meant that the objects that he felt strongly about.104 It is apparent would be going to a ‘good home’; moreover, that when the opportunity arose for him to as some of the objects were inappropriate make a further claim on some of the material for display at the proposed National he and Catherine had collected that he Museum it was proper that Berndt should determinedly pursued it. The version Berndt have them for ‘his museum’.101 Similarly, the put forward in 1980, and no doubt promoted chairman of the interim council, AT Dix, over the years, was at odds with the archival took the view that if the objects had been record, but revealed his determination to removed from the University of Sydney use whatever reasonable means he could to without Berndt’s consent, then the museum obtain those items he deemed to be his. would raise no objection to their being The distribution of the Sydney collection, returned to Berndt.102 Berndt’s offer to especially those objects originally collected annotate what remained of his collection was by the Berndts, remains contested. Should not pursued.103 Barnes have kept the collection at the

Geoffrey Gray 173 department? The ethnographic collection in the objects he and Catherine had collected, the department was not available to students which were housed at the University of for study, nor was it on display; moreover, Sydney. Moreover, when presented with much of the collection was neither the opportunity in 1957 to remove from catalogued nor labelled, nor was it properly the Institute of Anatomy some material he stored or cared for. Barnes went about claimed belonged to his collection he did not distributing the collection, on permanent take it up. loan, to properly constituted museums where Unfortunately most of those items the material would be properly cared for transferred to other institutions from the and presumably catalogued and thus made Sydney collection, including those collected available for research and display, until such by Berndt, appear to remain unannotated, time as a national museum was established. and will most likely be so for the foreseeable Was Berndt right to feel aggrieved when future. Ronald Berndt died in 1990 and Barnes decided to remove the collection? Catherine four years later. His field notes, I argue that Berndt received a fair deal. By however, survive, hidden from public view. enabling Berndt to make a selection Barnes When they become available in 2024, they implicitly recognised a moral ownership if should strengthen considerably the value of not a legal one. Elkin had pointed out to the collection. Barnes how the collection was made and the It is not uncommon for the importance significance to Berndt of the Arnhem Land and value of a collection to change material in particular. At no time, however, throughout its history, and for this to did Barnes write to Berndt, nor did the complicate issues of ownership, especially University of Sydney agree that Berndt had where such material is not just a collection legal ownership of the items collected by but also part of the legacy of a life’s work. him. Berndt’s proprietorial claim in 1982 was If Ronald Berndt, late in his career, became misleading, as was his claim that the items more proprietorial about his ethnographic were removed without his consent. At the collection, he was not the only collector time the collection was distributed, Berndt to have done this, nor the most extreme recognised and accepted the legal status of example.105 the collection and that ownership rested with the University of Sydney. If he had This paper has been independently peer- legal title he could have made claim for all reviewed.

