Helen Groger-Wurm

Helen Groger-Wurm, birth name Helene Gröger, (1921–2005) was an Austrian-Australian ethnologist, anthropologist and linguist. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1946, she married the Hungarian-born linguist Stefan Wurm. In 1954 the couple moved to Australia where they obtained Australian citizenship. They carried out field research in New Guinea and in northern Australia. From 1962 until her 1974, Groger-Wurm was a research officer (also co-founder) at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, lecturing in parallel on the aboriginal way of life at the Australian National University. She went on to take up work a librarian at the Australian National Library until her retirement in 1982. She is remembered in particular for her work in connection with aboriginal bark painting.

Early life and education

Born on 21 February 1921 in Vienna, Austria, Helene Gröger was the daughter of the bank employee Wilhelm Emanuel Gröger and his wife Antonia née Vecera. After completing her gymnasium schooling, from 1940 she studied ethnology combined with African languages and Egyptology at the University of Vienna. In 1946, she earned a Ph.D. with a dissertation titled Die Musikinstrumente im Kult der Afrikaner (Musical instruments in African culture).

In May 1946, she married the Hungarian linguist Stefan Wurm and accompanied him to London where she took a post-graduate course in social anthropology under Raymond Firth at the London School of Economics.

Career

In 1954, the couple emigrated to Australia where Stefan had been invited to teach at the University of Sydney. Helen worked there as an administrative assistant until 1956 when she moved with her husband to Canberra as he had been engaged as senior fellow in the department of anthropology and sociology. In December 1957, they both obtained Australian citizenship.