DAVID UNAIPON 1872-1967


Son of Yaraldi speaking Ngarrindjeri parents, David Unaipon was an author, inventor and collector of Aboriginal traditions, some of which he published in the 1920s under his own name. It seems that his larger collection of myth and legend was pirated and published as Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals(1930) by William Ramsay Smith without acknowledgment to Unaipon. He is usually said to have been the first Aboriginal writer to be published and is famously depicted on Australia’s fifty dollar note.

 

The State Library of NSW has a variety of articles and resources related to Unaipon’s life and work, including the manuscript of volume I of ‘Legendary tales of Australian Aborigines’ at 

https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/collection-items/volume-1-manuscript-legendary-tales-australian-aborigines-david-unaipon-1924-1925-0

 

Other related items are best accessed by searching SLNSW catalogue using his name.His ADB entry at

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/unaipon-david-8898

 

Another at AIATSIS 

https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/david-ngunaitponi-unaipon

 

and also on Wikipedia and numerous other treatments

 


 

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