Carl Friedrich Theodor STREHLOW

STREHLOW, CARL FRIEDRICH THEODOR (b. Fredersdorf nr Angermuende, Uckermark Germany, 23 Dec 1871; d. Horseshoe Bend, NT, 20 Oct 1922). Lutheran missionary.

Carl F T Strehlow was the seventh child of Carl (a schoolteacher), and his wife Friederike Strehlow née Schneider, members of the Lutheran Free Church. Early in life Carl expressed his desire to become a preacher, but his father lacked the means. So the local pastor Supt Seidel, gave him private tuition. Strehlow was admitted to the Mission Seminary at Neuendettelsau, Bavaria on I Aug 1888, and after a brilliant scholastic career of only three years, graduated on 31 Aug 1891. He was assigned as a pastor to the Lutheran Church in North America and all plans for his emigration had been finalised, when a call came from Australia for a missionary among the Aborigines. He was ordained at Light Pass SA, on 3 July 1892 and immediately appointed as an assistant to J G Reuther at Killalpaninna on the Cooper Ck, upper SA, where he arrived on 11 July. Here he learnt the Dieri language so proficiently, that, within a brief stay of little more than two years, he was able to assist Reuther in finishing his translation of the NT in Dieri.

When on 5 Sept 1894, the Immanuel Lutheran Synod purchased the Finke River Mission station at Hermannsburg (which had been founded in 1877 and abandoned by the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Australia in 1891), Carl Strehlow was appointed its superintendent. He arrived there on 12 Oct 1894, to find swearing, gambling and immorality. He immediately set about restoring law and order: unscrupulous workers were dismissed and a strict Christian discipline imposed. He then set about mastering the Aranda language, he encouraged the Christians to meet for daily devotional exercises, initiated a purposeful work program for the Aboriginal men, restarted the school, and strictly supervised the distribution of food and clothing. Within 15 years a dozen or so new permanent homes and store buildings were erected, as well as a new church and school.

On 25 May 1895 Strehlow received J M Bogner as an assistant. He stayed for just over six years, and was followed for five years by N Wettengel from Killalpaninna. Strehlow m. Friederike Johanna Henriette Keysser at Point Pass on 25 Sept 1895, and both were naturalised soon thereafter. One daughter and five sons were born. Strehlow filled the roles of missionary, catechist, general administrator, store and book-keeper, postmaster, schoolteacher (from 1914 until the arrival of H A Heinrich in 1917), linguist, translator, research writer (in ethnology), and amateur doctor. Only on two occasions did he and his wife enjoy leave, a full year in SA from June 1903-04, and a vacation of almost two years in Germany from June 1910-12, where they left their five oldest children to be educated. Apart from that, they made short excursions to various parts of the Hermannsburg station: Strehlow became very familiar with the geographical disposition of the entire lease.

Carl Strehlow was an avid reader, who kept himself well informed on developments in the church at home and abroad. Mrs Strehlow wrote of him: 'My husband always tried to exemplify the Christian life to his people. For their sake he denied himself many ordinary privileges. When the people were sent "bush" every Wednesday to hunt and look for their own food, we likewise went on foot, taking our kitchen staff with us and eating the simplest of food. When at times the people had to he short-rationed, my husband deliberately abstained from the "luxury" of afternoon coffee or from smoking a favourite cigar. He drank a glass of wine only when we had important guests. And he suffered a lot from insomnia'.

Strehlow was a rigid and fearless authoritarian. To add to his status as an 'ajua' (man of importance), he sported a full beard. Some employees did not endure his fiery rule for long. When serious fights between Aboriginal men sometimes broke out in the camp, a few stentorian commands of the 'ajua' brought about an abrupt end. When Mounted Constable Wurmbrandt once invaded the camp and arrested a group of people to take them away to be shot, Strehlow is alleged to have stormed onto the scene in a fury, demanding the release of the prisoners and ordering the constable never to set foot on the place again. When informed that neighbouring station-owners had encroached on mission property to trap station 'brumbies', he promptly went out with his native charges, chopped down the trapping-yard and burnt the timber. At times he was known to descend the pulpit to straighten up some unruly schoolboys, or to order an adult who displayed signs of drowsiness to stand up in church. There was a popular slogan that said 'Sgt Stott rules the whites, and Pastor Strehlow rules the blacks'. Strehlow and Stott bore mutual admiration for each other, and there existed a good measure of understanding between them.

But, though he was firm, he was fair and tempered justice with mercy. His word was his bond, and that gained him love and respect. When he once threatened to expel an old woman for some misdemeanour, she replied she wouldn't go: she loved him too much. An Aborigine named Wapiti was a notorious cattlekiller. When a police-tracker's bullet shattered one of his thigh-bones, his friends carried him to Strehlow, who tended his wounds and nursed him back to general health. In gratitude, Wapiti became one of Strehlow's four most valuable informants in Aboriginal folklore.

