MISSION ENTERPRISE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22609, 28 June 1935, Page 10

MISSION ENTERPRISE

AMONG UNCIVILISED BLACKS PRIEST AND ANTHROPOLOGIST (From Odr Own Correspondent.! SYDNEY, June 20. The missionaries who go out among the uncivilised aboriginal tribes of north and north-west Australia are brave men. The risk of spearing or clubbing by these aborigines is everpresent, although this aspect of mission ventures is often exaggerated, as the aborigines seldom attack unless offended or betrayed, and missionaries are circumspect in their treatment. But the hardships and perils to limbs and health are numerous enough in those regions to make any southern Australian applaud any mission venture "up north." We in the south had that feeling when we read that last week-end Father Doherty, of the Order of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, had left Darwin, with stores and timber in two luggers, to form a new mission for aborigines at Port Keats, Northern Territory. He may be among the natives for years before touching civilisation again.

Accompanying Father Doherty was Pat Ritchie, author of " North of the Never Never," who has been associated for several years with the Bathurst Island Mission, and Mr 'V. E. H. Stanner, anthropologist, Sydney University, who has been engaged in research among the blacks of the Northern Territory for two years. Reports have reached Darwin that news of the commencement of the mission has spread among aborigines between the Daly and Fitzmaurice Rivers, and many are gathering at Port Keats to await the missionary party. The area between Port Keats and thp Fitzmaurice River is the only area in the Northern Territory, except Arnhem Land, in which natives untouched by civilisation may be found. The tribes there are noted for their hostility, and several murders of whites and Japanese have taken place in the last three years. Port Keats is 200 miles south-west of Darwin, on one of the loneliest stretches of the Australian coastline.

The missionary party includes two Filipino seamen, who are navigating the luggers, and crews of aborigines from Bathurst Island. One of the luggers is the St. Francis, which has been used by the Bathurst Island Mission to bring stores from Darwin. Father Doherty is taking 10 tons of stores and timber for constructing the mission building. The timber was felled and cut into lengths by aborigines of the Bathurst Island Mission. Among the stores are 501 b of tobacco and a large quantity of flour, gifts to establish friendly relations with the wild aboriginals. Father Doherty is also carrying a large number of tomahawks and kniven.

" I do not expect trouble in making friends with the natives," said Father Doherty before leaving. " I have two possible sites for the mission station, where good, permanent water can be obtained, in mind. We will land stores and begin work immediately. When I visited Port Keats, I saw only eight blacks, but tribes in the area number hundreds. We hope soon to gain their confidence and start agriculture." " T have found much evidence that vital social changes' are taking place among the aborigines which are as important and radical to them as the Renaissance or the Reformation was to Western Europe," said Mr Stanner. "Aborigines are changing their ceremonial dances and marriage laws. They t/.re learning new mythologies and new decorative patterns. The changes are probably being accelerated by the tribes wandeiing further afield from their own tribal grounds now than years ago. This i"s partly due to the diminution in their numbers and to white settlement. It is obvious in a great many areas that the decline in aboriginal population has already been great, and seems to be continuing, but in a few parts of the Northern Territory pastoral areas it is prob able that aborigines have reached something like stability."

Mr Stanner has discovered tn recent months 12 aboriginal tribes hitherto unknown 'xi anthropologists, and he expects to record several new tribes in the Port Keats-Fitzmaurice River area. He has already completed 0000 miles of travel among the aboriginal tribes of the Northern Territory, and intends to spend four months at Port Keats. He has made contact with more than 30 tribes.