Beyond all expectations : the work of Lutheran Missionaries from Dresden, Germany amongst Aborigines of South Australia, 1838-1853 : two contributions

Abstract

2nd. edition. The first edition of this book was printed 175 years after the voyage to, and arrival of the first two of four young missionaries from Germany in infant South Australia in 1838. Sent out by the Lutheran Dresden Missionary Society, they commenced living and working with Aboriginal people of what is now known as the Adelaide Plains and two years later, at Encounter Bay and on the Eyre Peninsula. The First Australian people of the Kaurna community, the Ramindjeri / Ngarrindjeri community, and the Barngarla community, trusted these missionaries and taught them their languages, beginning at "Piltawodli" [in the new spelling adopted in 2010: Pirltawardli], on the former native location at the Torrens River, in December 1839. The missionaries recorded their languages systematically, and published three dictionaries hoping that their efforts would help establish a better understanding of the Aboriginal people amongst the white fellow settlers. This did not happen. On the contrary, relations quickly deteriorated. Within 10 years, the missionaries gave up their work due to the lack of financial support and the dispersal of most of the Aboriginal people with whom they had been in contact. As not one of them had converted to Christianity, the Australian mission was considered a failure. However, since the late 1980s, the three dictionaries have come into good use. The Aboriginal people in South Australia, descendants of their forefathers at the time of invasion, use these records to reclaim their languages and thus their culture and identity.