The Wentworth Lecture is held in honour of the Honourable W C Wentworth AO. It was established in 1978 to pay tribute to Mr Wentworth's contribution to Indigenous studies in Australia and as a means to encourage all Australians to gain a better understanding of issues that go to the heart of our development as a nation.
About William (Bill) Wentworth
William (Bill) Wentworth (1907–2003) played an important role in the establishment of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1961.
He had a long-term and intense interest in the origins, society and culture of the continent’s first pioneers and settlers, the Aborigines, and believed that the study of Aboriginal people would throw light on human origins.
Dr Jacquie Lambert, in her excellent ANU doctoral dissertation on the history of the Institute, refers to Wentworth as its ‘founding father’.
He made a major contribution to what has become the world’s primary repository of knowledge concerning the cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
