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20-567: The anthropologist Donald Thomson classified them (speaking of them as the Yintjinga ) as one of what he called the Kawadji peoples. According to Norman Tindale , writing in 1974, the Barungguan had about 700 square miles (1,800 km) of tribal land, on the western side of Princess Charlotte Bay and extending northwards toward Cape Sidmouth. Their furthest northern limit appears to have been around

40-603: A 25-year-old technical assistant. Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit The Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit (NTSRU) was an irregular warfare unit of the Australian Army during World War II , composed mainly of Aboriginal people from the Northern Territory . Formed in 1941, the unit patrolled the coast of Arnhem Land during 1942–43 searching for signs of Japanese landings and trained to fight as guerrillas using traditional weapons in

60-565: A possible Japanese landing. Proposed in mid-1941, the NTSRU was subsequently formed between 12 February and 19 March 1942 under the command of Squadron Leader Donald Thomson , an anthropologist before the war with extensive experience working with the local Yolngu people in the 1930s, several of whom had previously been jailed for killing five Japanese pearlers and three Europeans during the Caledon Bay crisis in 1932–33. Thomson had been seconded to

80-661: A special reconnaissance force of Yolngu men known as the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit , including tribal elder Wonggu and his sons, to help repel Japanese raids on the northern coastline of Australia. In 1943, as the war moved northward from the Australian coast, the unit was disbanded, and Thomson returned to the Air Force. He was badly injured in action in Dutch New Guinea , and spent

100-534: Is listed on the Victorian Heritage Databases because of its association with Thomson. In 1932–33, as the Caledon Bay crisis erupted, Thomson offered his services to the Australian Government to resolve the crisis, and to the surprise of the government succeeded in doing so. His success had long-term ramifications for the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and

120-668: Is regarded as the crowning achievement of his life. He formed a strong bond with the Yolngu people, studying their traditional use of the land in the Arafura Swamp and elsewhere. The story of Thomson's interactions with the northern Arnhem Land Ramingining people is told through the eyes of the Indigenous people in Rolf de Heer 's 2009 film Twelve Canoes . In 1941, he persuaded the Army to establish

140-536: The University of Melbourne in 1925. . In 1927 he studied at the University of Sydney , earning a diploma in anthropology in 1928. While still a school student, he joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union in 1917. He served as press officer in 1923, and then as assistant editor of its journal, Emu from 1924 to 1925. After two trips to Cape York, Queensland , Thomson joined

160-576: The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne , and in 1932 joined the University of Melbourne as a research fellow, obtaining his PhD in 1934. When he graduated in 1925 he joined the Melbourne Herald as a cadet. After earning his diploma in anthropology in 1928, he set off on an eight-month journey, working with and recording the Indigenous people of Cape York . On his return, he

180-516: The 1930s in Arnhem Land , have become invaluable historical records for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, particularly for the Pintupi. Thomson lived with the Pintupi, and liked them, through much of the 1950s and the 1960s. He returned to the University of Melbourne and continued working there until his death on 12 May 1970. His ashes were flown to the Northern Territory and, accompanied in

200-602: The Army from the Royal Australian Air Force in June to raise and command the unit. NTSRU personnel included 50 Aboriginal men (such as the Yolngu elder Wonggu and his sons), six Solomon Islanders , a Torres Strait Islander and several white non-commissioned officers, the unit patrolled the coast of Arnhem Land during 1942–43 searching for signs of Japanese landings and trained to fight as guerrillas using traditional weapons in

220-526: The Caledon Bay crisis into a "decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal-European relations". Thomson's story is tolde in an episode in the 2013 documentary television series Desperate Measures , called "Donald Thomson with Agnes Waramba". As of 2023 the series is available on SBS on Demand . Thomson married, first, Gladys Winifred Coleman, on 30 December 1925. They had two sons, before divorcing in 1954. On 7 May 1955 he married Dorita Maria McColl,

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240-530: The Rocky River, beyond which they rarely ventured. The Barungguan were organized into clans the names of at least two of which are known: As with the neighbouring Walmbaria , tooth avulsion was practised on all members of either sex among the Barungguan, with either the right or left upper incisor extracted for ritual purposes. Source: Tindale 1974 , p. 165 Donald Thomson Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson OBE (26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970)

260-546: The event of an invasion while reporting on enemy movements towards Darwin . Meanwhile, similar units were raised on Bathurst Island , Melville Island (including the Snake Bay Patrol ), the Cox Peninsula and Groote Eylandt . In 1943, as the war moved northward from the Australian coast, the NTSRU was disbanded, and Thomson returned to the Air Force. He was later badly injured in action in Dutch New Guinea , and spent

280-649: The event of an invasion. In 1943, as the war moved northward from the Australian coast, the NTSRU was disbanded. Wartime exigencies broke down previous resistance to the enlistment of non-Europeans in the armed forces, with the threat posed to Northern Australia by the Japanese from late-1941 resulting in the formation of a number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander units such as the Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion . In Northern Australia several irregular units were subsequently formed to utilise

300-483: The film arose from discussions between co-director Rolf de Heer and the film's narrator, David Gulpilil , about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp, taken by Thomson in 1936. Thomson is remembered as a friend of the Yolngu people, and as a champion of understanding, by non-Indigenous Australians, of the culture and society of Indigenous Australians . He was largely responsible for turning

320-450: The local knowledge and bushcraft skills of the local Aboriginal people to provide surveillance of the more remote parts of the coastline, including the 2/1st North Australia Observer Unit based in Katherine, Northern Territory . Further north, east Arnhem Land was largely uninhabited except for a few Aboriginal Australians and unmapped prior to the war, but was considered a likely area for

340-414: The plane by two of the sons of Wonggu, scattered over the waters of Caledon Bay . The Thomson Collection, which is currently held by Museums Victoria , includes approximately 4000 black and white glass plate photographs. One of these photographs was of a group of ten men in their bark canoes on a swamp , and was the inspiration for the title of a critically acclaimed film Ten Canoes . The title of

360-651: The rest of the war in hospital before being discharged from the Armed Forces. In 1957, Thomson carried out the "Bindibu (Pintupi) Expedition" to the Western Desert to make contact with Pintupi there. For some Pintupi, this was their first contact with Europeans. They were almost the last Indigenous Australian group with whom white Australians were to make contact (the very last was a group of Pintupi in 1984). Thomson again demonstrated his excellent ethnographic skills. The photographs taken here, like those he took in

380-451: Was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist . he is known for his studies of and friendship with the Pintupi and Yolngu peoples, and for his intervention in the Caledon Bay crisis . Donald Finlay Fergusson Thomson was born on 26 June 1901 in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton . Thomson was went to Scotch College, Melbourne , before earning a B.Sc. in zoology and botany at

400-497: Was falsely accused of dishonesty, because of the loss of some funds, which was later traced to fraudulent activity by a staff member of the Australian Research Council . This unhappy episode forever damaged his relationship with other anthropologists at Sydney. Thomson lived at the property of Worlingworth, Eltham from the 1930s. The c.1922 residence and surrounding farm site is considered historically significant and

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