B 505: Lecture on the Aborigines of Australia and papers on Wirradhurrei dialect, 1837-1840

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This material forms part of the Archdeacon James Gunther papers, 1826-1878, held by the State Library of New South Wales.

The following parts of the collection were selected for the Rediscovering Indigenous Languages project:

- Lecture on the Aborigines of Australia and papers on Wirradhurrei dialect, 1837-1840; call number B 505

- The Native Dialect Wirradurri spoken in the Wellington District, 1838; call number C 136

The Archdeacon William James Gunther (1839-1918) was born on 28 May 1839 at Wellington, New South Wales, and was son of Reverend James William Gunther and his wife Lydia, née Paris. Gunther (the elder) was a German-born missionary, who worked in the Mudgee district and died circa 1879. The Church Missionary Society mission appointed Gunther to its mission in Wellington in August 1837, and he stayed until the mission was disbanded in 1843. During this time, Gunter compiled lists of Wiradjuri words, phrases and executed studies on Wiradjuri grammar.

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If we suppose moreover, what is very possible, that a few families of a somewhat coarser or inferior breed (if we may use the term) as there are mostly some among nearly all nations to have originally landed [word crossed out] on these shores and propagated themselves without any admixture of a gentler or superior race, it is quite natural, other causes taken into account, the present race should be so low in the scale of the human races. Their intellectual faculties are by no means so inferior as is generally supposed; their mind is quite capable of culture : of this I have had many decisive proofs. At an average, they learn to read English, when young, as quickly as our own children and those who have had much intercourse.

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with the Aborigines have often been struck with the fact that at least the young men & boys very soon acquire and speak the English language correctly & fluently. You can draw out their minds so as to reflect & reason. Whether any or many individuals amongst them might prove when enjoying superior education, deep philosophers, or great mathematicians, or good arithmaticians may be doubted. still we can not assert the contrary. I do not wonder much at the uncivilized [word crossed out] & ignorant state of the Aborigines, being so widely & thinly scattered & without intercourse perhaps for ages as we may suppose with other races; what else would be the result? Let us imagine a few families of Europeans living in the Interior without any means of instruction without a book of any kind [words crossedout] their offspring for a few centuries or generations cut off from the civilized world, might they not become almost as ignorant & uncivilized as the Aborigines?

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[Superimposed page] first because I believe, on good ground that no nation or tribe was originally so savage or ignorant as there are some nowadays. for in the primitive ages though they had not the means of education & improvement as we now have they had certain traditions which kept them from gross ignorance. Besides, before that wide dispersion of the human races, the amount of population living in close proximity would afford certain social advantages for improvement. A thinly scattered people is sure to grow gradually more ignorant & uncivilised. Secondly [words crossed out] the Aborigines themselves have an impression that their ancestors knew more than themselves. There are in the third place a few slight traces found of superior ideas such as I have related just now. And

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[superimposed page] here I would mention those mysterious caves of which there is one found in the district of Dabu. One of the Blacks referred to these caves as proof that their ancestors or else some other ancient native must have known more than any of them knew [indecipherable] adding we could not make such marks; "we not clever enough for that For the information of these who may not have heard of them ever before, I would merely state, that besides other remarkable features, these caves contain [word crossed out] impressions of hands & parts of the [indecipherable] very neatly executed, [indecipherable] among which some delicate female hands can be distinguished. The whole appears as if originally done in [indecipherable] There is still a reddish hue remaining

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No2 Notions of superior beings I deem it proper in the next place to give you a little information, as far as I have been able to collect [word crossed out] concerning any traditions, legends superstitions ideas & practises of any traces of religious belief that may be round among the Aborigines. The question has often been asked. Do these Blacks believe at all in any kind of Superior Being or beings of a superior order? Have they any idea of a future state? Is there any sort of religious belief [words crossed out] amongst them or do they practice any religious rite? That they believe in evil spirit or evil spirits (called Wandung in the Wirradurri dialect) is pretty well known. The dread of these [words crossed out] evil spirits, continually haunts them. All the ills they suffer, [words crossed out] sickness & other misfortunes especially, if suddenly inflicted [words crossed out] and if they can not [word crossed out] at once easily account for the same are ascribed to the influence of some evil spirit, who either directly or indirectly by the instrumentality of some evil disposed person has

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