Catherine Berndt


Catherine Helen Berndt, née Webb, born in Auckland, was an Australian anthropologist known for her research in Australia and Papua New Guinea. She was awarded in 1950 the Percy Smith Medal from the University of Otago, New Zealand and in 1980 she received a children's book award and medal for her book, Land of the Rainbow Snake, a collection of stories from Western Arnhem Land.
Berndt published valuable monographs on Aboriginal Australians, including Women's Changing ceremonies in Northern Australia. She authored over 36 major publications about women's social and religious life in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, plus a dozen co-authored publications with others. One of who best known collaborators from aboriginal communities was the Maung woman, Mondalmi, who worked with Berndt.
For this work, Berndt was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London. She was also the 7th woman elected as a Fellow in the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
With her husband Ronald Berndt, C. Berndt collected Indigenous art works of Australia and Asia. The collection is conserved in the Berndt Museum of Anthropology, founded by the couple in 1976.
She died in 1994.

Selected works

*