David Unaipon wrote the manuscript behind Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines in the 1920s under a commission from the University of Adelaide, but it was first published in 1930 as Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals under the name of its editor, W. Ramsay Smith, with no acknowledgement of Unaipon as the actual author. This 2001 Melbourne University Press edition, edited by Stephen Muecke and Adam Shoemaker with the participation of Unaipon's own descendants, restores his authorship and his own title. As his own text, corrected of a documented historical injustice, it is the primary source for the Unaipon entity specifically, his own literary voice and Christian frame of reference shaping the retellings. It is cited here for that reason, as a source about Unaipon himself, not as an independent ethnographic record of the traditional narratives it retells.
Facts
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Reliability Tier1
David Unaipon wrote the manuscript in the 1920s under commission from the University of Adelaide. It was published in 1930 as Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals under the name of its editor W. Ramsay Smith, with no acknowledgement of Unaipon. This 2001 edition, prepared with the participation of his descendants and published by Melbourne University Press with scholarly editing, restores his name and his authorship, and is the same class of university-press critical edition this corpus already keeps at tier one for its other primary texts, such as the Codex Chimalpopoca from the University of Arizona Press, so it moves here from tier two to match. Cited as the primary text for Unaipon's own page, not as an independent record of the narratives it retells: the retellings are shaped by Unaipon's own literary and Christian register, which is part of what makes them a source about him. NotesUnaipon wrote the manuscript in the 1920s under commission from the University of Adelaide. It was published in 1930 as "Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals" under the name of its editor W. Ramsay Smith, with no acknowledgement of Unaipon. This 2001 edition restores his name and his title, prepared with the participation of his descendants. Cited here as the primary text for Unaipon's own page, not as an independent record of the narratives it retells: the retellings are shaped by Unaipon's own literary and Christian register, which is part of what makes them a source about him.
Citation
AuthorDavid Unaipon; edited by Stephen Muecke and Adam Shoemaker
PublisherMelbourne University Press
Publication Year2001
Source Typeprimary-text
Claims Backed By This Source (16 claims)
This source backs 16 claims across the atlas. As facts: 14 well-attested. As cited relationships: 1 holds. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
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- Historical Figures, 7 claims: 5 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Articles, 2 claims: 2 well-attested.
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