Berndt, Catherine Helen (1918 - 1994)

Summary

Catherine Berndt was one of Australia's most distinguished anthropologists. Her career was largely a collaborative, and highly productive, partnership with her husband Ronald Berndt. Together they made extensive studies of Aboriginal communities in northern Australia. Catherine became an internationally recognised authority on religion and the role of women, marriage, the family and socialisation in Australia, New Zealand and Melanesia. Her publications included books of which she was the sole author, including Women's changing ceremonies in northern Australia (1950) and a number of well-regarded children's books. Among those she wrote with her husband was The world of the first Australians, published in multiple editions after its first release in 1952. For over 25 years Berndt was visiting or part-time lecturer in anthropology at the University of Western Australia. The Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, founded in 1976, houses the couple's collection of indigenous art.

Details

Chronology

1939

Education - Certificate of Proficiency in Anthropology, University of Otago, New Zealand

1939

Education - BA, Victoria University College, Wellington, New Zealand

1940

Life event - Settled in Australia

1949

Education - MA, University of Sydney

1950

Award - Edgeworth David Medal for anthropology (jointly with Ronald Berndt), Royal Society of New South Wales

1950

Award - Percy Smith Medal, University of Otago, New Zealand

1954

Award - Winifred Cullis Award, International Federation of University Women

1955

Education - PhD, London School of Economics and Political Science

1956 - 1963

Career position - Visiting Tutor , University of Western Australia

1963 - 1983

Career position - Lecturer (part-time), University of Western Australia

1982 - 1994

Award - Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

1983

Award - DLitt honoris causa, University of Western Australia

1987

Award - Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of service to anthropology, particularly in relation to the Aboriginal society and culture

Related entries

Published resources

Books

• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., The world of the first Australians: an introduction to the traditional life of the Australian Aborigines (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1964), 509 pp. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., Man, land & myth in North Australia: the Gunwinggu People (North Sydney: Ure Smith, 1980), 262 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Berndt, Catherine, 'Karloan (Kaloni), Albert (1864-1943), Aboriginal Doctor (Putari)' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, John Ritchie, ed., vol. 14 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), pp. 597-598. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140681b.htm. Details
• Stanton, John, '"I Did Not Set Out to Make a Collection": the Ronald and Catherine Berndt Collection at the Berndt Museum of Anthropology' in The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, Peterson, Nicolas, Allen, Lindy and Hamby, Louise, eds (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008), pp. 511-31. Details
• Toussaint, Sandy, 'Berndt, Catherine Helen (1918-1994), anthropologist and writer' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 19 1991-1995 (A-Z), Melanie Nolan, ed. (ANU Press, 2021), pp. 57-59, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/berndt-catherine-helen-27506. Details

Edited Books

• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H. eds, Aboriginal man in Australia: essays in honour of Emeritus Prof. A. P. Elkin (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1965), 491 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Berndt, Catherine, 'Aboriginal fieldwork in South Australia in the 1940s and implications for the present', Records of the South Australian Museum, 23 (1) (1989), 59-68. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., 'Adolphus Peter Elkin, 1891-1979', Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 14 (3) (1979), 161-7. Details
• Brittlebank, Kate, 'Two people - one life: collecting and the marrige of Ronald M. and Catherine H. Berndt', Australian historical studies, 39 (1) (2008), 3-18. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"You are... my anthropological children": AP Elkin, Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt, 1940 - 1956', Aboriginal History, 29 (2005), 77-106. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24046689. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"He has not followed the usual sequence": Ronald M. Berndt's secrets', Journal of historical biography, 16 (2015), 61-92. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"Anthropology and sociology were of no value ... in war time": Ronald and Catherine Berndt and war-time security, 1939 - 1945', Anthropological Forum, 29 (2) (2019), 116-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2018.1537909. Details
• Rudhuan, Siti Sarah, 'Ronald and Catherine Berndt's fieldwork drawings: material sites of ethnographic encounter', Anthropological forum, 32 (2) (2022), 138-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2022.2100316. Details
• Speck, Catherine, 'The Berndts' mid-century Arnhem Land bark painting exhibition: its legacies', Australian historical studies, 54 (4) (2023), 625-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/1031461X.2023.2247012. Details
• Sutton, Peter, 'Ronald and Catherine Berndt: an appreciation', Anthropological forum, 11 (2001), 121-4. https://doi.org/10.1080/00664670124939. Details
• Tonkinson, Bob and Tonkinson, Myra, 'Obituary: Dr Catherine Helen Berndt, 1918 - 1994', Aboriginal History, 18 (1994), 9-11. Details
• White, Isobel, 'Catherine Helen Berndt', Oceania, 65 (1) (1994), 1-3. Details

Resource Sections

• Toussaint, Sandy, 'Berndt, Catherine, Helen (1918 - 1994)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2018, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/berndt-catherine-helen-27506. Details

See also

• Bowdler, Sandra and Clune, Genevieve, 'That shadowy band: the role of women in the development of Australian archaeology', Australian Archaeology, 50 (2000), 276-35. Details