Donald Thomson Donald Fergusson Thomson , OBE ( 26 June 1901 – 12 May 1970 ) was an Australian anthropologist and ornithologist who was largely responsible for turning the Caledon Bay crisis into a " decisive moment in the history of Aboriginal - European relations . " He is remembered as a friend of the Yolngu people , and as a champion of understanding , by non - Indigenous Australians , of the culture and society of Indigenous Australians . Early life . Thomson studied zoology and botany at the University of Melbourne . He also joined the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union ( RAOU ) in 1917 and served it as Press Officer ( 1923 ) and as Assistant Editor of its journal the " Emu " ( 1924 – 1925 ) . When he graduated in 1925 he joined the Melbourne Herald as a cadet , also marrying Gladys Coleman in the same year . He then studied for a one - year diploma course in anthropology at the University of Sydney , graduating in 1928 , and then set off on an eight - month journey , working with and recording the Indigenous people of Cape York . On his return , he was falsely accused of dishonesty , because of the loss of some funds , which was later traced to fraudulent activity by a staff member of the Australian Research Council . This unhappy episode forever damaged his relationship with other anthropologists at Sydney . After another trip to Cape York in 1929 , Thomson joined the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne , and in 1932 joined the University of Melbourne as a Research Fellow , obtaining his PhD in 1934 . Caledon Bay crisis . In 1932 – 33 , as the Caledon Bay crisis erupted , Thomson offered his services to the Australian Government to resolve the crisis , and to the surprise of the government succeeded in doing so . His success had long - term ramifications for the relationship between Indigenous and non - Indigenous Australians , and is regarded as the crowning achievement of his life . He formed a strong bond with the Yolngu people , studying their traditional use of the land in the Arafura Swamp and elsewhere . In 1941 he persuaded the Army to establish a special reconnaissance force of Yolngu men known as the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit , including tribal elder Wonggu and his sons , to help repel Japanese raids on the northern coastline of Australia . In 1943 , as the war moved northward from the Australian coast , the unit was disbanded , and Thomson returned to the Air Force . He was badly injured in action in Dutch New Guinea , and spent the rest of the war in hospital before being discharged from the Armed Forces . Thomson in Central Australia . In 1957 , Thomson carried out the " Bindibu ( Pintupi ) Expedition " to the Western Desert to make contact with Pintupi there . For some Pintupi , this was their first contact with Europeans . They were almost the last Indigenous Australian group with whom white Australians were to make contact with ( the very last was a group of Pintupi in 1984 ) . Thomson again demonstrated his excellent ethnographic skills . The photographs taken here , like those he took in the 1930s in Arnhem Land , have become invaluable historical records for Aboriginal and non - Aboriginal Australians , particularly for the Pintupi . The Thomson Collection of approximately four thousand black and white glass plate photographs is currently held by Museum Victoria . One of these photographs was of a group of ten men in their bark canoes on a swamp and was the inspiration for the title of a critically acclaimed film Ten Canoes . The title of the film arose from discussions between co - director Rolf de Heer and the movie ' s narrator David Gulpilil about a photograph of ten canoeists poling across the Arafura Swamp , taken by anthropologist Donald Thomson in 1936 . Thomson lived with the Pintupi , and liked them , through much of the 1950s and 60s . He returned to the University of Melbourne and continued working there until his death in 1970 . His ashes were flown to the Northern Territory and , accompanied in the plane by two of the sons of Wonggu , scattered over the waters of Caledon Bay .