Dick Kimber | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Richard Glyn Kimber 1939 Freeling in South Australia |
Spouse | Margaret Friedel |
Children | Steve, Barbara |
Occupation | Historian |
Richard "Dick" Glyn Kimber (born 1939) AM is an Australian historian and author who has written extensively on the history, art, culture and wildlife of Central Australia. He has published several books, the best known of which is Man From Arltunga: Walter Smith, Australian Bushman (1986) as well as more than 100 articles and essays. He has also given public lectures [1] and made regular media appearances. [2] [3] Kimber is also a Member of the Order of Australia. [4]
Kimber was born at Freeling in South Australia in 1939. He went to school in the Riverland area and Brighton and then attended the University of Adelaide and Adelaide Teacher's College. [5]
Throughout Kimber's career, his focus has been on historical research, Aboriginal art and culture, and wildlife. He has published several books, the best known of which is Man From Arltunga: Walter Smith, Australian Bushman (1986); this book tells the life story of Walter Smith and this book was based on hours of tape-recordings and shared travelling experiences between 1981 and 1983. [6]
Kimber moved to Alice Springs in 1970 and taught English, history, social science and Aboriginal Studies at Alice Springs High School. In 1974 he became the first Sacred Sites Officer in the Northern Territory for the Sacred Sites Authority, before returning to teaching. From 1976 to 1978 he was the Papunya Tula Artists Coordinator and devised Aboriginal Studies materials for schools, after which he again returned to teaching. Beginning in 1976 Kimber undertook research and prepared submissions for land rights and native title claims for over twenty years, in a private capacity and for the Central Land Council and Ngaanyatjarra Council. During this time he also undertook research for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Studies, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the Australian Heritage Commission and the Strehlow Research Centre, regarding locations of Aboriginal homelands and their needs, settlement history, and ownership of sacred objects. He researched the historical records of extinct and rare native fauna for the Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory and provided advice regarding the development of the Alice Springs Desert Park and issues relating to Aboriginal land ownership of various parks and reserves. [7]
From the mid-1990s, Kimber advised the National Museum of Australia, [8] Museum Victoria and the Northern Territory Museum regarding Aboriginal artefacts and cultural practices, [9] access to Papunya Tula paintings that incorporated sacred elements, and the return of sacred objects to traditional custodians in central Australia. He continues to consult for Museum Victoria is association with the Strehlow Research Centre.
Since arriving in Central Australia Kimber has undertaken travels, discussions and other shared experiences with many Aboriginal people, primarily in the south-western Simpson Desert, western deserts of Central Australia and the deserts of Western Australia through to the Canning Stock Route, and in Alice Springs. He has privately researched significant historical figures in inland Australia, Australian language usage, and native fauna of the inland including birds, and made important contributions to the Australian Language Dictionary, the Australian Dictionary of Biography [10] and the Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography. [11] The National Library of Australia has established the RG Kimber Collection for his correspondence and records; these include his correspondences with David Nash (between 1979 - 2016) and Libby Robin (1999 - 2001). [12] [13]
Kimber was awarded an Order of Australia in 2001 for "services to the community through research projects and the recording of information of national interest in the areas of history, anthropology, Aboriginal art, ecology and land management practices in Central Australia". [4] Kimber was awarded a Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa from the Charles Darwin University in 2006. [14] [5]
Kimber married to scientist Margaret Friedel in 1975. He has two children Steve and Barbara. In 1980, Kimber resigned from the Education Department "becoming Alice Springs' first publicly acknowledged 'house-husband'" while continuing his active writing life. [7]
He is passionate about Australia Rules Football, lifesaving as well as history. He was the foundation captain and coach of the Melanka AFL Football Club (now West Football Club). [15]
Alice Springs is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; the third largest settlement after Darwin and Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd, wife of the telegraph pioneer Sir Charles Todd. Known colloquially as The Alice or simply Alice, the town is situated roughly in Australia's geographic centre. It is nearly equidistant from Adelaide and Darwin.
Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, 293 km (182 mi) northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a thriving community of Aboriginal artists. It is home to Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media, which produced the TV series Bush Mechanics.
