He is also said to have contributed to the helicopter, having designed its rotors pre-World War I, based on the principle of the boomerang and of course, his fascination with perpetual motion.
Unaipon was the first published Aboriginal author, after he was commissioned by the University of Adelaide to assemble a book on Indigenous legends and storytelling in the early s.
He was also the first Aboriginal writer to be published in the English language with a number of his articles in the Sydney Daily Telegraph discussing Aboriginal rights, traditional customs and even his inventions.
Unaipon traveled widely and lectured on his ideas, preached sermons and spoke about Aboriginal legends and customs. Your email address will not be published. Uncategorized November 3, We are now open to the public by appointment only. Learn more.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this website contains images, voices and names of deceased persons. Why is he looking so thoughtful? What was so special about him that he has been immortalised on our currency?
A man curious about the world in all its physical and spiritual wonders. A man whose engineering genius was matched only by his gift for skillful prose. He is David Unaipon, an inventor, writer, orator and campaigner. He spent much of his life transforming the minds of White Australia in the hope that one day Aboriginal people would be seen as equals.
There you will see shields. They are shields that belong to the Ngarrindjeri nation. Ngarrindjeri people have lived here for millennia, drawing nourishment from Murrundi, the River Murray, which snakes its way through the landscape.
There was violence in the confrontation. But there was also survival. The mission is also where Unaipon receives a Christian education. Point McLeay Mission, The mission included a school, church and community housing. While the mission was dedicated to raising Christian children, it also provided an opportunity for Unaipon to explore other interests. The mission also had books and journals and Unaipon spent many hours poring over the pages of the scientific works.
He became intrigued by the idea of perpetual motion and this would dominate his thoughts for much of his life. Drawing on the way that boomerangs spin through the air, Unaipon developed plans for a flying machine that used spinning blades allowing it to rise straight up; much like the modern day helicopter. He also studied the machine used in sheep-shearing and designed a modified handpiece.
Unaipon was born in on the Point McLeay mission in the town of Raukkan, just 80 km southeast of Adelaide. He was the fourth of nine children of evangelist and father, James Ngunaitponi and Nymbulba, Uniapon's mother.
Both his parents were of the Yaraldi, lower Murray region, group. Unaipon showed academic promise as young as 7 years old, when he started attending the mission school. The former secretary of the Aborigines' Friends' Association stated in , "I only wish the majority of white boys were as bright, intelligent, well-instructed and well-mannered, as the little fellow I am now taking charge of".
At 13, he left school to work as a servant in Adelaide for Charles Burney Young, a landowner and successful winemaker. During his employment at Young's 'Swancombe' estate, Unaipon was actively encouraged to pursue his interests in literature, science, philosophy and music.
When he returned to the Point McLeay mission in , Unaipon continued to read widely and learned new skills like playing the organ and bootmaking. In , Unaipon married Katherine Carter, a Tangani woman from the Coorong who worked as a domestic servant. Unaipon worked a few roles, as a bookmaker and as a bookkeepers assistant, before he developed a shearing device in He was focused on creating perpetual motion machines and was named the 'Australian Leonardo da Vinci' for developing the centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel and a mechanical propulsion device.
He is also said to have contributed to the helicopter, having designed its rotors pre-World War I, based on the principle of the boomerang and of course, his fascination with perpetual motion.
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