Academic recognition of R.H Mathews

Academic recognition of RH Mathews. American researcher working at the South Australian Museum helps break the academic veto on RH Mathews’ work on Aboriginal language, culture and estates. This stand-off was established decades earlier by British trained ethnologists/scientists, especially Victorian Baldwin Spencer. Joseph Birdsell in conjunction with Adelaide scientist Norman Tindale publish a guide to Aboriginal territories and tribal identities. It includes Darkinung of the Hawkesbury-Hunter ranges, although Tindale’s interpretation of Mathew’s records of Darkinung grammar and the country in which it is spoken attracts critical scrutiny. (Ford, 263-5)