Diary of C.W. Schurmann

Clamor Schurmann was a 23-year-old missionary from Dresden when he arrived in Adelaide in October 1838. By Christmas the following year, he could start teaching school in Kaurna language, to Kaurna children. Even Elder Mullawirraburka sent his children to the riverbank school. In 1840, with his colleague Christian Teichelmann, Schurmann published a Kaurna grammar and dictionary. He accepted an invitation from Kaurna men to join a five-day kangaroo hunt. On trips to Encounter Bay he became conversant with the Ngarindjeri language.

In September 1840, however, Governor Gawler asked Schurmann to transfer to the troubled settlement at Port Lincoln, there to serve as Sub-Protector of Aborigines. Unlike in Adelaide, Schurmann found it frustratingly difficult to make contact with the local Barngarla (Parnkalla) people. He persisted nevertheless, and in 1844 was able to publish a grammar and dictionary in Barngarla.

Relations between settlers and locals on Eyre Peninsula kept deteriorating as settlement expanded, leading Schurmann to resign. Later, at North Shields via Port Lincoln, he returned to his beloved vocation as a teacher of Aboriginal children.

During his days in Adelaide and Port Lincoln, Schurmann kept a diary in German documenting his experiences with the British colonists, the different German groups and First Nations peoples. His diary is published in full here for the first time, in Greg Lockwood's meticulous and lively translation.