Herman Adolph Heinrich was stationed at Hermannsburg as school-teacher from 1917-32. Born in Germany in 1895, he arrived in Hermannsburg following a move by the South Australian Government to close all Lutheran-operated schools during the height of the anti-German movement that was sweeping Australia. As his daughter Illona Oppenheim writes in her brief biographical study, Heinrich taught at the Nain School near Greenock in the Barossa Valley until the school was closed in July 1917. Rather than join the public school system, Heinrich maintained his Lutheran commitments by taking up a position at Hermannsburg. He married in 1924 and when he took his wife back up to Hermannsburg, the pair were transported from Oodnadatta to Hermannsburg by a buggy driven by a young Albert Namatjira. According to Oppenheim, Heinrich was much-loved by the Arernte population. She writes that when Strehlow died, ‘the aborigines gave Mr Heinrich the name of “Aijua” meaning “old man” and when he brought his new bride to Hermannsburg in 1924, she was christened “Kunkai” meaning “young girl” and was called this all the years she was there.’ (Oppenheim, 6) Other accounts, however.....(SEE STREHLOW CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS). Teaching methods and standards were also routrinely criticised in government reports on the Mission. Heinrich wrote several accounts of his teaching strategies and activities. His 1921/22 account can be found in ‘Finke Mission’, Lutheran Herald, April 10, 1922, pp 116-19. Heinrich died in 1959 in
REFERENCES: 'Dear Mr Heinrich: Ntaria Letters 1933-35', collected by Illona Oppenheim and Ntaria School, Hermannsburg, NT, 2002
