Berndt, Ronald Murray (1916 - 1990)

Summary

Ronald Berndt joined the Anthropological Society of South Australia in 1938 and became honorary assistant ethnologist at the South Australian Museum. He studied anthropology at the University of Sydney under Adolphus Peter Elkin. During 1946-1951, Ronald and his colleague and wife Catherine began studying the Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land. The Berndt's were awarded the Royal Society of New South Wales' Edgeworth David medal for their efforts. Ronald completed his PhD as the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1955. He founded the Anthropological Society of Western Australia in 1958 and the journal Anthropological forum in 1963. Berndt was the inaugural Professor of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia from 1963 to 1981. Of the 31 books he wrote or edited, 15 were in collaboration with his wife. The Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, founded in 1976, houses the couple's collection of indigenous art.

Details

Chronology

1943

Education - Diploma of Anthropology, University of Sydney

1948 - 1982

Award - Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

1950

Award - Edgeworth David Medal (jointly with Catherine Berndt), Royal Society of New South Wales

1951

Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney

1954

Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Sydney

1955

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), London School of Economics and Political Science

1956 - 1959

Career position - Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Western Australia

1958

Career position - Founder, Anthropological Society of Western Australia

1958

Award - Wellcome Medal, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

1959 - 1963

Career position - Reader in Anthropology, University of Western Australia

1962

Career position - Member, Social Science Council of Australia

1962 - 1964

Career position - Inaugural President, Australian Branch, Association of Social Anthropologists of the Commonwealth

1963 - 1981

Career position - Inaugural Professor of Anthropology, University of Western Australia

1964 - 1990

Career position - Foundation Member, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

1972 - 1973

Career position - President, Royal Society of Western Australia

1979

Award - Medal of the Royal Society of Western Australia

1981 - 1990

Career position - Emeritus Professor, University of Western Australia

1982 - 1990

Award - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

1982 - 1990

Award - Honorary Fellow, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

1983

Award - Silver Jubilee Medal, Anthropological Society of Western Australia

1987

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of service to anthropology, particularly in relation to the Aboriginal society and culture

1987

Award - DLitt honoris causa, University of Western Australia

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., The world of the first Australians: an introduction to the traditional life of the Australian Aborigines (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1964), 509 pp. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., Man, land & myth in North Australia: the Gunwinggu People (North Sydney: Ure Smith, 1980), 262 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Peterson, Nicolas, 'The end of an era: Ronald Berndt and the German ethnographic tradition' in German ethnography in Australia, Peterson, Nicolas and Kenny, Anna, eds (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2017), pp. 453-77. Details
• Stanton, John, '"I Did Not Set Out to Make a Collection": the Ronald and Catherine Berndt Collection at the Berndt Museum of Anthropology' in The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, Peterson, Nicolas, Allen, Lindy and Hamby, Louise, eds (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008), pp. 511-31. Details
• Tonkinson, Robert, 'Berndt, Ronald Murray (1916-1990), Social Anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 17: 1981 - 1990 A-K, Diane Langmore, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2007), pp. 91-92. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/berndt-ronald-murray-12202. Details

Edited Books

• Berndt, Ronald M. ed., Australian Aboriginal art (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1964), 117 pp. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H. eds, Aboriginal man in Australia: essays in honour of Emeritus Prof. A. P. Elkin (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1965), 491 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Royal Society Medallists, 1979', Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 63 (1) (1980), 29-31. Details
• Berndt, Ronald, 'Practical anthropology in Aboriginal Australia: some personal comments', Anthropological forum, 5 (2) (1983), 161-75. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M., 'Professor A. P. Elkin: an appreciation', Mankind, 5 (3) (1956), 89-101. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M., 'The Mountford volume on Arnhem Land art, myth and symbolism: a critical review', Mankind, 5 (6) (1958), 249-61. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M., 'T. G. H. Strehlow 1908 - 1978', Aboriginal history, 3 (1) (1979), 84-8. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M., 'T. G. H. Strehlow, 1908 - 1878', Oceania, 49 (3) (1979), 230-3. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., 'Adolphus Peter Elkin, 1891-1979', Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 14 (3) (1979), 161-7. Details
• Brittlebank, Kate, 'Two people - one life: collecting and the marrige of Ronald M. and Catherine H. Berndt', Australian historical studies, 39 (1) (2008), 3-18. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"You are... my anthropological children": AP Elkin, Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt, 1940 - 1956', Aboriginal History, 29 (2005), 77-106. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24046689. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"He has not followed the usual sequence": Ronald M. Berndt's secrets', Journal of historical biography, 16 (2015), 61-92. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"Anthropology and sociology were of no value ... in war time": Ronald and Catherine Berndt and war-time security, 1939 - 1945', Anthropological Forum, 29 (2) (2019), 116-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2018.1537909. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey and Munro, Doug, 'Australian Aboriginal anthropology at the crossroads: finding a successor to A. P. Elkin, 1955', Australian journal of anthropology, 22 (3) (2011), 351-69. Details
• Morphy, Howard, 'Re-reading Ronald Berndt: Exploring the Depths of his Yolngu Ethnography', Anthropological Forum, 19 (1) (2009), 73-97 . Details
• Rudhuan, Siti Sarah, 'Ronald and Catherine Berndt's fieldwork drawings: material sites of ethnographic encounter', Anthropological forum, 32 (2) (2022), 138-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2022.2100316. Details
• Speck, Catherine, 'The Berndts' mid-century Arnhem Land bark painting exhibition: its legacies', Australian historical studies, 54 (4) (2023), 625-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2247012. Details
• Sutton, Peter, 'Ronald and Catherine Berndt: an appreciation', Anthropological forum, 11 (2001), 121-4. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664670124939. Details
• Tonkinson, Robert; and Tonkinson, Myrna, 'Obituary for Ronald Murray Berndt (1916 - 1990)', Aboriginal history, 15 (1) (1991), 1-3. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/108172393. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1540235. Details
• 'Berndt, Ronald M (19160714-19900502)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-616372. Details

Resource Sections

• Toussaint, Sandy, 'Berndt, Catherine, Helen (1918 - 1994)', in Australian dictionary of biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Canberra, 2018, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/berndt-catherine-helen-27506. Details