Norman Barnett Tindale
Vocabulary of Pitjandjara

MSS 499.6 T58

Biography

Norman Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia on 12 October 1900. In 1917 he moved to Adelaide, initially working at the Adelaide Public Library before securing a position as a entomologist at the South Australian Museum in 1919. He was an accomplished researcher, publishing extensive papers on entomological, ornithological and anthropological subjects. In 1933 he graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Science.

Between 1921-1939 he undertook several ethnographic expeditions around Australia, often accompanying missionaries, to collect specimens for the South Australian Museum. From 1938-39 he undertook an anthropological survey of Aboriginal missions, working with Joseph Birdsell of Harvard University. One of his most notable achievements during his work was mapping the areas of groups of Indigenous Australians, contradicting earlier beliefs that they were nomadic and did not have set territories. Tindale continued to work with the South Australian Museum for 49 years, before moving to the United States of America and teaching at the University of Colorado.

Tindale died in Palo Alto, California in 1993.

Contents

Vocabulary of the Pitjandjara, the language of the native of the Great Western Desert [manuscript]. 138 leaves. 1931-37

Also includes some words of the Pintubi, Ngalia, Kukatja, Na, Dadjara, Wirongu, Nanatadjara, Aranda, Janjundjadjara and Worda'ka languages.