The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved into the Aboriginal communities of Papunya and Haasts Bluff in the west of the Northern Territory in the 1940s–1980s. The last Pintupi to leave their traditional lifestyle in the desert, in 1984, are a group known as the Pintupi Nine, also sometimes called the "lost tribe".
Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, was one of the most important painters to emerge from the Western Desert.
Gwoya Tjungurrayi, also spelt Gwoja Tjungarrayi, Gwoya Jungarai, and Gwoya Djungarai, and also known by his nickname One Pound Jimmy, is known for being the first Aboriginal person to be featured on an Australian postage stamp, in 1950, although his name was not used to describe the image on the stamp. A survivor of the 1928 Coniston massacre in the Northern Territory, he later became an elder and lawman of his people. The name Gwoya, is a non-Indigenous rendering of the Anmatyerr word 'Kwatye', meaning 'water' or 'rain'.
The Northern Territory (NT) occupies the north central part of the continent of Australia. The Northern Territory borders are to the west with Western Australia, the Western Australia border being near the 129° east longitude. The NT to the south with the South Australian border being the 26th parallel south latitude. To the east the NT with the Queensland border along the 138° east longitude.
Ltyentye Apurte, also known as Santa Teresa, is a community in the Northern Territory, Australia, many residents of the locality are members of the Arrernte indigenous community, whose origins are located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) south-east of Alice Springs.
Kitty Pultara Napaljarri is an Anmatyerre-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born at Napperby Station east of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, she worked on the station and first learned to paint there around 1986. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia and South Australian Museum.
Warlugulong is a 1977 acrylic on canvas painting by Indigenous Australian artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Owned for many years by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the work was sold by art dealer Hank Ebes on 24 July 2007, setting a record price for a contemporary Indigenous Australian art work bought at auction when it was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for A$2.4 million. The painting illustrates the story of an ancestral being called Lungkata, together with eight other dreamings associated with localities about which Clifford Possum had traditional knowledge. It exemplifies a distinctive painting style developed by Papunya Tula artists in the 1970s, and blends representation of landscape with ceremonial iconography. Art critic Benjamin Genocchio describes it as "a work of real national significance [and] one of the most important 20th-century Australian paintings".
Veronica Perrule Dobson is an Eastern Arrernte linguist, educator, elder, Traditional Owner, author and ecologist. She is instrumental in establishing Eastern Arrernte as a written language.
Arltunga Historical Reserve, known also as Arnerre-ntyenge is a deserted gold rush town located in the Northern Territory of Australia in the locality of Hart about 110 kilometres (68 mi) east of Alice Springs. It is on the lands of the Eastern Arrernte people who are the Traditional Owners.
Walala Tjapaltjarri is an Australian Aboriginal artist.
Walter Smith also known as Walter Purula (Perrurle) or Wati Yuritja was a legendary Australian bushman from the Arltunga region in the Northern Territory of Australia. Wati Yuritja translates as man of the Water Dreaming).
Topsy Smith was an Arabana pioneer of Central Australia in the Northern Territory. She spent her life caring for Indigenous children at an institution known as The Bungalow in Alice Springs.
Saleh "Charlie" Sadadeen, sometimes spelt Sadadene, was an Afghan cameleer and bushman who lived in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Harold Alfred Waldron, was better known as Hal Waldron or "The Professor" was a prospector and gold diviner who travelled throughout Central Australia, and met an untimely, and widely publicised, death.
Gerhardt Andreas Johannsen was a stonemason, builder and pastoralist in the Northern Territory.
Ah Hong was a Chinese market gardener who spent most of his life in Alice Springs, and was a well regarded figure in an era of considerable prejudice towards Chinese people in Australia.
Little Flower Mission operated from 1938 to 1942 and it was a mission to Eastern Arrernte people who were living in and around the township of Alice Springs. The mission was established by Catholic missionaries, part of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart order.
Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, occasionally referred to as Kumantjayi Long Tjakamarra, was a Ngalia/Warlpiri man and a founding member of the Papunya Tula art cooperative. His contribution to the Honey Ant Dreaming mural would help define and catalyze the art style of the Western Desert Art Movement.