What the cat dragged in

Since writing this post, I have come across an article which might be termed the missing link between Frank Clune’s proposed Namatjira memorial “1.0” and the end result, “2.0”.  Befittingly perhaps, this article – a copy of a magazine clipping, clipped and initially kept by TGHS Strehlow in a “Namatjira” file, now at the Strehlow Research Centre – had been read by me two years ago in Alice Springs, and then filed away at the bottom of my own “Namatjira” miscellaneous file [ok, pile], unseen again until the other day. 

Had this April 1961 article by Frank Clune**, on Namatjira memorial “1.5” been my (conscious) starting point, the above post may well not have been written, for Clune does a good job connecting the threads of the two Namatjira memorials into one superficially seamless intention – of an Alice Springs mini-memorial cemetery headstone and a Hermannsburg memorial proper. 

The former still has Clune as the instigator (of which more below), but Clune’s very early mention of a Hermannsburg memorial (April 1961, 15 months before its ceremonial opening) suggests that this, in contrast, was also not his “baby”:

 “In October 1960 I flew by TAA from Sydney to Alice Springs to arrange a memorial to aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira, who had died more than a year before – on August 8, 1959.  Money for the memorial had been raised by a radio appeal, which led 40 people to donate £310, in sums ranging from £25 to 5/-.

The main purpose was to erect a headstone of Albert’s grave, and Pastor FW Albrecht and artist Rex Battarbee of Alice Springs agreed to act as local advisers on the form the memorial would take . . . The headstone and plate cost £103, and the remainder of the fund [i.e. £207] was used to build a memorial to Albert at Hermannsburg.”

The past tense “was used to build a memorial . . . at Hermannsburg” is curious; unless Clune is referring to a short-lived precursor of the 1962 pillar.  Assuming that there was only ever one Hermannsburg Namatjira memorial, perhaps Clune is just reassuring donors that their donated money is safely sunk, even though the physical memorial was yet to be built (AFAICT).

The “radio appeal” reference is also mysterious.  Remember that the October 1960 SMH report has funding for Clune’s two-ton boulder memorial as coming from “Sydney friends and admirers of Namatjira” – which seems to be a more select grouping than a “radio appeal”. The highest single donation in the radio appeal was a relatively modest £25, so if the two references are to the same funders, then the well-off “Sydney friends and admirers”, whose names I speculate on above, were not particularly generous.  It is possible instead that in October 1960 there were separate pools of “radio appeal” and anonymous private donor funds – the latter which Clune chose not to mention in April 1961.

Alternatively, the “radio appeal” was possibly the same as the mid-1961 public fund, launched by Rex Battarbee, referred to above.  If the “public fund” was instead in early 1961, it could be the same thing, despite the fact that it didn’t yet exist when Clune went to Alice Springs (Clune seems to have a knack for backdating future acts).  If it wasn’t the same thing, then there must have been a second, post April 1961 funding drive, particularly for the Hermannsburg memorial.  Supporting this is the length of time it apparently took to build this memorial, as well as the difference, above, between the radio appeal’s £207, and the actual cost of the Hermannsburg memorial (my guess is that it would have cost at least double that).

Whatever the source and destination of the memorial/s funds was and would be, one very clear change had taken place between Clune setting off, with some funds “in the bag”, for Alice Springs in October 1960, and his April 1961 progress report (if I may call it that).  The what the early donors had donated towards had substantially changed shape in those months.  Literally, it was cut down.      

In a nutshell, the proposed two-ton boulder (though from not Hermannsburg, and only “nearly” that weight) became, in reality, Namatjira’s grave-site headstone at the Alice Springs cemetery (in lieu of standing sentinel at Morris Soak).  And as you might imagine, “headstone” usually connotes at least one flat, inscripted surface, so the boulder had to be radically cut to fit this purpose, not to mention Clune’s narrative continuity:

“For the headstone they [Pastor FW Albrecht and Rex Battarbee] chose a four-foot high granite gibber weighing nearly two tons, transported two miles from Mt Gillen.  One side was worked smooth to carry a bronze plate with the wording:

“Altjiraka Nguangiberantama Jinga Nama Nana Jinga Namanga [“By the grace of God, I am what I am” in Aranda] – 1 Cor 15 10a.  Artist Albert Namatjira.  Born at Hermannsburg July 28, 1902.  Died at Alice Springs August 8, 1959”.

