I, The Aboriginal

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I, THE ABORIGINAL



Ghost written, without a too obvious
Admission. Ghost whispered, ghost ridden?
Maybe! The narrative take which renowned
Journalist Douglas Lockwood gives voice
To, is that of a two-way Roper River man,
A mission-educated, worthy, independent
Mechanic, a bright most-employable paramedic
Who tells his blackfella story in dignity
And pride even if that unnerving ghost was
A sympathetic whitefella in the foreground
For his blackfella surely was and is a man
Worth looking at, one worth listening to, who
Spoke his piece in a channeled disguise, well
Before an age that likes to hate and deride
Sovereign works of understanding like this
Is, an age featuring Indigenous writers who
Write often yet with whitefellas hid behind

in the background.

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I, THE ABORIGINAL
- by Douglas Lockwood
Pub. Rigby Ltd, 1962, Adelaide, SA e


My name is Waipuldanya or Wadjiri-Wadjiri. (If these twist your tongue too much, call me Philip Roberts: that's my white-feller name. ) I am a full-blood aboriginal of the Alawa tribe in the Northern Territory'

The autobiography of Waipuldanya, a full-blood Aboriginal of the Alawa tribe at Roper River in Australia's Northern Territory, as told to Douglas Lockwood.

In his youth, Waipuldanya was taught to track and hunt wild animals, to live off the land, to provide for his family with the aide only of his spears and woomeras. This is the gripping story of his boyhood and youth, and how he trained as a skilled medical assistant, to become a citizen of both the Aboriginal and whitefella worlds.


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A REVIEW, 1963 - from "AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST" [VOL 65, 1963]

I, the Aboriginal. Douglas LOCKWOOD.
Adelaide, Australia: Rigby limited, 1962. 240

Reviewed by ARNOLD R. PILLING, Wayne State University, (USA)

I have never before encountered a book which has caused me to write an unsolicited review. However, I found after reading 'I, the Aboriginal' that I wanted to call the attention of my colleagues to this volume produced for the popular audience in Australia, and, therefore, not very likely to gain review in anthropological journals in the United States and Europe.

Douglas Lockwood, the author, has been a resident of Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia for over 15 years. During the past decade, I have read nearly every major news dispatch originating from that vicinity, and have often been struck by the outstanding anthropological orientation of both Lockwood and his local competitor, Lionel Hogg. The exposure of both these men to Aborigines has been extensive, causing me to see their journalistic writings as parallel to those of such an early reporter of the American Southwest as Charles F. Lummis, journalist and founder of the Southwest Museum.

'I, The Aboriginal' is, however, not outstanding solely because of its author’s knowledge of his topic; it is also noteworthy because of its topic. The book is the autobiography of a Roper River native, named Phillip Roberts, edited and re-written somewhat, by Lockwood. Phillip, a member of the Alawa tribelet, just south of Arnhem Land, describes his life-in the first person -from birth in the bush, through childhood, mission elementary school, initiation into age-grade after age-grade, instruction in bushcraft, the skill of horsebreaking and life as a stockman, instruction as a mechanic at the Roper River Mission, to his introduction into the skills of a medical technician and medical aide among the Aborigines. In 1960, Phillip, with his wife and children, were granted Australian citizenship, although he still has not relinquished his major post in the Khnapipi ceremony on the Roper River.

The reader will find in citizen Roberts’ autobiography extensive discussion of Alawa economic patterns, kinship practices, religious beliefs, sorcery, and curing. Roberts’ attitudes about his role as an Aborigine living as a white man are also made explicit, as well as his unresolved confusion concerning the relationship between Christianity and traditional Alawa values and beliefs.

In one respect I cannot view 'I, the Aboriginal' objectively. In 1953, it was Phillip Roberts who, though not of the Tiwi group, first exposed me to the fallacy of seeing ‘Tiwi, or any Aboriginal kinship system, primarily in genealogical terms. It was through his suggestions mouthed by his mentor Dr. “Spike” Langsford that I began to realize that the genealogical method did not explain Australian kinship practices as soundly as the linguistic framework in which one asked how each kinship term is defined by its usage in the speech community.

I believe that even in this autobiography Roberts gets over to Lockwood’s reader the distinction between the limited number of genealogically related kin and the great class of individuals whom an Aboriginal such as Phillip Roberts addresses by one or another kinship term.

I would place 'I, the Aboriginal' in that small group of books which, like Roy Barton’s 'The Half-Way Sun' and Theodora Kroeber’s 'Ishi', any anthropologist may recommend to a non-anthropologist acquaintance who wishes a painless and fascinating introduction to our field. However, as is the case with most other books from the popular press, the professional anthropologist will find himself frustrated by the lack of an index, or even meaningful titles for chapters.



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