ALBERT NAMATJIRA

THE MAN WHO CAPTURED THE HEARTS OF AUSTRALIA

INTRODUCTION

The great heart of the Australian desert harbours two opposing realities. Breathtaking beauty and devastating brutality. In the 1920s the inhabitants of a little settlement in the heart of the desert were facing a wave of brutality. There, the wilting structures of the Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission languished under the blue shadow of Mount Hermannsburg.

Drought was ravaging the area. This was not new or strange. Drought was a familiar spectre that constantly haunted the great red centre, but this time the drought was especially harsh. Waterholes that had not dried up in living memory vanished. The underground spring water turned brackish and unfit for use, before drying up completely.

Bush tucker disappeared as large numbers of kangaroos and other wild life began to die. Soon a migration of Aborigines, accustomed to living completely off the land, began to move slowly towards the Mission. They were emaciated and starving.

By 1928 the winter camel train, which usually brought supplies to the mission, was fifteen days late because the camels were too weak to move. The camel train eventually made it to the Mission, but even with supplies coming in intermittently, food was scarce. Soon disease began to spread like wildfire.

The Mission was swept up in one epidemic after another. First influenza, then whooping cough, followed by dysentery and tuberculosis. Thrown into the mix was another unidentified disease that afflicted much of the population in and around the mission.

The Hermannsburg Mission is located within the territory of the Western Aranda tribe of the Aboriginal people. Some estimates suggest that as many as eighty-five percent of the Aranda children died during this terrible drought. Among the dead was a little girl named Nelda. She was born severely malnourished, and survived only 17 months.

Finally, in 1929 the unknown disease was diagnosed as scurvy, due to extreme Vitamin C deficiency. Two hundred cases of oranges and lemons were shipped into the mission and people began to recover quickly.

Then three days after Christmas 1929, the rain came. The nearby Finke River swelled against its banks. There was jubilation at the Mission and the surrounding country.

The land recovered rapidly. The Namatjira family came back to the mission with their children and continued to eke out a living. It was 1930 and Albert Namatjira was part of the small Lutheran community at the Hermannsburg Mission.

Standing in the shadow of the terrible drought, recovering from his grief, Albert had no inkling of the tremendous adventures the next decade of his life would bring.

By the end of the 1930s Albert Namatjira would mount his first solo exhibition of watercolour paintings, selling every single piece of art on display. He would then go on to become one of Australia’s most famous and accomplished artists.

Join us as we take a look at the life, country and times of this remarkable man whose story still carries a special message for us today.

HERMANNSBURG – THE EARLY DAYS

Albert Namatjira was born on the 28 July 1902 at the Hermannsburg Mission Station on the banks of the Finke River. His parents named him Elea at birth and, in keeping with the traditions of his people he had no surname.

In 1905 his parents were baptised in the small church on the Mission. Elea was baptised with them, and all three of them were given English names. His parent’s names became Jonathon and Emilie. Elea was named Albert. But it wasn’t until his first exhibition in 1938 that Albert adopted his father’s first name, Namatjira, as his surname.

As a child Albert attended the Hermannsburg School for Aborigines at the mission. The school was run under the supervision of the Lutheran minister and missionary in charge of the Mission Station. At the school children were taught their native Aranda language, English and the Bible.

The Hermannsburg Mission was established in 1877 by Lutheran Missionaries at a sacred site named Ntaria. It was the first and largest Aboriginal mission in the Northern territory. The focus of the mission was to share the teachings of the Bible with the Aboriginal people, and to provide them with an education as well.

In the first few months after their arrival the missionaries made no contact with the local Aboriginal people. However, their activities were closely watched, and after they had finished constructing the main buildings of the Mission a group of Western Aranda men visited them and camped near the settlement.

Communication was difficult at first and there were quite a number of misunderstandings, but the missionaries soon learned the local Aranda language.

Work at the mission steadily grew and a church and school house were added to the existing buildings on the site. But the climate was temperamental. Short periods of intense rainfall followed by long periods of drought made living conditions harsh. The drought ravaged the crops, and the floods destroyed infrastructure. It was a never-ending cycle of survival and recovery.

