Donald Thomson
| Donald Thomson | |
|---|---|
Donald Thomson
|
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| Born | 26 June 1901 Brighton, Victoria |
| Died |
12 May 1970 (aged 68) Melbourne |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Fields | Aboriginal Australian anthropology |
| Institutions | University of Melbourne |
| Alma mater |
University of Melbourne University of Sydney |
| Academic advisors | Alfred Radcliffe-Brown |
| Known for | Ethnographic records made of: i. Wik-Mungknh people ii. Yolngu people iii. Pintupi people |
 National Library of Australia Newspaper photograph of Dr Donald Thomson
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Donald Fergusson Thomson, OBE (26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970) was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist who was largely responsible for turning the Caledon Bay crisis into a "decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal-European relations". He is remembered as a friend of the Yolngu people, and as a champion of understanding, by non-Indigenous Australians, of the culture and society of Indigenous Australians.
Thomson studied zoology and botany at the University of Melbourne. He also joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) in 1917 and served it as Press Officer (1923) and as Assistant Editor of its journal the Emu (1924–1925). When he graduated in 1925 he joined the Melbourne Herald as a cadet, also marrying Gladys Coleman in the same year. He then studied for a one-year diploma course in anthropology at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1928, and then set off on an eight-month journey, working with and recording the Indigenous people of Cape York. On his return, he was falsely accused of dishonesty, because of the loss of some funds, which was later traced to fraudulent activity by a staff member of the Australian Research Council. This unhappy episode forever damaged his relationship with other anthropologists at Sydney.
After another trip to Cape York in 1929, Thomson joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, and in 1932 joined the University of Melbourne as a Research Fellow, obtaining his PhD in 1934.
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