Louis Giustiniani

Louis Giustiniani, who arrived with his wife Maria per Addingham 26 June, 1836, was the first (Moravian) missionary to the Swan River Colony, supported by the WA Missionary Society He was outspoken in defending Aboriginal Australians, but in doing so alienated the colony and was eventually removed from office. After leaving Western Australia, Giustiniani became a Minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States. He left the colony per Abercrombie in 1838.

Borowitzka, Abstract:
In 1835, the Western Australian Missionary Society appointed the Reverend Dr Louis Giustiniani to establish a Moravian-style mission in the Swan River Colony. The land grant essential for such a mission was not forthcoming from the government but Giustiniani established a small mission farm employing Aborigines at Guildford and started ministry among the settlers. This change of mission focus set the stage for conflict within the Anglican establishment of the colony, conflict which destroyed Dr Giustiniani's ministry. Giustiniani was well qualified and exerted himself to achieve the mission's objectives and many accusations made against him were essentially false; they reveal much about the prevailing culture and prejudices of the colony. He was defeated, however, because his ideas of church and mission differed from those of the colonial Church and society and because he did not conform to their expectations of the behaviour of a clergyman.

Ludewig:
The lay-preacher and tailor Fredrick Waldeck and his future wife, Fredericka Wilhelmina Louise Kniest, were among the first Germans to settle permanently in Western Australia. They arrived aboard the Addingham on 26 June 1836, together with the Italian clergyman, the Reverend Dr Louis Giustiniani and his German Protestant wife Maria, with the aim of setting up a Moravian-style mission. Shortly after their arrival in the then struggling Swan River Colony, Waldeck married Fredericka and joined the Reverend in setting up the ill-fated Swan River Mission in Guildford, working among the local Whadjuk Noongars.

References and Links

Borowitzka, L.J. 2011, 'The Reverend Dr Louis Giustiniani and Anglican conflict in the Swan River Colony, Western Australia, 1836-1838', Journal of Religious History, 35, 3: 352-373.

King, Norma 1980, The Waldeck Story, Gannet Press, Fremantle.

Ludewig, Alexandra 2016, Born German, Re-born in Western Australia: Selected Stories 1841-2016, UWAP Publishing.

[[../people/mooregf.html|Moore]], George Fletcher 1884, [[../books/moore1884.html|Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an Early Settler in Western Australia]], Walbrook, London: 303 (on his arrival and poor health); 312 (on his application for naturalisation).

O'Brien, Jacqueline & Pamela Statham-Drew 2009, On We Go the Wittenoom Way: the Legacy of a Colonial Chaplain, Fremantle Press.

Wikipedia page.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 17 May, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/giustiniani.html (it was last updated on 25 February, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.