The 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, in Australia's Northern Territory, was at the time the biggest scientific expedition in history. Despite this, it was largely forgotten.
The purpose was to investigate both traditional Aboriginal life and the tropical environment.
In his new book, 'Clever Men' award-winning historian and documentary filmmaker Martin Thomas deep dived into the secrets, scandals and unlikely achievements that unfolded as the worlds of scientific hubris and the world's oldest surviving cultures, collided.
Dr Martin Thomas wheels Arnhem Land Elder Jacob Nayinggul to the burial site of the remains.
Mourners proceed to the old burial ground at Gunbalanya in 2011 where a funeral ceremony culminated in the burial of the returned ancestors. The procession arrives at the mission graveyard. (PHOTO: Glenn Campbell)
Ten of the seventeen expedition members. From left: Herbert Deignan (ornithologist), Raymond Specht (botanist), Margaret McArthur (biochemist and nutritionist), Fred McCarthy (anthropologist), Frank Setzler (anthropologist), Charles Mountford (ethnologist and filmmaker), Bessie Mountford (honorary secretary), Brian Billington (medical officer), and Reginald Hollow (cook). Peter Bassett-Smith (cine-photographer) is inside the plane behind Billington with an unidentified crew member beside him. The photo is from the personal papers of Ray Specht (1924-2021), the longest-surviving member of the expedition. (PHOTO: Raymond Specht Papers, National Library of Australia.)
The towering mammalogist David H. Johnson inspects a stuffed wombat in Melbourne prior to the expedition. On the left of him is the expedition botanist Raymond L. Specht. Johnson’s own taxidermy made dead animals look lifelike, leading some Aboriginal observers to regard the American as a ‘clever man’ or shaman who had supernatural powers. (PHOTO: Photograph by Mountford, Mountford-Sheard Collection, State Library of South Australia.)
An aerial photograph of Arnhem Land shows the mighty serpentine rivers. Such photographs were used in planning the expedition. (PHOTO: Mountford-Sheard Collection, State Library of South Australia.)
Howell Walker’s photograph of Anindilyakwa men carrying supplies for the expedition points to the expedition’s reliance on the labour and knowledge of Arnhem Landers. (PHOTO: Mountford-Sheard Collection, State Library of South Australia.)
Gerald Blitner (left) and an unidentified man display the skin of a crocodile shot on the Roper River. Blitner was an invaluable guide and interpreter to the expedition. Martin Thomas recorded his oral history, which is quoted extensively in Clever Men. (PHOTO: Photograph by Walker, NGS Collection.)
Korpitja, one of Groote Eylandt’s master painters. He gave cultural advice to the expedition and created numerous bark paintings for the 1948 collections. (PHOTO: Photograph by Walker, NGS Collection.)
The Phoenix, a ‘terrible looking tub’, was commissioned by Mountford to carry essential food and equipment. At great cost to his credibility, the century-old barge became stuck on a reef en route to Groote Eylandt, causing major supply problems for the expedition. (PHOTO: Photograph by Walker, Mountford-Sheard Collection, State Library of South Australia.)
Colin Simpson (second from right) working with Larry Marawanna (far left) and other Binij musicians in recording traditional songs on a wire recorder. Ray Giles (right) operates the machine. (PHOTO: Photograph by Walker, Colin Simpson Papers, National Library of Australia.)
Mountford records information on paintings at Yirrkala. Most works collected by the expedition were on bark but some were painted on paper that Mountford gave to artists. Some painters were cautious about how much secret-sacred knowledge should be disclosed to Mountford whose interviewing technique was described by McCarthy as a ‘frontal assault’. To the fury and dismay of elders, the expedition released for general exhibition film and photographs of secret ceremony that had been shared in confidence with the researchers. (PHOTO: Photograph by Howell Walker, NGS Collection.)
A barge leaves Arnhem Land loaded with bark paintings, artefacts, and thousands of specimens of flora and fauna. In sealed ammunition boxes were the human remains taken from traditional mortuary sites. When exported to Washington DC the bones were described as ‘natural history specimens’ in the shipping documents. (PHOTO: Photograph by Setzler, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution.)
After years of lobbying by the Australian government, the Smithsonian agreed to the repatriation of the human remains collected by the American anthropologist Frank Setzler in Arnhem Land. A delegation of Arnhem Landers travelled to Washington DC in 2010 to perform a ceremony that would bring home their ancestors. (PHOTO: Photograph by Adis Hondo.)
The ceremony leader Jacob Nayinggul from Gunbalanya watches as the repatriated bones are buried in their ancestral country. He had already reminded those around him:
"We’ll follow.
We’ll go after them too…" (PHOTO: Glenn Campbell)
The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.
