2011 - Theses - Flinders University

Jim came relatively well prepared for the task. I found his name embossed on the HonourBoard of Reverend Barnett’s Missionary and Bible College, Sydney in 1927, its early yearsof operation when everything from the milking cow to the buildings themselves depended onfaith alone, as there was no money. Reverend Benson C. Barnett – ‘The Chief’ to hisstudents – still used the Bible signed by his mentor, Hudson Taylor, founder of the ChineseInland Mission. 76 Taylor was thought eccentric when he donned Chinese national costumeand shaved his hair to one long pigtail. The Chief continued the tradition, exhorting hismissionaries to identify with their congregations, or as others saw it, to ‘go native.’ 77 ‘Onlyby living with people do we learn to know them,’ The Chief said, as his students ate at histable and slept in rooms down the hall from his own. 78By November 1927, Jim had been ‘recommended’ for a probationary appointment withthe Australian Aborigines Mission, to be stationed at Oodnadatta in the far north of SouthAustralia. He kept his official address, however, a couple of houses down the street from TheChief’s ‘Ooma’, at 35 Badminton Rd—possibly the first Women’s Department cottage, as faras I could tell. Perhaps there was a trusted friend there to sort and forward his mail on to hisremote posting. 79March 1928, OodnadattaDear Miss Morris, 80Thank you for the post. Your news seems worlds away from mine, which both saddens, andexcites me, as you can guess. Where you live on a hill with water in view, I am living on drysand and gibber pebbles that lay as flat as the surface of Port Jackson and with not apromontory in sight.‘Prove me now herewith!’: This is the theme of the AAM’s year, and the reports of Bro.Wade’s trips through the Western Ranges fire my blood. They say there are ‘hosts ofuntouched Aborigines’—‘black diamonds’, Bro. Williams calls them—‘virgin soil’ in whichto sow the seed. Bro. Williams is at this time anxious to receive permission to travel that wayagain—he is too eager to wait for Bro. Wade to return from his furlough and wedding to49