174 ‘Cluttering up the department’ Notes 5 See also Geoffrey Gray, A Cautious Silence: The Politics of Australian Anthropology, Aboriginal 1 A version of this paper was presented to the Studies Press, Canberra, 2007. symposium, Collecting for a Nation: The 6 Radcliffe-Brown to Edwin Embree, 22 February History of the National Historical Collection 1927, Elkin Papers, University of Sydney and its Collectors, National Museum of Archives (hereafter EP): 155/4/1/1. Australia, Canberra, 21 March 2006. I would like 7 Radcliffe-Brown to President, ANRC, 27 to thank Rebecca Conway, Macleay Museum, April 1928, EP: 155/4/1/4; Gibson (ANRC) Tim Robinson and Julia Mant at the University to Radcliffe-Brown, 24 November 1927, EP: of Sydney Archives, and the staff at the 155/4/1/6; Radcliffe-Brown to JB Cleland, University of Western Australia Archives for 28 December 1926, EP: 157/4/1/23. Some their help in finding archival material that is used of this material was collected by Warner, in this paper. I would like also to thank Christine but unfortunately we do not know in what Winter, Luke Taylor and two anonymous circumstances it was acquired. See, however, referees for their helpful comments. Mildred Hall Warner, W Lloyd Warner: Social This article complements other work on Anthropologist, Publishing Center for Cultural related issues. For example, the conference, Resources, New York, 1988, p. 19. Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian 8 ‘Summary of resolutions affecting committees Museum Collections, held at the Melbourne of the various sections’, Section F, Report of the Museum, 9–11 February 2006, addressed the Fifteenth Meeting of the Australasian Association for rarity of scholarly analysis of these matters. In the Advancement of Science, Melbourne, 1921, conjunction with the aims of the conference p. xxxiii. is an ARC linkage grant, ‘Anthropological 9 Report, Committee on Anthropological Research and and Aboriginal perspectives on the Donald Fellowships in Anthropology and Human Biology for Thomson collection: Material culture, collecting the Twelve Months Ended 31 July 1929, Radcliffe- and identity’. There is also an ARC linkage Brown, chairman, EP: 161/4/1/81. grant with the Macleay Museum, University of 10 There is no evidence that Radcliffe-Brown Sydney: ‘Producers and collectors: Uncovering used the Smithsonian as an example and he the role of Indigenous agency in the formation made no mention of it as a model in any of Museum collections’. See also Sally May, ‘The of the correspondence with the ANRC, the last frontier? Acquiring the American–Australian Commonwealth Government or with HE Scientific Expedition ethnographic collection, Gregory of the Bernice P Bishop Museum in 1948’, BA (hons) thesis, Flinders University, Honolulu, Hawai‘i, with whom he discussed his South Australia, 2000. proposal. 2 The ANRC began with 100 ordinary members 11 Memorandum, ‘Chair of Anthropology (Sydney and 50 associate members, representing each University) in its relation to cadets and officers of the 18 scientific disciplines. It underwent of the Territorial Services’, 10 September 1926, numerous changes to its membership and National Archives of Australia (hereafter NAA): affiliations within Australia. In 1954, it was A518, N806/1/1, Part 1. disbanded, to be replaced in 1955 by the 12 Besides Clifford, see for example Nicholas Academy of Science. Roy MacLeod, ‘From Thomas, Entangled Objects: Exchange, Material imperial to national science’, in Roy MacLeod Culture and Colonialism in the Pacific, Cambridge (ed.), A Commonwealth of Science, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1991; B Jules- University Press, Melbourne, 1988, p. 61. Rosette, The Messages of Tourist Art: An African 3 AP Elkin, ‘The Australian National Research Semiotic System in Comparative Perspective, New Council’, The Australian Journal of Science, vol. 16, York, 1982; Philip Jones, ‘The boomerang’s no. 6, 1954, 203–4. erratic flight: The mutability of ethnographic 4 Australian National Research Council, Conditions objects’, in Bain Attwood & John Arnold (eds), Governing Grants and Fellowships for Anthropological Power, Knowledge and Aborigines, special issue of Research, 1927. the Journal of Australian Studies, 1992, 59–71.