Strehlow's pastoral record accounted for 160 baptisms performed by him, 18 marriages, 56 burials, and 23 confirmations. His youngest son, Theodor, was the last adolescent he confirmed, on Palm Sunday 1922. In the field of linguistics, one of the first tasks he undertook was Die Grammatik der Aranda-Sprache, a 16p MS in which he drew comparisons with the Dieri and Encounter-Bay languages. Next came his Woerterbuch der Aranda und Loritja Sprachen, a handwritten script of 150 fcp pages. (In 1947 the present author translated this MS into English). Strehlow considerably expanded a book of worship edited by Kempe (q.v.), published in 1891. Entitled Galtjindintjamea-Pepa Aranda Wolambarinjaka, it comprised 263 pp and was printed at Tanunda in 1904; a second edition in 1924 ran into 312 pp. A school primer of 29 pp, Pepa Aragulinja Aranda Katjirberaka, was published in Tanunda in 1928, several years after his death. Likewise his translation of Luke's gospel, Ewangelia Lukoka (BFBS, London, 1925), and the four gospel accounts, Ewangelia Taramatara (BFBS, London, 1928).

During his ministry Strehlow translated the NT and preached on every chapter of it. He commenced the translation in 1913 and completed the task in 1919, revising his work during the next two years with his native assistants. He never allowed an Aboriginal to preach in the church; he was the sole occupant of the pulpit, and presided at both services every Sunday. He trained no evangelists and installed no church elders. His position was paramount. Thus, with a limited vision toward the future, he laid no foundation for the mission's self-propagation beyond its own environment.

Strehlow has become most widely known and admired through the publication of his ethnological studies in the myths, legends, beliefs, customs, traditions, material culture, religious rites, social organisation and genealogies of the local tribes with which he came into contact. Die Aranda - und Loritja Stuemme in Zentral Australien was published in seven volumes between 1907 and 1920 by the Staedtisches Voelkermuseum, Frankfurt-on-the-Main. A new English translation may be published, if local Aboriginal communities agree.

Strehlow had serious aspersions cast on his scientific work by Sir Baldwin Spencer, on the grounds that he never witnessed any of the sacred ceremonies he recorded. Strehlow's defence was that he considered his personal attendance would prejudice his Christian standing. Spencer's assertions were probably based more on pride, since Strehlow had brought into question some of Spencer's conclusions. Spencer lacked personal knowledge of the region, which Strehlow possessed in rich measure. Since recent scholarship on Spencer has been critical of his methods, standards and attitudes, his criticisms of Strehlow are unlikely to remain sustainable but the issue has not been finally resolved.

Strehlow and the mission also suffered other trials and indignities. While the family was abroad during 1910-12, Capt Vere Barclay visited the station and compiled a report which contained many negative judgements. These were checked early in 1912 by Sgt Stott, who showed many of the charges were untrue or irrelevant. A worse situation eventuated during World War One, when many anti-German accusations were levelled against Strehlow and the mission. Judge Bevan, after due enquiry in Dec 1917, was satisfied of the mission's loyalty and integrity. Nevertheless, the federal government withdrew its annual subsidy of £300 to the mission for the next six years.

In 1922, though exhausted, he refused to take a six-month break, believing it would be tantamount to deserting his post. In the end asthma, pleurisy and dropsy caught up with him, so that he was forced to seek urgent medical aid. But he had left it too late. Two cars sent to his rescue broke down and he had to travel by buggy. The horrendous trip to Horseshoe Bend, described by various writers, was excruciatingly cruel. He died here on 20 Oct and was buried on the following day. In time a white marble monument was erected over his grave. A new hospital dedicated at Hermannsburg in July 1960 memorialises his name. There is also a street in Alice Springs named after him.

A sequel to his death was the great spiritual upsurge among the Aboriginal people of Central Australia that followed. Word went around that if Strehlow was prepared to die for his faith, there must be something in the Christian religion. Now everybody wanted it. Hermannsburg Christians suddenly came alive, and evangelising crusades in every direction became the order of the day. The ensuing years, until the arrival of a new missionary, proved to be the 'golden age of Hermannsburg'.

Official Finke River Mission correspondence; Mission reports to Kirchen-u. Missions-Zeitung (Tanunda, 18941918); Kurze Chronik d. Missions-Station Hermannsburg, ZA (1877-1933); Register 7 Dec 1921; Letter by Frieda Strehlow to Rev J J Stolz (Tanunda, 9 Aug 1923); ADB 12; E Leske (ed), Hermannsburg - a Vision and a Mission (Adelaide, 1977); Ward McNally, Aborigines, Artefacts and Anguish (Adelaide, 1981); NTDB 1; P A Scherer, Death on the Line(Lutheran Yearbook, 1974); J J Stolz, Carl Strehlow - a Life and Character Sketch (Tanunda, 1924); T G H Strehlow, Aranda Traditions (Melbourne, 1947); T G H Strehlow, Journey to Horseshoe Bend (Sydney/Melb, 1969); T G H Strehlow, Songs of Central Australia - Introduction(Sydney, 1971); T G H Strehlow, Altjira Rega Ekalta (Lutheran Yearbook, 1979)

P A SCHERER