Health & History, 2014. 16/2 107 Obituary Assessment of Mental Health in Indigenous Australians: The Role of John Ewart Cawte, a Pioneer in Transcultural Research David J. Robertson, Raymond L. Specht, and Barry Nurcombe The mental health of Aboriginal people in Central Australia, Western Australia, western New SouthWales, Mornington Island, Queensland, and in Arnhem Land (Elcho Island and Groote Eylandt), Northern Territory, became the passion of John Ewart Cawte (1925–2011) long before he moved to the newly established Psychiatry Department in the University of New South Wales in 1963. This interest began in childhood at Streaky Bay, South Australia, continued at Adelaide High School with one of the first IQ tests of the Australian Council John Cawte at his residence at Malabar in 2003. Photo courtesy Gary O’Neill 108 OBITUARY: John Ewart Cawte of Education Research (1938), and expanded to an enduring concern for Indigenous health during discussions with Ray Specht about the 1948 American–Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, in his association with Professor Donald McElwain (chair of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Education and Psychology Panel), and extended periods of fieldwork in northern Australia. This obituary sets out a history of Cawte’s important work in the field of Indigenous mental health. John Cawte’s Background John Ewart Cawte spent his early childhood at Streaky Bay, on the far west coast of South Australia, where his father of English-Huguenot descent was headmaster of the school with a mixture of English and Aboriginal children. He began his secondary education at Adelaide High School in 1938, the year when the Australian Council of EducationalResearchconductedoneoftheirfirstIntelligenceQuotient tests on the 239 male pupils who had recently enrolled.1 Stanley J. Edmonds, John’s Leaving (Matriculation) teacher, challenged the students in the ‘Inquiry Method of Teaching’ in Maths, Physics, and Chemistry classes—a teaching technique that Stan helped promote in secondary school biology.2 John enrolled in the Adelaide University Medical School in 1942 and served as a naval medical reservist as part of his war service. After graduating in 1949, he spent a couple of years as an intern in Parkside Mental Hospital. Newly-married John Cawte was appointed in-charge of Enfield Receiving Home in 1953–1962.3 John’s childhood contact with Aboriginal children at Streaky Bay and his occasional discussions with Ray Specht on his experiences on the 1948 Arnhem Land expedition inspired him to undertake transcultural studies as a Harkness Fellow at John Hopkins and Harvard Universities in 1956.4 With the foundation of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies and Professor Donald McElwain chairing its Education and Psychology Panel, Cawte became further involved with research into Indigenous Australian health.5 Cawte’s Work with Indigenous Communities After taking a position at the University of New South Wales in 1963, John gained access to the necessary resources to begin evaluating the psychiatric situation facing many Aboriginal Health & History ● 16/2 ● 2014 109 communities and individuals.6 That very same year he visited the Benedictine Mission at Kalumburu, Western Australia and published a medical evaluation in The Medical Journal of Australia and an anthropological description in Australia’s preeminent anthropology journal Oceania.7 The following year he conducted fieldwork in two remote Aboriginal communities in central Australia—accompanied by fellow psychiatrist M.A. Kidson to Yuendumu. The pair carried out a micro-study of the transformation of psychiatric illness within an Aboriginal family and argued that it was undergoing important changes across the generations. These were related to the context of social and cultural change transforming Indigenous communities.8 While at Yuendumu, John provided an important insight into a question long pondered by anthropologists. The purpose of the practice of subincision had been debated amongst many observers over the previous decades.9 Through discussions with localAboriginal people, John came to understand that the practice was partly based on the anatomical structure of surrounding fauna; specifically, the marsupial penis.10 In terms of white understandings of the practice, this was a ground-breaking observation. John’s domestic importance was further reflected in his internationalreputation.DuringAugust1965hespokeattheAmerican Psychiatric Association’s meeting in the Hawaiian Islands, giving an introduction to Australian ethno-psychiatry.11 During May 1971 he spoke...