Geoffrey Gray 175 13 James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture: the Ooldea Region, Western South Australia, Reprinted Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and from Oceania [1942], 1–26 [305–30] p. 15 [p. 319]; Art, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Cleland to RM Berndt, 31 July 1941, Cleland Massachusetts, 1988, p. 231. Papers, South Australian Museum. 14 I make no exhaustive claim regarding this, other 25 RM Berndt to JB Cleland, 19 July 1941, Cleland than to say that in the field notebooks and Papers, South Australian Museum. correspondence of that group of ANRC-funded 26 Piddington to Radcliffe-Brown, 22 May 1930, anthropologists working in the field between EP: 159/4/1/61. 1926 and 1956 that I have seen over the past 27 AP Elkin to Sally Elkin, 13 October 1928, EP: 20 years, it remains true. 1/1/1/1; see also SD Porteus, A Psychologist of 15 For a list of researchers during this period, Sorts, Pacific Books, Palo Alto, 1969, pp. 98–101, see Geoffrey Gray, ‘“Mr Neville did all in [his] in which he discusses the reaction he received power to assist me”: AP Elkin, AO Neville and when he showed men photographs of tjuringa in anthropological research in northwest Western Baldwin Spencer’s book on the Arunta. Australia, 1927–1928’, Oceania, vol. 68, no. 1, 28 Pulteney Grammar ended at year 10 until the 1997, 27–46 (pp. 39–41). early 1950s. ‘School record of Ronald Murray 16 However, the proceedings of the Making Berndt’, provided by John Moore, archivist, Collections conference will shortly document a Pulteney Grammar School, 29 August 2006; see number of examples. also Robert Tonkinson and Michael Howard, 17 Hogbin to Taylor, 25 October 1927, Hogbin ‘The Berndts: A biographical sketch’, in Robert Papers, University of Sydney Archives (hereafter Tonkinson and Michael Howard (eds), Going HP). It Alone? Prospects for Aboriginal Autonomy, 18 Hogbin to D Taylor, 17 October 1928, HP. Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1990, 19 Hogbin to AP Elkin, 14 April 1933, HP. pp. 19–20. 20 David Wetherell & Charlotte Carr-Gregg, 29 Student record of Ronald Murray Berndt, Camilla: A Life, UNSW Press, Sydney, 1990, provided by Cathy Davis, archivist, University pp. 72–83. of South Australia, 13 September 2006. 21 AP Elkin to ANRC, 31 March 1936, EP: 30 See plates 3, 4 and 10 in RM Berndt, CH Berndt 157/4/1/18: ‘Miss Wedgwood bought and sent and JE Stanton, A World That Was: The Yaralde these gifts to her leading informants to whom of the Murray River and the Lakes, South Australia, they were given by Mrs Garcia, the wife of the Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1993. Administrator’. There followed a list of the 31 See entry on James Wigley in Alan McCulloch recipient of the gift, item, and the price. and Susan McCulloch, The Encyclopedia of 22 AP Elkin to ANRC, 9 April 1936; EP: Australian Art, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1994, 157/4/1/18. Maggie Brady, ‘Mutual pp. 752–3. exploitation?: Aboriginal Australian encounters 32 Julian Wigley, pers. comm. with the author, with Europeans, South east Asians, and October–December 2006. Wigley asked his tobacco’, in William Jankowiak & Daniel uncle a series of questions on my behalf. Bradburd (eds), Drugs, Labour and Colonial 33 John Wilson, pers. comm. with the author, Expansion, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 12 October 2006. This was confirmed by 2003, pp. 31–58; Peter Read and Engineer Jack Wigley’s brother. See also entry on John Wilson Japaljarri, ‘The price of tobacco: The journey in McCulloch and McCulloch, Encyclopedia of of the Warlmala to Wave Hill, 1928’, Aboriginal Australian Art, p. 758. History, vol. 2, no. 2, 1978, 140–8. 34 Ronald Berndt’s brother-in-law states that 23 Ursula McConnel to Hon. Sec. (ANRC), Berndt had ‘the collecting disease’ from 15 August 1934, National Library of Australia childhood; this is confirmed by Berndt’s cousin (hereafter NLA): MS 482, 834. who told Kate Brittlebank that from about 24 RM Berndt to JB Cleland, 19 July 1941; RM & the age of 12 he haunted Adelaide’s antique CH Berndt, A Preliminary Report of Field Work in dealers and bookshops: Kate Brittlebank,

