TGH Strehlow's positioning as an Arrerente man is one of the most controversial narratives in Journey to Horseshoe Bend...... .....
The importance TGH placed on his connections to Arrernte culture are documented in his 1935 field diary when he records a meeting with Christina and Marianne
March 10: (Marianne and Christina come to see him). ‘- they had not forgotten my mother nor had anyone else. They told me of some of the people who had died recently: the people at Hbg. Had always been well and healthy while my father was here; since his death the people were always sick, and so many had died, and often the doctors did not know what was wrong with them, and they were sad because their numbers had decreased so suddenly.’ (Strehlow, 3)
March 14: (Notes how some of the people plead with him to come and live at Hbg.) ‘Nathanael and the others pleaded with me to come back and settle at Hbg. Had I not grown up there amongst them – eaten the same meats and vegetables and food plants as they had; they all wanted me to come back’ (Strehlow, 5)
REFERENCE: See Folder III: ‘Book VII Diary Central Australia 1935’ TGH Strehlow, Field Diary, (Carl Strehlow AA315 – TGH Strehlow AA316), Museum of South Australia
