ABSTRACT
Drawing primarily on the diaries, letters, and reports of Assistant Protector William Thomas and Lutheran missionaries Clamor Schürmann and Christian Teichelmann, this chapter compares the experiences and evaluates the agency of key intermediaries employed by the British government to protect Aboriginal people from colonial injustices. Teichelmann and Schürmann arrived in Adelaide in October 1838 and Thomas in Melbourne in January 1839. They arrived within the first three years of the official establishment of the Province of South Australia and the Port Phillip District, during a novel and experimental period of state-sponsored humanitarianism. All three came under the authority of Governors and (Chief) Protectors, and all three lived with the Aboriginal owners of the recently established settlements (namely the Tandanyangku, Wurundjeri, and Boon Wurrung). During these formative and transitional years, Aboriginal population numbers were healthy and pre-European social, political, and economic networks were largely intact. This chapter draws attention to numerous factors that impacted on the missionary-protectors’ relations with government officials—who, it was assumed by distant humanitarian donors, would provide political and financial support for these cross-cultural intermediaries—and Aboriginal people.
