Christian Teichelmann (1807 – 1888) missionary
With little financial support, Teichelmann established the first school for Aborigines in South Australia.
With little financial support, Teichelmann established the first school for Aborigines in South Australia, initially in the open air, then at Piltawodli (possum house) near Adelaide gaol. Teichelmann and Schürmann published Outlines of a Grammar: Vocabulary and Phraseology of the Aboriginal Language of South Australia, Spoken by the Natives in and for Some Distance Around Adelaide (1840), including some 2000 words of what is now known as the Kaurna language. Their work became an invaluable resource for modern Kaurna language reclamation.
Perhaps a more rigid and intractable personality than his younger colleague, Teichelmann was, like him, a gifted and diligent student of indigenous language who forthrightly voiced the sufferings of the Aboriginal people of Adelaide. Gawler paid tribute to this work and respected the two as ‘serious, intelligent, persevering Christian men’. In 1840, with the arrival of two further missionaries from Dresden, Teichelmann was appointed government interpreter, while Samuel Klose took over the running of the school (which closed in 1845). Teichelmann published Aboriginals of South Australia: Illustrative and Explanatory Note of the Manners, Customs, Habits and Superstitions of the Natives of South Australia in 1841. In November 1842 he moved to Happy Valley and attempted to establish a mission farm, Ebenezer, with the aim of inducing indigenous people to settle and work the land but, lacking funding, the venture failed.
On Christmas Day 1843 in Adelaide Teichelmann married with Church of Scotland forms 21-year-old Margaret Nicholson. They had fourteen children. In 1846 the family moved back to Adelaide and next year to a farm near Morphett Vale. To supplement his income, Teichelmann commuted fortnightly to Adelaide as guest pastor to the new Lutheran congregation, Old Trinity. In 1856 he accepted a call to the Lutheran congregation of Salem, and founded congregations at Callington and Monarto. Here he revisited his early language work and compiled a manuscript of his Kaurna vocabulary and grammatical notes (1857) which he sent to Sir George Grey in South Africa.
Teichelmann remained active in church life, contributing to the discussion on the resumption of mission work at Lake Killalpaninna in 1866. He retired to farm at Haywood Park, Stansbury, Yorke Peninsula, where he died on 31 May 1888. His wife, six sons and four daughters survived him.
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/teichelmann-christian-gottlieb-13213
A listing of early Australian Missions
https://atributetoaustralianchristians.wordpress.com/2023/10/02/a-listing-of-early-australian-missions/
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