Ernest Ailred Worms (1891-1963) was a German missionary who lived and worked among Indigenous Australians. He became an expert in Aboriginal languages, and an important contributor to the development of both Australian studies of native languages, and to the ethnography of the continent's Indigenous peoples.

Life

He was ordained a Pallotine father, and spent his first period of missionary work in Broome, where he served as parish priest for eight years.^[1] His interest in ethnography led to particular studies among the Bardi people.

Stolen bones

In 1935 Worms came across the large body of an Aboriginal person wrapped for burial in bark and, as was a widespread custom, placed in the fork of a tree. He gathered the remains and dispatched them to Limburg. Worms was quite aware that he was violating the law against the unauthorised export of ethnological materials in doing so, and therefore requested anonymity. The remains, together with other skeletal material, was repatriated and restored to the Bardi Jawi, who laid them to rest in an offshore cave, in November 2015.^[2]

Works

• Worms, Ernest (December 1942). "Sense of Smell of the Australian Aborigines. A Psychological and Linguistic Study of the Natives of the Kimberley Division". Oceania. 13 (2): 107–130. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1942.tb00373.x. JSTOR 40327982.
• Worms, E. A. (January–June 1950). "Feuer und Feuerzeuge in Sage und Brauch der Nordwest-Australier". Anthropos. 45 (1/3): 145–164. JSTOR 40450834.
• Worms, E. A. (December 1950). "Djamar, the Creator. A Myth of the Bād (West Kimberley, Australia)". Anthropos. 45 (4/6): 641–658. JSTOR 40449333.
• Worms, E. A. (May–August 1952). "Djamar and His Relation to Other Culture Heroes". Anthropos. 47 (3/4): 539–560. JSTOR 40449676.
• Worms, E. A. (1957). "Australian Mythological Terms: Their Etymology and Dispersion". Anthropos. 52 (5/6): 732–768. JSTOR 40453110.
• Worms, E. A. (1959). "Verbannungslied eines australischen Wildbeuters. Ein Beitrag zur Lyrik der Bād". Anthropos. 54 (1/2): 154–168. JSTOR 40454331.
• Worms, Ernest A. (1968): Australische eingeborenen religionen. Translated by M.J. Wilson, D. O'Donovan, M. Charlesworth as Australian Aboriginal religions, Spectrum Publications, for Nelen Yubu Missiological Unit, 1986. ISBN 0867860995