Australian
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Teacher’s notes

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This clip presents an Indigenous view of Hermannsburg in central Australia, using 1930s black-and-white footage with original soundtrack and contemporary colour film with narration. Pintupi Elders Benny Tjapaljarri and Mick Ngamurarri recount their feelings about their first contact with the Hermannsburg Mission and Western technologies. The 1930s footage of life on the Mission includes an interview with Pastor Albrecht, who talks about Indigenous people, and scenes of Indigenous people trading animal pelts for Western goods, and the soundtrack contains local language, singing and subtitles.

Educational value points

• An Indigenous perspective of Hermannsburg Mission in central Australia is established through the narration, the recollections of the Mission by Pintupi Elders Tjapaljarri and Ngamurarri, and the 1930s voice-over commentary of the black-and-white archival material. The present-day narrator uses both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous names for the community (Ntaria and Hermannsburg) as well as the terms 'we’ and 'they’ to establish an Indigenous voice.

• The interview with Elders Tjapaljarri and Ngamurarri provides insight into the complex experience of change for Indigenous people who came to the Hermannsburg Mission in the 1930s. The director has used archival footage to show Indigenous people using new skills to work, as well as sustaining traditional practices such as hunting and body painting. In the present Tjapaljarri and Ngamurarri recall their amazement at seeing new technologies such as chimneys that produced 'straight smoke’.

• Although the narrator describes Pastor Albrecht’s 'confidence in the supremacy of Christianity and European ways over traditional Aboriginal beliefs’ as typical of his time, the clip also depicts Albrecht as showing sympathy for Indigenous people and respect for their spiritual values and common humanity. He was pastor at the mission from 1926 until 1962 and envisaged an Australian society that would include Indigenous people and value their contributions.

• Pastor Abrecht is depicted endorsing trading as part of the 'training’ of Indigenous people to fit into Australian society. He criticises Western materialism in the interview, but his reference to hair oil suggests a contradictory promotion of Western consumer goods. Although the archival material implies that trade was new to Indigenous people, such reciprocal arrangements were part of Indigenous relationships, with traditional trade routes covering the continent.

• The archival footage taken at Hermannsburg of traditional Indigenous ways of life suggests the significant role of the Mission in recording Indigenous culture even while trying to replace much of it. The clip begins with colour footage from 1992, and – combined with the Indigenous recollections of the Mission – this encourages a critical interpretation of the black-and-white 1930s film.

• Hermannsburg Mission was set up by Lutheran missionaries in 1877, and was named after Hermannsburg in Germany where the missionaries had trained. It was typical of many missions in that it was often used by Indigenous people as a refuge from settler violence and as a place to get food and water supplies. Hermannsburg was handed back to the Arrernte people in 1982 and today operates as an Indigenous community.

This clip starts approximately 8 minutes into the documentary.

We see aerial shots of Hermannsburg in Central Australia.
Narrator The missionaries came from a mission they set up on the Fink River at a place we call Ntaria but they named Hermannsburg.

We see the footage change from colour to black-and-white. We see old footage of life in the village. We hear women singing.
Narrator of footage Mount Hermannsburg, mighty centennial, interstate setting is the Fink River Mission Station widely known as Hermannsburg.
Narrator Benny and Mick followed the camels into Hermannsburg in the 1930s for their first taste of white fella world.

Two men, Pintupi Elders Benny Tjapaljarri and Mick Ngamurarri, are being interviewed in the bush. There is more footage of life in the mission. English subtitles read:
Elder 1 We were ignorant and looked on suspiciously at what they were doing. ‘What’s going on here…what’s this stuff?’ We watched warily.
Elder 2 Yes, it was all very suspicious.
Elder 1 The smoke rose up the chimney. High above the kitchen chimney. ‘How can these people make that smoke go straight up?’
Elder 2 Yes…straight smoke!
Elder 1 We sat looking and thought, ‘Eh, that’s clever…really clever.’ We sat back and watched…amazed.

1930s black-and-white footage of Pastor FW Albrecht being interviewed in his office on the Mission. Footage of trade and life at the mission.
Narrator Pastor FW Albrecht lived and worked at Hermannsburg from 1926 to 1962. His confidence in the supremacy of Christianity and European ways over traditional Aboriginal beliefs was typical of his time.
Pastor FW Albrecht Our Aborigines from their nomadic past find themselves in a, um, world that is so strange to them. I think with careful handling and training, they have a future and they could make the contribution to Australian life and community.
Narrator of footage The missionary carries on a small trade with the people so they can buy what they need in the way of extra food, clothing, camp utensils and other living comforts. Here’s just a small range of the many items from which to choose – soap, razors, pocket knives, medicines, hair oil and so on.
Pastor Albrecht They are very charming people. They are so completely, very spiritual. See, what makes our life very often look ugly is our materialistic sense, they haven’t got that, because his emphasis is on magic. The basic need of the Aborigines is exactly like our own. They can’t cope with certain things unless God comes into their lives.