Brian Geytenbeek

Brian Burnet Geytenbeek was born on a farm in South Australia in 1933. He and his wife were among the founding members of the Australian Aborigines Branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), and were field linguists with that organisation for forty-one years. They worked with the Bandjalang people (Gidabal dialect) in New South Wales from 1962-1967 (where Brian also recorded some songs for a friend), and then served for some years in administration in the Field Centre in Darwin. Their last thirty years with SIL included twenty years spent in Western Australia as residents of the Tjalku Wara Aboriginal Community near Port Hedland. Their primary assignment while there was to record the Nyangumarta language, but over the years Brian assisted several other language groups with small projects when time permitted.

Awards

Winner, Kate Chaillis RAKA Award, 2005

Books available from Fremantle Press

• Ngarla Songs 2003