Australian ethnologist, linguist and educator
Reverend Dr John Fraser (1834 – 1904) was an Australian ethnologist, linguist, school headmaster and author of many scholarly works. He is known for his revised and expanded version of Lancelot Threlkeld's 1834 work, "An Australian Grammar", with the new title" An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle, New South Wales) being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser" (1892). In this, Fraser created new divisions and terminology for some Aboriginal groups in New South Wales.
Biography.
Fraser was born in Perth, Scotland in 1834 and educated at the University of Edinburgh.
He migrated to Australia and settled at Maitland, New South Wales. In 1861 he was appointed rector of the Presbyterian Maitland High School, before going on to establish his own school, known as Sauchie House (now Maitland Boys High School). There he remained as headmaster for about 20 years.
Apart from being an advocate of Christian missions, Fraser was an ethnologist and linguist, with a particular interest in Australian Aboriginal languages. His book, "The Aborigines of New South Wales," won the 1882 Royal Society of New South Wales Prize, and he wrote numerous scholarly articles and books.
"An Australian Language" (1892).
The work which won him most recognition was his much expanded and authoritative edition of L.E. Threlkeld's grammar of the Awabakal language, "An Australian Grammar". Fraser's revised edition, containing much original material based on his own research, was published in 1892 as "An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal, the people of Awaba or Lake Macquarie (near Newcastle, New South Wales) being an account of their language, traditions and customs / by L.E. Threlkeld; re-arranged, condensed and edited with an appendix by John Fraser".
In the preface, Fraser writes: "...but we have now come to know that this dialect was essentially the same as that spoken by the sub-tribes occupying the land where Sydney now stands, and that they all formed part of one great tribe, the Kuriggai".
The book included a "Map of New South Wales as occupied by the native tribes", accompanied by descriptions and names decided upon by Fraser after "ten years' thought and inquiry on the location of our native tribes". In the text accompanying his map, Fraser writes:{
His major work was not without its later critics.
Historian Niel Gunson wrote in 1974 that the work was "hampered by his peculiar theories of racial and linguistic origin".
Anthropologist and ethnologist Norman Tindale ("Aboriginal tribes of Australia", 1974) wrote that there was such a{
He goes on to list the Bangarang (Pangerang) (Vic.); Booandik (Vic. &amp; SA); Barkunjee (Barkindji) (NSW), Kurnai (Vic.), Thurrawal (Dharawal) (NSW), Wiradjuri (NSW) and Malegoondeet (?) (Vic.) as some of these names, and mentions R.H. Mathews, A.W. Howitt and John Mathew as promulgators of the "nations" concept.
Tindale later (under his entry for Awakabal, p. 200) refers to Kuringgai as an "arbitrary term...applied by Fraser", the Awabakal being the central tribe of the several to which Fraser applied the group term.
Comparison of contents.
1834 edition.
The contents of Threlkeld's work are as follows:
1892 edition.
The contents of Fraser's edition are as follows:
Death and legacy.
Fraser died in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) in May 1904.
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;