Interview of Les Hiatt by Alan Macfarlane on 14th July 2005
 
0:05:07 Introduction; born 1931 in Gilgandra, New South Wales; father son of English migrants; his father became a miller; father became a book-keeper and later manager of flour mill in Gilgandra; mother's parents were bakers in Gilgandra; neither parent had strong intellectual influence but sent him to an agricultural school outside Sydney and this was the beginning of the end of the link with Gilgandra

4:20:15 At school interested in English literature and humanities but had to take botany; thought I would do agricultural science at university but dissuaded from doing so; ended up doing dentistry at Sydney University; disliked dentisty but became fascinated by research; at graduation seriously considered doing medicine in the hope that it would lead to a career in medical research; impossible as my father could not afford a further five years of support

9:13:20 In last 18 months as an undergraduate able to live in one of the residential colleges at Sydney University; important turning point as I met students in the arts faculty; became very friendly with a Sri Lankan student, Laksiri Jayasuriya who was top student in psychology and anthropology; at graduation in 1952 wanted to get into faculty of arts and do psychology and philosophy; managed to make some money by part-time dentistry and went to lectures in psychology and philosophy in 1953, then began anthropology in 1954; took a year off and worked as a dentist to make money to support a further two years; got married, came back Sydney and concluded an honours degree in anthropology

13:50:15 In anthropology, first teachers were Elkin and Meggitt, both specialists in Aboriginal studies; important influences; Elkin retired half-way through course and John Barnes took the chair in 1956; memories of Elkin and Meggitt; John Barnes

21:23:21 Fellow student, Michael Allen; went on with him to A.N.U., where John Barnes also went to take Nadel's chair; did our PhD research at the same time; he went to New Hebrides and I to Northern Australia; Michael Allen had taken job in Northern Territories before me and found he had engendered good will which softened the attitude of the  Director to anthropology

25:12:00 First field work; wife, Betty Meehan, later became a well-known prehistorian; spent 6 weeks together in Darwin waiting for supply ship to take us to a newly-formed settlement called Maningrida; supply ship failed to arrive but took another boat which overshot the Liverpool River, so got in late at night; remember seeing camp fires all along the beach and all the residents and staff waiting there; rowed ashore in dugout canoe; memory of arrival imprinted on my mind

28:29:20 Experience of field work vindicated decision to leave dentistry, although I did some bush dentisty in course of field work; circumstances were easy as climate reasonable; helped by aboriginal people and welcomed by the three staff; Aborigines thought I was a patrol officer at first; studied conflict and disputes among Aborigines; worked in Burarra or Gidjingarli language

33:27:16 Did two stints of field work with break in the middle, a total period of 20 months in the field; wrote up partly under John Barnes supervision, partly under Bill Stanner; examined by Raymond Firth and Ian Hogbin; published the thesis within two years as 'Kinship and Conflict'

36:45:05 Memories of Raymond Firth and Ian Hogbin; awarded A.N.U. travelling scholarship and decided to go to L.S.E. in 1964 because of friendship with Firth; joined graduate seminar though found Firth's style of running it rather uncongenial

41:16:00 When I first came to England in mid-winter thought I would die of cold but by the end of 1964 had come to like  it; afterwards worked for a few months as a dentist at Elephant and Castle then returned to a lectureship at Sydney in 1965

42:41:03 Continued to go back to Maningrida for next 45 years; did think about establishing another field area; went to New Guinea for a few months and for five months on the east coast of Sri Lanka; latter came to nothing because of Tamil Tiger violence in the 1970's; in 1972 Peter Ucko came as new Principal of Institute of Aboriginal Studies; attracted by his enthusiasm and drive and worked with him for the next ten years; became interested in aboriginal religion, mythology and symbolism under stimulus of Levi-Strauss; land rights movement of the second half of the 1970's rekindled interest in conflict and kinship; never did land claim work but was involved as Chairman of the Council of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies after the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, 1976, which affected only the Northern Territory; use made of anthroplogical expertise

49:18:00 On Peter Ucko's intitiative, who was keen to develop film making, made film, 'Waiting for Harry', with Kim McKenzie; film about the disintering of the body of an early mentor in Maningrida for reburial; film won an R.A.I. award in 1982

52:42:00 Frank Gurrmanamana, the central figure in the film, taught me Burarra; began working with him in 1958 and he died last year; felt this as a real wrench as my career owed so much to him; I wanted to publish a series of texts which I'd received from him in the early 1960's, where he decribes in his own language what he saw as main institutions of his society; had begun interviewing him with a tape-recorder and in long-hand and gathered the material over a period of six weeks; did eventually produce a book and a CD, 'People of the Rivermouth'by Frank Gurrmanamana.