Colin's Sydney Blog

 Exercise 7, Podcast - State Library, R.H. Mathews,

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/podcasts/events/martin_thomas_nba.html

Martin Thomas of the State Library gives a 40 minute talk on R.H. Mathews work and childhood experience, explaining how a man without university training, and one who says his first real friends were aboriginal children, published 2200 pages in respected journals around the world and became Australia's first academic anthropologist. Martin has been sifting through Mathews documents in the library.

Its a little unnerving listening with no pictures, and after missing the name of Mathews first Journal publication I had to wait 30 minutes to hear it again. However remembering the days before television, serials and documentaries on the radio were often quite exciting. There appear to be 2 hours of question time at the end.

Mathews came from a small town outside Goulburn. He saw surveyors having a good profession and the opportunity of travelling,  a romantic experience. He left home at 18 and then working as a surveyor he joined the Royal Society of NSW and visited their reading room. 20 years later he published a journal with the society about a sacred and mythical aboriginal site near Singleton. The society sent their publications to similar societies all over the world. Mathews continued to publish about other sites including one near Coolangatta (in the Shoalhaven region) in other journals around the world. Aboriginal people went to the sites and told him about the ceremonies and legends. Many of the sites are now overgrown and difficult to find.

A very interesting 40 minute talk. It is well structured as after a few minutes one has the main points and is waiting for the details to be filled in.