FAMILY LIFE

Albert’s early life was closely interwoven with the fabric of Hermannsburg Mission. He learned to read and write, and study the Bible alongside the other Aboriginal children at the Mission. One of his teachers, Harry Hillier, had an avid interest in watercolour painting and this was most likely Albert’s first introduction to western art.

Albert then ran away from the Mission when he was eighteen, and eloped with a young woman from a neighbouring tribe. He stayed away from the Mission for a number of years, travelling from place to place with his growing family looking for work.

In 1922 he quietly returned to the mission and settled his family there. His wife Rubina, and their four children were baptised into the Lutheran church in 1923. Then three years later, in 1926 F.W. Albrecht arrived at Hermannsburg as Mission supervisor. Albrecht was to play an important role in Albert’s life and career as an artist.

Once he had settled into life at the Mission, Pastor Albrecht realised that the financial situation at the mission was tenuous. He believed that the only sustainable solution was for Hermannsburg to become a self-supporting operation. As a start he encouraged the women to engage in needlework, making doilies and tablecloths that could be sold to tourists.

Around this time a small group from Hermannsburg set out on an evangelistic endeavour to the neighbouring settlement of Glen Helen. Albrecht led the mission and Albert was among those who went with him to preach. In the middle of the program Albrecht became ill and was transported to Adelaide for treatment.

THE ARTIST AWAKENED

While he was recuperating and receiving treatment in Adelaide, Albrecht saw boomerangs, woomeras and other carved wooden artefacts for sale. These had been made specifically as souvenirs for visiting tourists, and Albrecht realised that this would be an excellent industry to start up at Hermannsburg.

When he returned to the Mission, he enlisted Albert to work in this area. Albert began to decorate wooden artefacts with the help of a heated wire or metal tool. These were then sold to visiting tourists. This gave Albert the ability to stay at home and make enough money to support his growing family. His work on these artefacts marked the beginning of his career as an artist.

Between 1932 and 1936 Albert’s interest in painting was further developed by artists who visited the Mission. The most important of these was Rex Battarbee, who was instrumental in Albert’s development as a painter. Other painters who visited the Mission on painting trips were John Gardner, Jessie Traill, Arthur Murch and Violet Teague.

Violet Teague visited Hermannsburg in 1932 with her sister Una. While they were at Hermannsburg the Teague sisters noticed the perilous lack of water. The Mission was yet again in the throes of a drought and was struggling to manage. Violet was incredulous and exclaimed to Albrecht “Why Pastor, this is ludicrous, you must have water!”

Her incredulity was mainly due to the fact that just seven kms away there was an abundant source of water, that the mission had no way of tapping into. In the hills just across the Finke River, the Koporilya Springs produced 38,000 litres of clear fresh water daily, and Pastor Albrecht was well aware of this water source.

Since 1924 efforts had been made to raise money to build a pipeline from the springs to the Mission, but Albrecht and others before him, had struggled to find backers. This was because there was a dispute over whether the Springs were above or below the mission.

At a glance it seemed that the Mission was on higher ground and no one believed that it was possible to get water to flow from the Spring to Hermannsburg. So, the mission suffered through years of crushing drought when water was so close at hand.

The matter was finally resolved when a surveying expedition came through the area.

The surveyors were prospecting for gold, and their measurements revealed that the Koporilya Springs were in fact above the Hermannsburg mission. Encouraged by the new developments, Albrecht began to look into the matter in more detail.

WATER AND ART

By the time the Teague sisters visited Hermannsburg, Albrecht had calculated the funds that the Mission would need to divert water from Koporilya Springs to Hermannsburg. Violet and Una Teague offered their assistance to raise some of the money that would be needed.

The sisters organised a charity exhibition in Melbourne to raise funds for the Mission. They persuaded a number of their artist friends to donate their works free of charge, and mounted the exhibition in 1934 at the Athenaeum.

Over 100 paintings by 50 artists were sold, and all the proceeds went to the Hermannsburg water fund. The money from the exhibition, coupled with funds raised by an appeal made in a Melbourne newspaper, raised enough money for the project.

