Person

Mathew, John (1849 - 1929)

Born
31 May 1849
Aberdeen, Scotland
Died
11 March 1929
Coburg, Victoria, Australia
Occupation
Anthropologist and Minister of religion

Summary

John Mathew, a presbyterian minister, pursued his interest in Aboriginal ethnography on which he published two books and numerous articles. He lived on Manumbar station in the Burnett district, Queensland 1865-1870.

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Details

Chronology

1921 - 1929
Career position - Foundation Councillor (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)

  • John Mathew - Records, 1869 - 1929; Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). Details

John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland

  • John Mathew - Records, 1869 - 1929, OM74-17; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details

Queensland State Archives

  • John Mathew - Records, 1869 - 1900, EDB/02 & V2; Queensland State Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Mathew, John, Eaglehawk and crow : a study of the Australian Aborigines including an inquiry into their origin and a survey of Australian languages (London: Melbourne: David Nutt: Melville, Mullen and Slade, 1899), 288 pp. Details
  • Mathew, John: with an introduction by A. H. Keane, Two representative tribes of Queensland : with an inquiry concerning the origin of the Australian race (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1910), 256 pp, https://archive.org/details/tworepresentativ00math. Details
  • Prentis, Malcolm D., Science, Race and Faith: a Life of John Mathew, 1849-1929 (Sydney: Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity, 1998), 240 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Prentis, M. D., 'Mathew, John (1849-1929), Presbyterian minister and anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), pp. 440-441. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mathew-john-7516. Details

Journal Articles

  • Mathew, John, 'The Australian Aborigines', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 23 (1889), 335-449. https://doi.org/10.5962/p.359073. Details
  • Prentis, Malcolm D., 'From Aberdeen to Coburg: a Lad o' Pairts in Australia', Northern Scotland, 12 (1992), 106-116. Details

Resources

See also

McCarthy, G.J.

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 7 April 2022

EOAS ID: biogs/P001281b.htm

This Edition: 2026 February - 1926 Centenaries
Kooyang - Gariwerd calendar - Late summer: late January to late March - season of eels
Reference: https://www.bom.gov.au/resources/indigenous-weather-knowledge/indigenous-seasonal-calendars/gariwerd-calendar#bom-anchor-list__item-kooyang-season-of-eels

Publisher: Swinburne University of Technology.

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"... the rengitj, as a visible mark or imprint on the land, is characterised as a place of origin, the repository of all names, as well as a kind of mapped visual expression of the connection between people and places which is to be carried out in the temporal sequence of the journey." Fanca Tamisari (1998) 'Body, Vision and Movement: In the footprints of the ancestors'. Oceania 68(4) p260