Was god ever a 'boss' at Wujal Wujal? Lutherans and Kuku-Yalanji: A socio-historical analysis.

Lutheran missionaries from Germany arrived in 1887 to 'care for' and to evangelise to the Kuku-Yalanji people of the Bloomfield River area of the north Queensland rainforests. They left fifteen years later without having converted a single soul. Was this failure the result of inept missionisation? Was Lutheranism at odds with Kuku-Yalanji religious beliefs? This paper argues that the answer lies rather at the core of the Kuku-Yalanji worldview and social universe. Using rich historical sources, this paper demonstrates that Kuku-Yalanji people-who have particular socio-territorial ties to the mission lands-instigated an experiment with the missionaries. Their assumption was that the missionaries held a role that was structurally equivalent to that of ' majamaja' in their own system-key focal individuals with religious knowledge, power and achieved status operating at the node of a social network on a particular area of 'country'. The missionaries failed to live up to this expectation and for this and other reasons, Kuku-Yalanji left and the mission failed with no lasting Christian impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]