By August 1934 the project was well underway, though many of the local farmers were still skeptical. Even William Mattner, a local farmer in charge of the planning and construction of the pipeline, didn’t really believe that the water could get through to the Mission.

Finally, construction on the pipeline was completed and Mattner diverted the water from Koporilya Springs to the Hermannsburg Mission at 6pm on the 30 September 1934. Pastor Albrecht calculated that it would take four hours for the water to reach the Mission, but by 2 am the water still had not arrived. Albrecht prayed to God and then went to bed.

Before sunrise he was woken by the shouts of the women going down to milk the cows. “Kwatja!” “Kwatja!” they cried in excitement. Water! Water! Albrecht rushed outside and was greeted by a fountain of water gushing 7m into the air! The valves at the end of the pipeline had not been properly sealed, resulting in the tremendous burst of rushing water.

The impossible had happened! The Hermannsburg Mission had been almost miraculously provided with a steady supply of water.

The next year, in 1935, when F.C.G. Wallent, who was a member of the Lutheran Mission Board visited Hermannsburg, he was extremely impressed with the progress Albert had made with his painting. One of the paintings that Albert showed Wallent was a double-sided piece with a roughly drawn landscape on one side, and a drawing of a kangaroo in flight on the other.

THE PALM VALLEY EXPEDITION

Then in the winter of 1936 Rex Batttarbee returned to Hermannsburg. The day he arrived he made arrangements for Albert to accompany him on a painting trip to the Palm Valley area. Albert was thrilled and thanked Battarbee profusely. The trip marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the two men.

According to Battarbee’s journals, during this trip he taught Albert to draw in exchange for Albert’s services as a camel man and guide. Albert was keen to use the time to learn as much as he could from Battarbee. In turn he provided Battarbee with useful information about the area, including the best locations for landscape painting.

After just eleven days in the outback Battarbee wrote in his journal that Albert’s sketch of the amphitheatre, a spectacular gorge in Palm Valley, was extremely good. He even expressed an interest in buying it, noting that Albert was exceptionally good at painting light. In the same journal entry Battarbee wrote “I feel now that he will make a name for himself”

MAKING A NAME

Albert Namatjira’s first solo exhibition was opened by Lady Huntingfield, the wife of the Governor of Victoria, on the 5th of December 1938. The exhibition was titled “Albert

Namatjira – Central Australian Watercolours 1938”. Albert sold 41 paintings in just three days!

Albert continued to work steadily over the next few years. His routine was rigorous. He spent months at a time on trips into the outback of central Australia, sometimes with Batterbee, sometimes with his family. During these trips he produced scores of watercolour paintings, which would then be presented at exhibitions around the country.

His landscape paintings were iconic images synonymous with the Australian outback. His vivid watercolours expressed his deep familiarity with the desert country around Hermannsburg, particularly the Aranda lands around the Western MacDonnell Ranges, for which he was a traditional custodian.

He often framed his landscapes with the strong vertical forms of gum trees. These  represented both the presence and absence of water through the desert region. 

By the 1940s Albert became a recognisable figure around the country. In 1944 he became the first Aborigine to be entered in Who’s Who in Australia and C.P Mountford published a book about his work titled The Art of Albert Namatjira.

It was also around this time that one of Albert’s paintings was sent to London as a gift for Princess Elizabeth on her 21st birthday.

PERSONAL CHALLENGES

But Albert’s professional success was overshadowed by significant personal difficulties. His application for a grazing rights permit was rejected on extremely dubious grounds. Then his application to build a home in Alice Springs was rejected as well. This second rejection stemmed from Albert’s status within the Commonwealth.

In 1949 his daughter Hazel died, and his son Edward accidentally shot himself, losing sight in one eye. Then in 1950 his daughter Martha died at Haast’s Bluff. However, despite all his personal struggles and tragedies, Albert’s career continued to thrive.

In 1953 he was awarded the Queen’s Coronation Medal. He flew to Canberra for the ceremony and was presented with the medal by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. His paintings continued to sell for significant sums of money, and his work was exhibited alongside other artists like the legendary Sidney Nolan.

In 1957 he was granted a small reprieve from his personal struggles when he and his wife Rubina were finally awarded full Australian Citizenship. Albert and Rubina Namatjira were the first Aborigines to be awarded Citizenship of the Commonwealth of Australia.

