Friedrich Adolf Hermann KEMPE

KEMPE, (Friedrich ADOLF) HERMANN (b. Deuben, Saxony, 26 Mar 1844; d. Tanunda, SA, 8 Mar 1928). Miner, joiner, pioneer missionary, Lutheran parish pastor.

Kempe attended school at Coschuetz, worked in a coal mine for three years, then became apprenticed to a joiner in Dresden. As a travelling artisan, he visited many foreign countries. While employed at Oldenburg on the Lueneburg Heath, he came under strong Christian influences which culminated in his remarkable conversion. Admitted into Hermannsburg Mission seminary in Dec 1870 he was ordained in Hanover on 6 May 1875. Together with W F Schwarz (q.v.) and three other fellow-graduates, Kempe sailed from Hamburg on 21 July 1875 and landed at Glenelg, SA on 16 Sept.

Commissioned with Schwarz in St Michael's church, Hahndorf, on 20 Oct with a mandate to establish a mission among the Aranda Aboriginal people on the Finke River in central Australia, Kempe joined the expedition, under the leadership of G A Heidenreich, which left Bethany two days later for central Australia. It included a large number of livestock: horses, cattle and sheep for self-support, most of which were to prove inappropriate. In the harsh conditions the expedition soon failed: intense heat, drought and scarcity of feed and water impeded its progress. It took months for the expedition to reach its destination. The trek remains an epic in Australian missionary history. The site for a station on the Finke River was selected on 8 June and named 'Hermannsburg'. Station activities immediately went into full swing: building operations, water storage, stock management, Aboriginal employment, and the learning of the local language. A school for Aboriginal children started in 1879, and a chapel dedicated in 1880.

The first Aranda book, produced under Kempe's guiding hand, was a 21-page primer Intalinja Nkenkalalbutjika Galtjeritjika. He next compiled A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language Spoken by the Aborigines of the MacDonnell Ranges, South Australia. The vocabulary alone numbered some 2000 words with their meanings. The essay, translated and published in Vol XIV of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of SA, ran into 54 pages. In 1891 there appeared the first Aranda book of Christian instruction and worship: Galtjintana-Pepa Kristianirberaka Mbontala. It embodied Old and New Testament stories, psalms, the small Lutheran catechism, occasional prayers and 53 hymns. Printed at Hermannsburg in Hanover, it comprised 160 pages.

Kempe m. Marie Henriette Dorothee Quickenstedt at Dalhousie Springs on 1 Mar 1878. She bore him six children, but died three weeks after her last confinement. Kempe m. twice again, but each time his wife predeceased him. He himself was broken in health. Two of his fellow-missionaries had already left the station for health reasons. So he, too, left on 26 Nov 1891, only to face ill-informed criticism that he had left the mission without reason.

After recuperation he was employed as an itinerant pastor to eight Lutheran congregations, on the Murray Plains and elsewhere. In 1896 he was called to the Balaklava parish, where in 1899 he built a new church.

In 1897 he visited Lutheran settlers at Denial Bay and in the following year dedicated their church. He also searched around for a mission site to serve the local Aborigines. Thus Koonibba Mission was founded. In 1924 he retired and a year later celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination. On his death he was buried in the Dalkey cemetery, three kms SE of Balaklava.

Kempe pioneered the first Christian mission among the Aranda of the NT. Judgements vary on the effectiveness and validity of these first missionaries. Their strict calls to obey the 'law' suggests the missionaries 'were not prepared simply to share their knowledge of Christ with the Aranda and allow them to determine the extent to which Christ's teachings might challenge the negative or undesirable features of their own culture'. (Harris, One Blood, 400) On the other hand, today Hermannsburg extends its Christian witness over a vast area of central Australia and has produced a large volume of Christian literature in the vernacular. The indigenous church, of 3500 members, is served by ten Aboriginal pastors and 44 evangelists.

Der Lutherische Kirchenhofe fuer Australren 1875-1892 (Adelaide); Hermannsburger Missions-Blatt 1876-1887 (Hanover); F A H Kempe, Lebenslauf (MS); A E Brauer, Under the Southern cross (Adelaide, 1956); P A Scherer, Venture of Faith (Tanunda, 1963); P A Scherer, From Joiner's Bench to Pulpit (Adelaide, 1973); J Harris, One Blood: 200 Years of Encounter with Christianity: A Story of Hope (Sutherland, 1990)

PHILIPP A SCHERER