William Edward Hanley Stanner William Edward Hanley Stanner CMG ( 24 November 19058 October 1981 ) was an Australian anthropologist who worked extensively with Indigenous Australians . Stanner had a varied career that also included journalism in the 1930s , military service in World War II , and political advice on colonial policy in Africa and the South Pacific in the post - war period . He was the Commanding Officer of the 2 / 1st North Australia Observer Unit ( NAOU ) during World War II , also known as the " Nackeroos " and recently coined " Curtin ’ s Cowboys " . The NAOU was the military predecessor to the modern NORFORCE . Formed in March 1942 and disbanded March 1945 , they patrolled northern Australia for signs of enemy activity . Stanner was an influential figure prior to the successful 1967 referendum on Aboriginal affairs which removed provisions in the Australian Constitution which discriminated against Indigenous Australians . In 1967 , the Prime Minister Harold Holt invited Stanner to join H . C . Coombs and Barrie Dexter to form the Commonwealth Council for Aboriginal Affairs and advise on national policy . He subsequently played an important role in establishing the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies . Stanner coined the terms the " Great Australian Silence " and " everywhen " and brought them into general usage in his 1968 Boyer Lectures " After the Dreaming " , which reflected on the silence on Indigenous Australians in Australian history after European settlement . Biography . A number of biographical references exist , the most detailed is by Diane Barwick , Jeremy Beckett and Marie Reay which was largely completed before his death in 1981 . Early career . Stanner was born at Watson ' s Bay , Sydney on 24 November 1905 , the son of Andrew Edwin Stanner and Mary Catherine Stanner ( née Hanley ) . He was educated at state schools and won a bursary to Parramatta High School ( 1919 – 21 ) , but was unable to stay on after the Intermediate Certificate . Stanner worked for two years in a bank and matriculated by private study . He worked as a journalist while studying at University . In 1927 Stanner obtained full - time work as a reporter for the Sydney " Daily Guardian " for Frank Packer , the first of a number of posts in journalism which financed his studies in Australia and England . At University , Stanner has an interest in athletics , football and was the secretary of the University ' s League of Nations Society . He stated afterward that his selection of anthropology as a profession was influenced by the famous anthropologist Alfred Radcliffe - Brown . Stanner worked as a journalist until 1932 by which time he was chief sub - edior of the " Sunday Sun " including several years in the Parliamentary Gallery . Stanner won the Frank Albert Prize in anthropology in two successive years and graduated with a BA ( Honours ) ( Anthropology and Economics ) in 1932 . In 1933 Stanner took up a temporary position on the personal staff of Bertram Stevens , the Premier of NSW , for whom he drafted parliamentary and public speeches and prepared reports . At that time he met H . C . Coombs and formed and enduring friendship with W . C . Wentworth who he worked with in later life . He received an MA ( Class 1 Honours ) in Anthropology in 1934 from the University of Sydney for which he did extensive field research in the Daly River region of Northern Australia . A . P . Elkin judged Stanner ' s 1934 thesis on culture - contact at the Daly River as " a work of outstanding quality " . Stanner criticised the popular assumption that the main function of the anthropologist was " the naive search for uncontaminated aboriginal cultures " . He presented an exposition of a method for studying contact and cultural change , insisting that this was " an important and neglected problem " . Barwick , Beckett and Reay wrote in 1985 that already his lifelong concern with the practical value of anthropology to Aboriginal welfare was apparent . In 1935 , on his second field work , Stanner accompanied the Catholic priest Father Richard Docherty to Port Keats , now known as Wadeye on the south - western coast of the Northern Territory , halfway between the mouths of the Daly River and Fitzmaurice River . Docherty was commissioned to establish a mission in the region and Stanner helped him choose the site . Over the next thirty years , the people of the two river valleys came into the mission and eventually became permanent residents . On his appointment to the Australian National University , Stanner renewed his interest in the Port Keats Wadeye area renewing old friendships . Much of his work as an anthropologist was based on his field work with Indigenous Australians in the Port Keats Wadeye area . Stanner moved to London in 1936 completed his PhD at the London School of Economics in 1938 studying under Bronisław Malinowski . Compatriots included Phyllis Kaberry and Piddington . Jomo Kenyatta , the first Prime Minister ( 1963 – 1964 ) of Kenya and subsequently President ( 1964 – 1978 ) was a fellow student . Stanner also worked as a sub - editor in the Foreign Room at The Times . Early academic appointments and field research included : Under the auspices of Oxford University he did field research in Kenya in 1938 - 39 as part of the Oxford Expedition to Kenya and East Africa for the Oxford Social Studies Research Committee . This field research was discontinuted at the outbreak of World War II when Stanner returned to Australia . He obtained employment at the Department of Information and subsequently acted as adviser to successive Ministers for the Army , Percy Spender and Frank Forde who subsequently became Prime Minister . WW2 Military service . In March 1942 his pre - war experience in Northern Australia led to him being directed to " raise and command " to what became the 2 / 1st North Australia Observer Unit ( NAOU ) , otherwise known as ' Stanner ' s Bush Commandos ' . At this time he enlisted in the 2nd AIF ( 1942 – 1946 ) . Known colloquially as ' Nackeroos ' , the men were deployed in small groups throughout the rugged north of Australia , where they observed and reported on signs of enemy activity , often patrolling on horseback . As the unit ' s Commander , Major Stanner made contact with many local Aboriginal groups , and employed some to assist his troops as guides and labourers . Nackeroo operations were scaled down as the threat of Japanese invasion passed , and the unit was eventually disbanded in March 1945 . The history of the unit was documented in detail by Dr . Amoury Vane . Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel ( Lt Col ) in 1943 , Stanner served in Europe , Britain and then in British North Borneo ( Lt - Col ) as Senior Civil Affairs Officer for the British Borneo Civil Affairs Unit ( BBCAU ) until the conclusion of the war . Career post WW2 . He continued his anthropological work after the war , becoming a prominent writer , lecturer and public advocate of the study and appreciation of Aboriginal society and its place in Australia . Stanner ' s notable career postings post - World War II included : Stanner also held a number of key leadership positions at the Australian National University including : Referendum in 1967 . Stanner was an influential figure prior to the successful 1967 referendum on Aboriginal affairs which removed provisions in the Australian Constitution which discriminated against Indigenous Australians . Council for Aboriginal Affairs . In 1967 , the Prime Minister Harold Holt invited Stanner to join H . C . Coombs and Barry Dexter to form the Council for Aboriginal Affairs and advise on national policy . Stanner held that position through successive political regimes , including the Whitlam Government , which began to implement much of the program Stanner , Coombs and Dexter endorsed : land rights , the movement to outstations , increased social welfare and community - based economies . Stanner brought to this policy package an anthropologist ' s sensitivity to the importance of ceremony and ritual . In particular , at the handover of the first native title grant to the Gurindji people at Wattie Creek in the Northern Territory in 1975 , Stanner recommended Prime Minister Gough Whitlam should perform the memorable symbolic act of pouring earth through the hands of Gurindji leader , Vincent Lingiari . Boyer Lectures in 1968 . In 1968 Prof W . E . H . Stanner presented the Boyer Lectures titled " After the Dreaming " . The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC ( Australian Broadcasting Commission , now the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ) Lectures . They were renamed in 1961 after Richard Boyer ( later Sir Richard ) , the ABC board chairman who had first suggested the lectures . The series is broadcast every year in November / December on ABC Radio National . The lectures have been delivered annually by prominent Australians , selected by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ' s Board . They have stimulated thought , discussion and debate in Australia on a wide range of subjects . Stanner ' s lecture has since been reprinted a number of times . Family . Stanner married Patricia Williams , a diplomat in 1962 . The couple had two sons : Andrew Stanner and John Stanner . ANU Conference in 2005 . In 2005 , the Australian National University commemorated the centenary of the birth of W . E . H . ( Bill ) Stanner , one of its late professors of anthropology , with a conference discussing his lifetime achievements . Keith Windschuttle described this in Quadrant magazine as " an uncommon honour for an Australian academic who died 24 years earlier in 1981 . " Speakers at the conference were as follows : A volume of the conference papers was published in 2008 , " An Appreciation of Difference : W . E . H . Stanner and Aboriginal Australia " , edited by Melinda Hinkson and Jeremy Beckett . Books and publications . Books , publications and speeches : Honours and tributes . Honours , named in honour of , or tributes to W . E . H . Stanner :