Biography

The story of Albert Namatjira is one of both triumph and tragedy. Albert has often been referred to as "a wanderer between two worlds". The unique situation he found himself in, with his artistic talent providing the bridge to cross from his ancestral Aboriginal culture and into the white man's domain, was the crux of both his success and his troubles. Namatjira received many white privileges - he was the first Aboriginal to be granted Australian citizenship, he was presented to Queen Elizabeth II in 1954, he has a place in the 1944 edition of "Who's Who" and his Archibald prize-winning portrait was painted by the respected artist, William Dargie in 1956. Despite all this, it bears thinking about that as an Aboriginal, Albert found himself in an era of great uncertainty. Sadly, some of the time he may have been valued more for his curiosity value because of his success, rather than as an ambitious man in his own right who was limited by the restrictive policies of the time and the ambiguity of his unique situation. Albert, originally called Elea, was born on 28 July 1902, into the Western Aranda tribal group, as eldest son to his father Namatjira and his mother Ljukuta. The Aranda were regarded as a strong and vital people and were amongst the first Aboriginal people to make contact with white Lutheran missionaries on the Finke River in the Northern Territory in 1877. In 1905 when Elea was three years old, he and his mother and father were baptised at the Hermannsburg Mission and took new names, Albert, Emilia and Jonathon, respectively. The Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission was located about 160 kilometres south west of Alice Springs. Albert, a man of quiet dignity with a large, powerful physique, grew up at the Hermannsburg Mission receiving an education and religious instruction. He became a skilled craftsman who was regarded as a good helper at the mission. When Albert was 18 he became attracted to Ilkalita, later baptised Rubina, a member of the Luritja tribe and the daughter of a Ceremonial Chief.  Being of a different tribal group, Rubina was denied to Albert, but he eloped with her and did not return to the mission until 1923, by which stage they had three children - Enos, Oscar and Maisie. In their lifetimes, Albert and Rubina had ten children - five sons and five daughters (Enos, Oscar, Ewald, Keith, Maurice, Maisie, Martha, Hazel, Nelda and Violet), however, not all of them survived  - Nelda and Violet had died by 1945, then Hazel and Martha in 1949 and 1950.  (All of Albert's children are now deceased.)