Ronald Murray Berndt (14 July 1916 – 2 May 1990) was an Australian

social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

who, in 1963, became the inaugural professor of anthropology at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

. He and his wife

Catherine Berndt Catherine Helen Berndt , ''née'' Webb (8 May 1918 – 12 May 1994) was a New Zealand-born Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea conducted jointly with her husband, Ronald Berndt. Early life and edu ...

maintained a close professional partnership for five decades, working among

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

Ooldea Ooldea, known as Yuldea and various other names by Western Desert peoples ( Aṉangu), is a tiny settlement in South Australia. It is on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain, west of Port Augusta on the Trans-Australian Railway. Ooldea is ...

(1941),

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

cattle stations (194446) and Balgo (195781), and with natives of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

(195153).

Early life and education

Berndt was born in 1916 in Adelaide. He attended high school at

Pulteney Grammar School Pulteney Grammar School is an Independent school, independent, Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican, co-educational day school. Founded in 1847 by members of the Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Church, it is the second oldest independen ...

. He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts, following up with a Master of Arts in 1954. He was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

for a thesis based on his anthropological work in New Guinea.

Aboriginal land rights

Berndt was an early advocate for legal recognition and protection of Aboriginal sacred sites, and clashed in 1980 with the Liberal premier Sir

Charles Court Sir Charles Walter Michael Court (29 September 1911 – 22 December 2007) was an Australian politician who was the premier of Western Australia from 8 April 1974 to 25 January 1982. A member of the Western Australian Liberal Party, Liberal Par ...

over the Noonkanbah dispute in the Kimberley region. His interest was much broader than any one specific location or event, and he was focused on the national dimensions of the land rights issue.

Publications

Some of his sole authored

monographs A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

include ''Kunapipi'' (1951), ''Djanggawul'' (1952), and ''Man, land and myth in Northern Australia'' (1970).

Joint works with Catherine Berndt

The Berndts jointly wrote a book first in 1952 as ''The First Australians'', which went into three editions—the last being published in 1974. A similar title ''The World of the First Australians'' went into five editions. Their publications were extensive. Their contribution to the 1979 Sesquicentenary of Western Australia was the book ''Aborigines of the West''. They were jointly awarded the

Edgeworth David Medal The Edgeworth David Medal is awarded annually by the Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Societ ...

in 1950 and in the

1987 Australia Day Honours The 1987 Australia Day Honours are appointments to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by Australian citizens. The list was announced on 26 January 1987 by the Governor General of Australia, Sir Ninian Stephen. The Aust ...

each was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

for "service to anthropology, particularly in relation to the Aboriginal society and culture".

Legacy

The collected essays in honour of the Berndts in 1990 showed the breadth of the influence of their teaching and writings, with essays by a wide spectrum of anthropologists of their time, including

Claude Levi-Strauss Claude may refer to: People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Callegari (1962–2021), English Arsenal supporter * Claude Debussy (1862–1918), ...

and

Raymond Firth Sir Raymond William Firth (25 March 1901 – 22 February 2002) was an ethnologist from New Zealand. As a result of Firth's ethnographic work, actual behaviour of societies (social organization) is separated from the idealized rules of behavio ...

. The Berndts were avid collectors, and their collection was bequeathed to the

and exists as the

Berndt Museum of Anthropology The Berndt Museum of Anthropology is an anthropological museum in Perth, Western Australia, founded in by Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt. It is currently, , located with the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery on the western side of the Univers ...

References