Albert Namatjira (Australian Heroes)

Albert Namatjira (Artist)

Namatjira wanted to use his wealth to lease a cattle station. This, however, was not legally possible because he was Aboriginal. He then tried to build a house in Alice Springs, which he was also prevented from doing so because of his status. Despite the fact that he was held as one of Australia's greatest artists he could not own land. Due to his immense popularity this caused public outrage. The government granted Albert and his wife Australian citizenship in 1957, in the sense of exempting them from the restrictive legislation that applied only to Aborigines. This entitled them to vote, own land, build a house and buy alcohol. (In the narrow sense, everyone in Australia, Aborigines and non-Aborigines alike, was already a citizen by virtue of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948.)
Unfortunately, Albert was not legally allowed to supply his Aboriginal friends with alcohol, which was expected of him by the culture of his tribe who did not have the concept of personal property. After an Aboriginal woman Fay Iowa was killed at the Town camp of Morris Soak, Namatjira was held responsible by Jim Lemaire the Stipendiary Magistrate for bringing alcohol into the camp. He was reprimanded at the coronial inquest. It was against the law for an Australian citizen to supply alcohol to a native. Albert was charged with leaving a bottle of rum in a place i.e. on a car seat where a native, a clan brother and fellow Hermannsburg artist Henoch Raberaba, could get access to it. He was sentenced to six months in prison for supplying an Aboriginal with liquor. When he was released after two months he became despondent and did not paint again. He died, soon after in 1959 in Alice Springs, only two years after he was granted citizenship.