“Worked smooth”, indeed, Frank Clune.  A photo of the now-replaced*** headstone in Clune’s article shows the polished face and attached plaque.  The headstone appears to be considerably less than four-foot high, however – my guess is that it would be only 80-90cm high.  Possibly, it was the upright, longest axis of the boulder that was “worked smooth”, i.e. sawn off, and mostly discarded, leaving a remnant stump for the headstone.  If so, Clune’s euphemism is a master-stroke in the pointed destruction of a sculpted boulder, disguised, you might think charitably, as a well-meaning (for that time, at least) effort to be culturally appropriate.  But bear in mind that Clune needed to have both his (round) boulder and his (flat) headstone too – he could not have admitted that the boulder had been butchered in the course of becoming a headstone, because this would have admitted defeat for his Namatjira memorial “1.0”.

In writing the initial post above, perhaps I underestimated Frank Clune’s ego, but more certainly, I misjudged the fact that what today seems obscure historical detail was 50 years ago, living current-affairs.  That is, someone would have noticed that the Namatjira memorial boulder in Alice Springs, as proposed by Frank Clune in October 1960, was stillborn – replaced by the Hermannsburg one – unless and until Clune retrospectively re-badged it as a headstone.

The irony is that I too probably would have bought Clune’s story, had I started with it, instead of with a puzzle of two competing Namatjira memorials (albeit subconsciously, I might have earlier filed away in my head something of Clune’s recently (re-) discovered article). 

Hence, in a salute to going the slow, but “proper”, way round, my sub-heading is emphatically “postscript”, and not (another) “update” – and the original post remains intact, bar one insertion. 

The puzzle is solved, but only by unpicking a fortuitously-found PR article that carefully sought to persuade readers that there was no puzzle in the first place.  You could say that Frank Clune’s Namatjira memorial was built – and in its well-concealed hubris and dissembling, now stands even uglier and less culturally appropriate than the pillar standing on the plain near Hermannsburg airport today.

Footnotes:

* “The Rev John Flynn died on 5 May 1951 and his ashes together with those of his wife Jean are buried at this site in Alice Springs. In 1952 a large eight ton boulder, from the Devils Marbles area, was put on a low loader and driven 480 kilometres south to Alice Springs  . . . as a marker for his grave.

Unfortunately the stone had been taken fromthe highly sacred women’s site of Karlu Karlu at the Devils Marbles. It has taken more than 45 years of negotiations between the Arrernte Aborigines andthe White custodians before the original stone was returned to its sacred siteand replaced by the present one on 4 September 1999”.

***   “In 1993, the Ngurratjuta Pmara Ntjarra Aborigial Corporation resolved to commission a project to restore and upgrade the grave of Albert Namatjira to a condition befitting a man of such unique character and talent . . . Expressions of interest were sought from artists around Australia, with the successful submission coming from the Hermannsburg Potters, many of whom are related to Albert.  This group proposed a terra-cotta tile mural with the bronze plaque from the original headstone, set into a specially selected piece of local sandstone [i.e. the original headstone, aka the sawn-off remnant of Frank Clune’s “nearly” two ton Mt Gillen boulder, was removed, bar its plaque.  The replacement headstone is also, at about 160cm, substantially taller than the original] . . .  The terra-cotta mural in relief was made by three members of the Hermannsburg Potters. The relief work was moulded by Kay Tucker and the mural was painted with underglazes by Elaine Namatjira (Albert’s granddaughter) assisted by Elizabeth Moketarinja.  The country depicted in the mural is a compilation of three of Albert Namatjira’s dreaming sites in and around the Western MacDonnell Ranges . . . This memorial to Albert Namatjira was unveiled on 31 August 1994 by Mr K Gus Njalka Williams OAM, the Chairman of Ngurratjuta . . .”