An interesting career to follow: Les Hiatt, 1931-2008.(Obituary)(Obituary)

LESTER RICHARD HIATT, libertarian, anthropologist, sometime dentist and golfer, died suddenly in England on February 10.

Les was born in Gilgandra, New South Wales, on December 30, 1931. He attended Hurlstone Agricultural High School; from there he went to the University of Sydney where he completed a dentistry degree before embarking on Anthropology and Philosophy. In 1963 he was awarded a PhD for his thesis on the Gidjingarli people of northern Amhem Land, subsequently published as Kinship and Conflict. From 1971 to 1991 he was Reader in Anthropology at Sydney University.

He was a Foundation Member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (formerly the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies) and was the Institute's President and Chairman of Council from 1974 to 1982. Since 1998 Hiatt had been an Honorary Visiting Fellow at AIATSIS and in 1990-91 was Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at Harvard University. Hiatt has also held the honorary positions of President, Anthropological Society of New South Wales (1966-67); Chairman, Committee of Inquiry into the Role of the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (1976); President, Section 25, ANZAAS (1982); and Chairman, Fifth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, Darwin (1988). In addition he held the honorary editorial positions of Co-Editor, Mankind (1967-72); Assistant Editor, Oceania (1978-85); Co-Editor, Oceania (1985-91); Editor, Oceania Monographs (1982-91). Hiatt became a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland in 1964, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia in 1974.

His retirement was spent playing golf, writing and engaging in public debate. He produced Arguments About Aborigines: Australia and the Evolution of Anthropology in 1996, and with Kim McKenzie a CD and book People of the Rivermouth: The Joborr Texts of Frank Gurrmanamana (2002). His last publication was a short paper, "Who Wrote Ten Canoes?" in Quadrant last November.

He was described by the anthropologist Francesca Merlan of the ANU, a longtime colleague and friend of Les, as Australia's most senior scholar of traditional life and social organisation. His almost fifty years of activity in Australian anthropology:

 
   focused on a range of research topics 
   including local organisation, politics, 
   kinship and marriage, conflict, sexuality, myth and 
   symbolism. He was a dedicated inquirer, meticulous 
   scholar, clear and compelling writer, a colleague of 
   unparalleled integrity, and a principled researcher 
   who maintained relationships over the span of his 
   career with people at Maningrida, his main field 
   site from 1958. 

He recalled that he got away to a false start: "By the time I was completing my dental undergraduate career in 1952, I was determined, if at all possible, to do two things: to complete dentistry, but to get out of it as soon as I could." In 1954 he started an Arts degree at night and worked as a dentist part-time. The following year he spent a year at Bourke as a dental assistant, amongst the white people. There he met Betty Meehan, whom he subsequently married. Betty and he returned to Sydney. He continued his Arts degree majoring in Anthropology and Philosophy. His life was set on a different course.