176 ‘Cluttering up the department’ ‘Anthropology, fine art and missionaries: The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Berndt Kalighat album rediscovered’, Journal Canberra, 1987. of the History of Collections, 2007, http://jhc. 42 Tigger Wise, The Self-Made Anthropologist: oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/fhm017?ijkey=es A Life of A. P. Elkin, George Allen & Unwin, 6PvCTMKd7t0sK&keytype=ref. Sydney, 1985, p. 166; also Gray, ‘“You are … 35 ‘Professor Ronald Berndt: The man behind the my anthropological children”’. mask’, WAASSA Newsletter, June 1975, 2–5; 43 CH Berndt to Isabel Houison, 31 October 1946, see also Tonkinson and Howard, ‘The Berndts’, NLA: MS 482, 857a; RM & CH Berndt pp. 18–21. to Chinnery, 21 January 1947, CP; CH Berndt 36 Geoffrey Gray, ‘“You are … my anthropological to Chinnery, 24 March 1947, CP. children”: AP Elkin, Ronald Berndt and 44 CH Berndt to Chinnery, 24 March 1947, CP. Catherine Berndt, 1940–1956’, Aboriginal History, 45 See Nicholas Thomas, Possessions: Indigenous Art/ vol. 29, 2005, 77–106 (pp. 94–5). Colonial Culture, Thames and Hudson, London, 37 The anthropologist and historian Philip Jones 1999, p. 195; Howard Morphy, ‘Seeing Aboriginal believes it was Tindale who introduced the use of art in the gallery’, Humanities Research, vol. 8, no. brown paper and crayons. 1, 2001, 37–50. 38 RM Berndt to EWP Chinnery, 24 June 1945, 46 AP Elkin, ‘Foreword’, in FD McCarthy, Chinnery Papers, private collection (henceforth Australian Aboriginal Decorative Art, Trustees of CP). See John E Stanton, ‘Drawing the the Australian Museum, Sydney, 1938, p. 9. Dreaming: The Berndt Collection of drawings 47 Thomas, Possessions, p. 195. from Birrundudu’, in Sylvia Kleinert and Margo 48 RM Berndt and CH Berndt, ‘Aboriginal art in Neale (eds), The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal central-western Northern Territory’, Meanjin, vol. Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, 9, no. 3, 1950, 183–8 (pp. 184–5). Melbourne, 2000, pp. 222–3 for some examples 49 Report on the Committee on Anthropology, n.d., of these drawings. (about 1948), EP: 161/4/1/81. 39 The by-laws of the University of Sydney 50 CH Berndt to Isabel Houison, 20 March 1947, (University of Sydney Calendar, 1942) state: NLA: MS 482, 857a. ‘Admission to candidature for the Diploma in 51 RM & CH Berndt to Chinnery, 15 September Anthropology may be granted (a) to graduates 1947, CP. Also AP Elkin to Hon. Sec. (ANRC), of this University, (b) to graduates of any other 31 March 1948; AP Elkin to Hon. Sec. (ANRC), University approved by the Faculty of Arts and 12 May 1949, EP: 156/4/1/14. Berndt was the Professorial Board, (c) to officers of the ‘present at all the important ceremonies, so that Public Service of the British Empire, and the objects brought back are really living objects (d) to such other persons as may be approved coming straight out of the ceremonies’, AP Elkin by the Faculty of Arts: Provided that candidates to Harney, 6 October 1948, EP: 30/8/1/8/3. seeking admission under (c) and (d) shall give 52 CH Berndt to Isabel Houison, 29 July 1947, evidence of such qualifications as may be NLA: MS 482, 857a. required by the Professor of Anthropology 53 CH Berndt to Isabel Houison, 26 May 1947, and approved by the Faculty, and provided that NLA: MS 482, 857a. candidates seeking permission under (d) shall 54 ‘Weird Aboriginal art: Young scientists’ find’, furnish evidence by means of publications on Sydney Morning Herald, 18 October 1949, p. 5. anthropological subjects or of reports on field 55 ibid. work and research or both that they are specially 56 RM Berndt to CB Christensen, 23 June 1950, fitted to enter upon systematic courses of study Meanjin Archive, University of Melbourne in Anthropology’. Ronald Berndt was admitted Archives. under clause (d). Catherine Berndt under (b). 57 CB Christensen to RM Berndt, 19 July 1950, 40 Tonkinson and Howard, ‘The Berndts’, p. 23. Meanjin Archive. The reference is to RM Berndt, 41 RM Berndt and CH Berndt, End of an Era: CH Berndt and AP Elkin, Art in Arnhem Land, Aboriginal Labour in the Northern Territory, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1950.

