David Unaipon
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David Unaipon (28 September 1872, Point Mcleay (Raukkan) Mission - 7 February 1967) was an Australian Aboriginal of the Ngarrindjeri people, a preacher, inventor and writer. Today, he is featured on the Australian $50 note in commemoration.
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[edit] Biography
Unaipon was awarded ten patents, including a shearing machine, but did not have enough money to get his inventions developed. He was known as the Australian Leonardo for his mechanical ideas, which included anticipatory drawings for a helicopter design based on the principle of a boomerang.
Unaipon was inquisitively religious, believing in an equivalence of traditional Aboriginal and Christian spirituality. He was employed by the Aborigines' Friends' Association to collect subscription money. The travel involved in this work brought him into contact with many intelligent people sympathetic with the cause of Aboriginal rights, and gave him the opportunity to lecture on Aboriginal culture and rights. He just wanted people to understand the culture of his race. He was often refused accommodation and refreshment due to his race.
Unaipon proposed to the government of South Australia to replace the office of Chief Protector of Aborigines with a responsible board. He was arrested for making an attempt to provide a separate territory for the aborigines in Central and Northern Australia.
He was one of the first published Aboriginal writers, the author of numerous articles in newspapers and magazines for the Sydney Daily Telegraph, retelling traditional stories and arguing for the rights of Aborigines. Unaipon was also a researcher and witness for the Bleakley Enquiry into Aboriginal Welfare and lobbied the Commonwealth Government to take over responsibility for Aborigines from the States.
Unaipon returned to his birthplace in his old age, where he worked on inventions and attempted to reveal the secret of perpetual motion. He died in Tailem Bend hospital on the seventh of February 1967 and was buried in the Raukkan mission cemetery.
An interpretive dance based on Unaipon's life, Unaipon, is performed by the Bangarra Dance Theatre, while the David Unaipon Literary Award is an annual award presented for the best of writing of the year by unpublished Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors.
Some of Unaipon's traditional Aboriginal stories were published in a heavily edited and plagiaristic 1930 book called Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals[1]. They have recently been republished in their original form, under the authors name, as Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.
[edit] Works
- David Unaipon; Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 0-522-84905-9.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Biographical notes by Bangarra Dance Theatre choreographer Frances Rings
- David and James Unaipon at Unaipon School, University of South Australia
- The David Unaipon Award at University of Queensland Press
- The David Unaipon Innovation Awards
- David Unaipon online collection - State Library of NSW
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Unaipon, David |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Indigenous Australian inventor and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 28 September 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Point Mcleay, South Australia, Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | 7 February 1967 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Australia |
