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David Ngunaitponi (28 September 1872 – 7 February 1967), known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian preacher, inventor, and author. A Ngarrindjeri man, his contribution to Australian society helped to break many stereotypes of Aboriginal people, and he is featured on the Australian $50 note in commemoration of his work. He was the son of preacher and writer James Unaipon.
Unaipon left school at 13 to work as a servant for C.B. Young in Adelaide where Young actively encouraged Unaipon's interest in literature, philosophy, science and music. In 1890, he returned to Point McLeay where he apprenticed to a bootmaker and was appointed the mission organist. In the late 1890s he travelled to Adelaide but found that his colour was a bar to employment in his trade and instead took a job as storeman for an Adelaide bootmaker before returning to work as Bookkeeping in the Point McLeay store.
He was later employed by the Aborigines' Friends' Association as a deputationer, in which role he travelled and preached widely in seeking support for the Point McLeay Mission. Unaipon retired from preaching in 1959 but continued working on his inventions into the 1960s.
Unaipon took out provisional for 19 inventions but was unable to afford to get any of his inventions fully patented, according to some sources. Muecke and Shoemaker say that between "1910 and 1944 he made ten ... applications for inventions as varied as an anti-gravitational device, a multi-radial wheel and a sheep-shearing handpiece". Provisional patent 15,624 which he ratified in 1910, is for an "Improved mechanical motion device" that converted rotary motion which "is applied, as for instance by an Eccentric",Aus. Pat 15624 into tangential reciprocating movement, an example application given being Sheep shearing. The invention, the basis of modern mechanical sheep shears, was introduced without Unaipon receiving any financial return and, apart from a 1910 newspaper report acknowledging him as the inventor, he received no contemporary credit.
Other inventions included a centrifugal motor and a mechanical propulsion device. He was also known as the Australian Leonardo da Vinci for his mechanical ideas, which included pre World War I drawings for a helicopter design based on the principle of the boomerang and his research into the polarisation of light; he also spent much of his life attempting to achieve perpetual motion. In his old age, he went back to his birthplace, where he worked on inventions further.
Unaipon was the first Aboriginal author to be published, after he was commissioned in the early 1920s by the University of Adelaide to assemble a book on Aboriginal legends. His first article, "Aboriginals: Their Traditions and Customs", was published on 2 August 1924 in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, after which he wrote numerous more articles. He published three short booklets of Aboriginal stories in 1927, 1928 and 1929. In this time he wrote on topics covering everything from perpetual motion and helicopter flight to Aboriginal legends and campaigns for Aboriginal rights.
His employment with the Aborigines' Friends' Association collecting subscription money allowed him to travel widely. The travel brought him into contact with many intelligent people sympathetic with the cause of Aboriginal rights, and gave him the opportunity to lecture on Aboriginal culture and rights. He was much in demand as a public speaker.
Unaipon was the first Aboriginal writer to publish in English, the author of numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, including the Sydney Daily Telegraph, retelling traditional stories and arguing for the rights of Aboriginal people.
Five of Unaipon's traditional stories were published in 1929 as Native Legends, under his own name and with his picture on the cover.
Some of Unaipon's traditional Aboriginal stories were published in a 1930 book, Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals, under the name of anthropologist William Ramsay Smith. They have been republished in their original form, under the author's name, as Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.
Unaipon was also involved in political issues surrounding Aboriginal affairs and was a keen supporter of Aboriginal self-determination, including working as a researcher and witness for the Bleakley Inquiry into Aboriginal welfare in 1928, and lobbied the Australian Government to take over responsibility for Aboriginal people from its constituent states. He proposed to the government of South Australia to replace the office of Chief Protector of Aborigines with a responsible board and was arrested for attempting to provide a separate territory for Aboriginal people in central and northern Australia.
In 1936, he was reported to be the first Aboriginal person to attend a levée, when he attended the South Australian centenary levée in Adelaide, an event that made international news.
Unaipon's stance on Aboriginal issues put him into conflict with other Aboriginal leaders, including William Cooper of the Australian Aborigines' League, and Unaipon publicly criticised the League's "Day of Mourning" held on the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet, arguing that the protest would only harm Australia's reputation abroad and would cement a negative public opinion of Aboriginal people.
In 1985 he posthumously received the FAW Patricia Weickhardt Award to an Aboriginal Writer.
Unaipon was inquisitively religious, believing in an equivalence of traditional Aboriginal and Christian spirituality. He was most influenced by Anglican church and Congregational churches. During his travels to public speaking events, he was often refused accommodation due to his race. He said "...in Christ Jesus colour and racial distinctions disappear..." and that this thought helped him at such times.
In late 2008, Aboriginal activist Allan "Chirpy" Campbell, great-nephew of David Unaipon, failed to negotiate a settlement with the Reserve Bank of Australia for using Unaipon's image on the banknote without familial permission. Campbell argued there was no evidence that Melva Linda Carter, from whom permission was obtained in 1994 and who had since died, was Unaipon's great-niece. He sought million in compensation, which he said he would use to establish a charity for mentally ill children. He was continuing to advocate on Facebook on this issue as of 2015.
In 1988, two literary awards were created to honour Unaipon's contributions:
Also in 1988, the annual Unaipon lecture in Adelaide was established.
In 1992, Unaipon Avenue in the Canberra suburb of Ngunnawal was named after him.
In 1996, the Unaipon School, later named the David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education And Research, was established at the University of South Australia. It closed in 2015 when it was deemed unnecessary to have a separate campus for Indigenous students, and a different structure for catering for Indigenous students was adopted.
In 2004, An interpretive dance based on Unaipon's life, Unaipon, was created and performed by the Bangarra Dance Theatre.
In 2020 Upanion was posthumously awarded the Good Design Award'
Other recognition
Many tributes were paid to his life and work.
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Works
See also
Footnotes
Citations
Sources
(2025). 9780855754594, Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 9780855754594
Mary-Anne Gale (1997). 9780868031828, Aboriginal Research Institute, University of South Australia. ISBN 9780868031828
External links
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