The Many Worlds of RH Mathews: In Search of an Australian Anthropologist by Martin Thomas

Shortlisted

Indigenous Australian child with wooden stick on book cover of The Many Words of R.H. Mathews by Martin Thomas

JUDGES' COMMENTS

Martin Thomas’ evocative biography focuses on a man who described himself as a ‘quiet worker’: Robert Hamilton Mathews, a nineteenth century surveyor-turned-ethnologist. With no formal training but with immense respect for Indigenous Australians, Mathews set about documenting their languages and customs. Dismissed as an amateur by fellow anthropologists, he was a neglected figure until Thomas embarked on a quest to retrieve him from obscurity.

The result is a groundbreaking, meticulously researched and emotionally resonant book. The empathy that animated Mathews’ work shines through these pages too, lifting them into literature of a high order.