The last years of Albert’s life were clouded by legal struggles. Albert Namatjira passed away in August 1959 and was buried at the Alice Springs Cemetery. His old friend and spiritual mentor Pastor Albrecht presided over the service.

PERSEVERANCE AND RESILIENCE

Both Albert’s story and the story of the Hermannsburg Mission are narratives of perseverance and resilience in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. The missionaries that came to Hermannsburg made tremendous sacrifices in order to share the story of Jesus with the Aboriginal people in the area.

Albert Namatjira demonstrated extraordinary courage and determination to overcome the odds that were stacked against him and become one of Australia’s greatest and most celebrated artists. He was a trailblazer in the truest sense, yet his trailblazing was the result of hard work and tenacity.

Albert and the Hermannsburg Missionaries possessed this quality. Today scientists call it grit. It is the determination to shape our circumstances, instead of allowing our circumstances to shape us.

GRIT AND THE APOSTLE PAUL

The apostle Paul possessed the same quality. His life as a missionary was colourful and filled with adventure, and yet he consistently surmounted the obstacles before him. He was not only dauntless, but he also possessed grit – that rare tenacity that takes hold of circumstances with a determination to shape them.

One of the more memorable stories about Paul is his trip to Lystra. When he got to the city with Barnabas, his traveling companion and fellow missionary, they saw a crippled man begging by the roadside. Paul healed him and the man leapt to his feet and began to walk.

The crowd went wild!

They began to talk excitedly in their native language, and declared that Paul and Barnabas were Roman gods who had taken on human form. They immediately mobbed them and prepared to offer a sacrifice to them. When Paul and Barnabas figured out what was happening they were appalled.

Jumping into the crowd, they tried their best to explain to them that they were mere men, refusing the adulation that was being showered on them. Seeking instead to turn the minds of the crowd to the God of heaven, the Creator of all things.

They managed to prevent the people from worshipping them, but scarcely had they averted one disaster when another one tumbled around them. A disgruntled mob from Antioch and Iconium who had a score to settle with Paul found their way to Lystra, and they persuaded the people that Paul was a villain.

Once more the mob was whipped into a frenzy. Only this time instead of worshipping Paul they decided to stone him. He was knocked unconscious and dragged outside the city walls, presumed dead. But he stood up, brushed himself off, went back into the city for the night and left the next morning.

He kept on preaching. He went to Derbe, and then wound his way back to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, visiting all the cities where disgruntled elements wanted to see him dead. Later on, he made a final journey to Jerusalem under a cloud of almost certain death. He summed up his attitude towards it all in these words:

“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus.” (Acts 20:24)

Did you notice what he said? “None of these things move me.” Paul was able to see beyond the darkness of his circumstances, to something much brighter that lay just beyond. The anchor of his soul was Jesus, and in Jesus he found the grit that he needed to keep going.

From the adulation of the fickle mob, to their frenzied attempts to kill him, Paul was able to keep a clear head and tackle each situation he faced with courage. None of those things moved him because his eyes were fixed on someone whose hand was over it all. Who stood above it all.

Often in life we find ourselves casting about for an anchor. When the moorings seem to come undone and our lives are rocked with devastating circumstances, we need something to keep us steady. And I can assure you, there is nothing steadier and more secure than Jesus.

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CLOSING PRAYER

If you’ve enjoyed today’s journey to Hermannsburg and the Red Centre of Australia in the footsteps of the great Indigenous artist Albert Namatjira, along with our reflections on the security and inner peace that Jesus provides, then be sure to join us again next week when we will share another of life’s journeys together. Until then let’s ask God to be our Anchor, just as he was for the Apostle Paul, Albert Namatjira and the Missionaries at Hermannsburg.

Let’s pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful for the life and talents of Albert Namatjira. As we have followed his life’s journey we have been reminded that we too need an anchor when our moorings seem to come undone, and our lives are rocked with devastating circumstances.

We need something to keep us steady. There is nothing steadier or more secure than Jesus and so we ask that You will be the anchor of our soul today. And we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.