Geoffrey Gray 177 58 RM Berndt to CB Christensen, 21 July 1950, 69 Ursula McConnel to Hon. Sec.(ANRC), 30 July Meanjin Archive; RM Berndt to EWP Chinnery, 1935, NLA: MS 482, 834. 24 June 1945, CP. 70 I have not been able to determine the status of 59 RM Berndt & CH Berndt to CB Christensen, these objects. 31 July 1950, Meanjin Archive. It was published 71 JA Barnes, ‘Looking back and hardly believing’, as RM & CH Berndt, ‘Aboriginal art in central- in Geoffrey Gray (ed.), Before It’s Too Late, Oceania western Northern Territory’. Monograph No. 51, Sydney, 2001, pp. 139–46. 60 RM Berndt to CB Christensen, 16 February 72 JA Barnes, ‘Introduction’, in LR Hiatt, Kinship 1951; 7 August 1951; 15 August 1951; 23 August and Conflict: A Study of an Aboriginal Community 1951, Meanjin Archive, University of Melbourne; in Northern Arnhem Land, Australian National RM Berndt, ‘Aboriginal ochre-moulded heads in University Press, Canberra, 1965, p. xi. He was western Arnhem Land’, Meanjin, vol. 10, no. 4, supported in this view by LR Hiatt: see 1951, 350–3. ‘It seemed an interesting career to follow’, in 61 The terms of the Berndts’ will placed an Gray (ed.), Before It’s Too Late, pp. 108–14. embargo on their field notes for 30 years after 73 For a critical response to Hiatt and Barnes, see the death of Catherine in May 1994. However, CH Berndt, ‘Review of Kinship and Conflict’, some indication of the number and breadth of Anthropological Forum, vol. 1, nos 3–4, 1966, what they collected is given in their published 508–10. papers: RM Berndt and CH Berndt, ‘Sacred 74 See the Collecting for the Nation symposium figures of ancestral beings of Arnhem Land’, website, National Museum of Australia, parts 1 Oceania, vol. 18, no. 4, 1948, 309–26; ‘Secular to 4: http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/now_ figures of north-eastern Arnhem Land’, showing/captivating_and_curious/collecting_ American Anthropologist, vol. 51, no. 2, 1949, for_a_nation/australian_institute_of_anatomy/. 213–22; ‘Discovery of pottery in north-eastern 75 RM Berndt to AP Elkin, 24 July 1956, EP: Arnhem Land’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological 41/4/2/375. Institute, vol. 77, no. 2, 1951, 133–8. 76 RM Berndt to AP Elkin, 28 August 1956, EP: 62 Kupka subsequently wrote Un Art a l’état brut: 41/4/2/375. Peintures et Sculptures des aborigènes d’Australie, 77 RM Berndt to AP Elkin, 8 November 1956, EP: Editions Clairefontaine, Lausanne, 1962. 41/4/2/375. 63 Richard McMillan, ‘Karel Kupka in Australia: 78 JA Barnes to AP Elkin, 30 August 1956, EP: Artist, collector, writer, anthropologist’, in 41/4/2/375. «Rarrk» John Mawurnddjul: Journey through Time in 79 RM Berndt to Vice-Chancellor, 3 October Northern Australia, Crawford House Publishing, 1956, in UWA Archives file ‘Collection of Belair South, 2005, p. 193. ethnological specimens on permanent loan 64 AP Elkin to RM Berndt, 18 April 1956, EP: from the University of Sydney’, (hereafter UWA 41/4/2/375. Archives). 65 RM Berndt to AP Elkin, 19 March 1956, EP: 80 Berndt, Berndt and AP Elkin, Art in Arnhem 41/4/2/375. Land. 66 Wise, Self-Made Anthropologist, p. 166; also Gray, 81 RM Berndt to Vice-Chancellor (UWA), ‘“You are ... my anthropological children”’ 3 October 1956, UWA Archives. (pp. 101–2). 82 Registrar (UWA) to RM Berndt, 5 October 67 AP Elkin to RM Berndt, 18 April 1956, EP: 1956, UWA Archives. 41/4/2/375. 83 RM Berndt to Registrar (UWA), 1 October 68 RM Berndt to AP Elkin, 24 April 1956, EP: 1956, UWA Archives. 41/4/2/375 (Berndt’s emphasis). Ronald Berndt 84 Finance Committee Minutes, 9 October 1956; wrote on the western Arnhem Land barks: Registrar (UWA) to RM Berndt, 24 October RM Berndt (ed.), Australian Aboriginal Art, Ure 1956, UWA Archives. Smith, Sydney, 1964, and with CH Berndt and 85 JA Barnes to RM Berndt, 16 November 1956; JE Stanton, Aboriginal Australian Art, Methuen, Registrar (University of Sydney) to Registrar Sydney, 1982. (UWA), 19 June 1957, UWA Archives.

