Berndt was born in 1916 in Adelaide. He attended high school at Pulteney Grammar School. He graduated from the University of Sydney in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts, following up with a Master of Arts in 1954. He was awarded a PhD for a thesis based on his anthropological work in New Guinea.[2]
Berndt was an early advocate for legal recognition and protection of Aboriginal sacred sites, and clashed in 1980 with the Liberal premier Sir Charles Court over the Noonkanbah dispute in the Kimberley region.[2]
His interest was much broader than any one specific location or event, and he was focused on the national dimensions of the land rights issue.[3]
The Berndts jointly wrote a book first in 1952 as The First Australians,[4] which went into three editions—the last being published in 1974.[5] A similar title The World of the First Australians went into five editions.[6]
The collected essays in honour of the Berndts in 1990 showed the breadth of the influence of their teaching and writings,[11] with essays by a wide spectrum of anthropologists of their time, including Claude Levi-Strauss and Raymond Firth.
^Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. (Symposium (5th : 1981 : Canberra, A.C.T.); Berndt, Ronald Murray, 1916–1990; Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Symposium Canberra, A.C.T.) (5th : 1981 (1982), Aboriginal sites, rights and resource development : [Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Fifth Academy Symposium, 11 November, 1981. Proceedings], Published for the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia by University of Western Australia Press, ISBN978-0-85564-221-1{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Berndt, Ronald Murray; Berndt, Catherine Helen (1952), The First Australians, Ure Smith, retrieved 7 July 2014
^Berndt, Ronald Murray; Berndt, Catherine Helen (1964), The World of the First Australians, Ure Smith, retrieved 7 July 2014 and Berndt, Ronald Murray; Berndt, Catherine Helen; Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (1988), The World of the First Australians : Aboriginal traditional life, past and present (5th ed. (revised) ed.), Aboriginal Studies Press for the Australian Institute of Aborigina Studies (published 1996), ISBN978-0-85575-184-5
^Berndt, Ronald Murray; Berndt, Catherine Helen; Tylee Memorial Collection (1979), Aborigines of the west : their past and their present (1st ed.), University of Western Australia Press for the Education Committee of the 150th Anniversary Celebrations ; Forest Grove, Ore : Agent U.S.A., International Scholarly Book Service, ISBN978-0-85564-145-0 and Berndt, Catherine Helen; Berndt, Ronald Murray (1979), Aborigines of the West : their past and their present (2nd ed., rev ed.), University of Western Australia Press (published 1980), ISBN978-0-85564-145-0
^Thurston, David B; