Stanner, William Edward Hanley (Bill) (1905 - 1981)

Summary

Bill Stanner was an anthropologist who had a profound influence on the way in which Australian indigenous people were viewed and treated. He played central roles in the establishment of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and in the successful 1967 referendum which changed the status of Aborigines in the Australian Constitution. Stanner's field work centred on the Northern Territory, particularly the Daly River and Port Keats areas and he made ground-breaking studies of Aboriginal religion. In his work he challenged the way in which anthropology was practiced at the time. As, a member of the Council for Aboriginal Affairs and consultant to government agencies he significantly influenced public policy on Aboriginal affairs. In 1968 Stanner delivered the annual Boyer Lectures for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The Stanner Award was inaugurated in 1985 by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Details

Billy Griffiths in Deep Time Dreaming (page 37), ties together Stanner's work over three decades. This quote includes Griffiths' endnotes.

He reflects that "what anthropologist WEH Stanner described in 1938 as 'a mass of solid indifference' in Australian culture to Indigenous Australia.(i) In his 1968 ABC Boyer Lectures, Stanner coined the phrase 'the great Australian silence' to describe the phenomenon, which could not be explained by mere 'absent-mindedness':

'It is a structural matter, a view from a window which has been carefully placed to exclude a whole quadrant of the landscape. What may have begun as a simple forgetting of other possible views turned into habit and over time into something like a cult of forgetfulness on a national scale.' (ii)

The silence to which he referred was largely a phenomenon of the twentieth century, rather than colonial Australia." (iii)

i. WEH Stanner, 'The Aborigines (1938)', in The Dreaming and Other Essays (Melbourne: Black Inc. Agenda 2009), 123-45, 124
ii. WEH Stanner, 'The Boyer Lectures: After the Dreaming (1968), in The Dreaming and Other Essays, 172-224, 189
iii. Stanner argued that the 'great Australian silence' began with the establishment of a colony in Sydney in 1788. Henry Reynolds, amongst others, has argued persuasively that colonial Australia was not as captive to this 'silence' as the Australian nation has been. See, for example, Reynolds, Why Weren't We Told? (Ringwood, Vic: Penguin, 1999), 92."

Stanner's Boyer lectures have become a major point of inflection in Australian historiography and referred to in numerous publications and presentations in the subsequent decades.

Chronology

1932

Award - Australian National Research Council Grant

1932

Career event - Joined the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney

1932

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

1934

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

1936 - 1938

Career position - Research Assistant, London School of Economics

1938

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

1938 - 1939

Career position - University of Oxford expedition of Kenya, Oxford Social Studies Research Committee

1942 - 1946

Career position - Served with the Australian military forces

1946 - 1947

Career position - Researcher, Institute of Pacific Relations in P.N.G., Fiji and Western Samoa

1947 - 1949

Career position - Foundation Director, East African Institute of Social and Economic Research, Makerere College, Uganda

1949 - 1964

Career position - Reader in Comparative Social Institutions, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University

1953 - 1956

Career position - Australian Commissioner, South Pacific Commission

1961

Career position - Convenor and Chairman, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Conference

1961 - 1962

Career position - Foundation Executive Officer, Interim Council, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

1964 - 1970

Career position - Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University

1965 -

Career position - Head of Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Australian National University

1965 - 1968

Career position - Member of Council, Australian National University

1967 - 1976

Career position - Member, Council for Aboriginal Affairs

1970

Life event - Retired

1971

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

1971 - 1981

Career position - Emeritus Professor, Australian National University

1972

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

1972

Award - Sir Rafael Cilento Medal, Australian Institute of Anatomy

1972

Award - Honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt), Australian National University

1972 - 1974

Career position - Visiting Fellow, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University

1974 - 1975

Career position - Special Advisor, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs

1977 - 1979

Career position - Consultant, Northern Territory Land Commission

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Griffiths, Billy, Deep time dreaming: uncovering ancient Australia (Carlton, Vic.: Black Inc., 2018), 376 pp. Details
• Stanner, W. E. H., On Aboriginal Religion (Sydney: University of Sydney, 1960), 171 pp. Details
• Stanner, W. E. H., After the dreaming: black and white Australian's - an anthropologist's view (Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1968), 63 pp. Details
• Stanner, W. E. H., The dreaming and other essays (Collingwood, Vic: Black Inc., 2011). Details

Book Sections

• Gray, Stanner, 'W. E. H. Stanner: wasted war years' in Scholars at war: Australasian social sciences, 1939 - 1945, Grey, Geoffrey, Munro, Doug and Winter, Christine, eds (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2012), pp. 95-116. Details
• Mulvaney, D. J., 'Stanner, William Edward Hanley (1905-1981), Journalist, Soldier and Anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 18: 1981 - 1990 L-Z, Melanie Nolan, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2012), pp. 449-52. http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stanner-william-edward-bill-15541. Details
• Mulvaney, John, 'WEH Stanner and the foundation of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1959 - 1964' in An appreciation of difference: WEH Stanner and Aboriginal Australia, Hinkson, Melinda and Beckett, Jeremy, eds (Canberra: Aboroginal Studies Press, 2008), pp. 58-75. Details
• Stanner, W. E. H., 'Howitt, Alfred William (1830-1908), explorer, natural scientist and pioneer authority on Aboriginal culture and social organization' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 4: 1851 - 1890 D-J, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1972), pp. 432-435. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040489b.htm. Details
• Stanner, W. E. H., 'Fison, Lorimer (1832-1907), Wesleyan missionary, anthropologist and journalist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 4: 1851 - 1890 D-J, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1972), pp. 175-176. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040189b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Barwick, Diane E.; Beckett, Jeremy; and Reay, Marie eds, Metaphors of interpretation: essays in honour of W. E. H. Stanner (Canberra: Australian Nationa University, 1985), 308 pp. Details
• Hiatt, L. R. ed., Australian Aboriginal mythology: essays in honour of W. E. H. Stanner (Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1975), 213 pp. Details
• Hinkson, Melinda and Beckett, Jeremy eds, An appreciation of difference: W.. E. H. Stanner and Aboriginal Australia (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2008), 293 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Barnes, J. A., 'William Edward Hanley Stanner 1905 - 1981', Canberra Anthropology, 5 (1) (1982), 85-7. Details
• Beckett, J. R., 'William Edward Hanley Stanner, C.M.G. (1906 - 1981)', Oceania, 52 (4) (1982), 271-3. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/20927900. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2578620. Details
• 'Stanner, W E H (19051124-19811008)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-530250. Details