Ursula McConnel

Ursula Hope McConnel (1888–1957) was a Queensland anthropologist and ethnographer best remembered for her work with, and the records she made of, the Wik Mungkan people of Cape York Peninsula.

First trained at University College London, then supervised by Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown in the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney, McConnel was one of the first women to be trained in anthropology and then go out to observe Aboriginal Australians in remote areas, systematically documenting, recording, and describing their culture, mythology, beliefs, and way of life.

Early life
Born on a grazing property called "Cressbrook" (near Toogoolawah, Queensland), Ursula McConnel was the eighth child (fifth daughter) of grazier James Henry McConnel and his wife, Mary Elizabeth McConnel (née Kent).

Raised on the Cressbrook property in what has been described as an "austere" and "repressed" family environment, she was:


 * "Striking in looks, brilliant in intellectual gifts, she passed through Brisbane High School for Girls and New England Girls' School at Armidale, garlanded with prizes, before taking first-class honours in philosophy at the University of Queensland

Ursula McConnell has been described as a brave, free-thinking, open questing woman with sometimes strong emotions, growing up at a time when the first wave of feminism n Australia was coming of age: " .. a perfect test case for the various ideas of self-creation .." who also, during troubled times studying, came under the shaping influence of her brother-in-law and psychologist Elton Mayo, husband of her sister Dorothea McConnel:


 * "She was a student of herself [and] believed the human mind could not only be probed and subjected to intensive study through its social context but that its individual workings could be analysed and known in depth"

She was once engaged, never married, and being financially secure in her investments in wool bonds, devoted her life to her anthropological research endeavours in Western Cape York Peninsula, driven by a strong sense of duty and justice to the people with whom she had worked.

Education
At New England Girls' School she received prizes in singing and languages. From ages 17 to 19 she attended courses in history, politics, literature, and music at King's College London. By the age of 20 she completed and attained a first-class honours in philosophy and psychology at the University of Queensland.

At the age of 35 she commenced a doctorate in anthropology at University College London, but, lonely, stressed, and ill she returned to Australia in 1927 without completing her doctorate. On her return, under Professor Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (University of Sydney) she started doing ethnographic research amongst the Wik Mungkan people, Cape York Peninsula.

Career
Between 1927 and 1934 McConnel undertook five field trips into the Cape, and published numerous articles plus a book (entitled Myths of the Munkan) mostly about the Wik Mungkan people, and the Aboriginal Australians of Cape York generally. During this period she was also awarded a Rockefeller fellowship (1931–33) to study under Edward Sapir at Yale University, in the United States of America. Her series of articles in Walkabout magazine  in 1936 promoted her research, and her concern over the treatment by government and missions of aboriginal people, to the general public.

She attempted to obtain a doctorate in anthropology from University College, London, by submitting her publications, but, in the end, never obtained that doctorate, though still laying a significant foundation for present day anthropological research amongst the Aboriginal peoples of the region.

Newspaper articles

 * "Girl Anthropologist: Cape York studies"
 * Courier Mail (11 September 1933) "Studies Among Natives -Miss Ursula McConnel's Work" Accessed 30 April 2010
 * Courier Mail (30 September 1933) "Social Life Study: Miss Ursula McConnell's Address" Accessed 30 April 2010
 * Courier Mail (22 December 1933) "In Town and Out: Miss Ursula McConnel   a noted anthropologist .. is one of a small group of Australian anthropologists who are doing hard field work among the natives Accessed 30 April 2010
 * Sydney Morning Herald (8 March 1934) "Science: Adventures in Anthropology by Ursula McConnell Accessed 30 April 2010