178 ‘Cluttering up the department’ 86 RM Berndt to AP Elkin, 1 April 1957, EP: December 1980, UWA Archives. 217/5/2/17. 96 Today there is a call to build a new museum to 87 RM Berndt to Registrar (UWA), 6 June 1957, house the extensive collection: UWA Archives. www.development.uwa.edu.au/development/ 88 RM Berndt to Registrar (UWA), 18 September berndt_museum_campaign (accessed 13 1957, UWA Archives. October 2006). 89 Registrar (UWA) to Registrar (University of 97 RM Berndt to Director, Institute of Anatomy, Sydney), 20 September 1957; Registrar (Sydney) 23 December 1980. to Registrar (UWA), 18 October 1957, UWA 98 ibid. Archives. 99 RM Berndt to Minister, 23 December 1982, 90 RM Berndt to Registrar (UWA), 30 October UWA Archives. 1957, UWA Archives. 100 Curator to B Wood (Social Health), 28 January 91 See Luke Taylor, Seeing the Inside: Bark Painting in 1983. Western Arnhem Land, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 101 Follett, Minute to Executive Secretary, 2 1996. February 1983. 92 List attached to RM Berndt to Registrar (UWA), 102 Executive Secretary to Secretary Home Affairs, 18 September 1957, UWA Archives. 93 RM Berndt to Minister, Home Affairs and 2 February 1983. Environment, 23 December 1982, Macleay 103 The remainder of the collection is now part Museum, courtesy Rebecca Conway. of the National Historical Collection at the 94 RM Berndt to Director of Ethnographic National Museum of Australia. Section, Institute of Anatomy, 23 December 104 Gray, ‘“You are ... my anthropological children”’ 1980, UWA Archives. (p. 101, n. 148). 95 RM Berndt to Minister, Home Affairs and 105 For example, see Barry Hill’s biography of Environment, 23 December 1982; RM Berndt TGH Strehlow, Broken Song: TGH Strehlow and to Director of Ethnographic Section, 23 Aboriginal Possession, Knopf, Sydney, 2002.

Citation guide

Geoffrey Gray, ‘“Cluttering up the department”: Ronald Berndt and the distribution of the University of Sydney ethnographic collection’, reCollections: Journal of the National Museum of Australia, vol. 2, no. 2 (2007), pp. 153–79.

Author

Geoffrey Gray, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Studies (AIATSIS), Canberra, and honorary research associate in the History School at Monash University, Melbourne, has published extensively on the history of Australian social anthropology, particularly the tripartite relationship between anthropologists, government and Indigenous (colonised) peoples. He is keenly interested in the ways anthropologists sought to influence governments — commonwealth, state and colonial — in the formulation and implementation of policy, and in representing the voice of Indigenous peoples in these arenas, for the period 1920–60. He is the author of the forthcoming A Cautious Silence: A Political History of Australian Anthropology (Aboriginal Studies Press, August 2007).

Geoffrey Gray 179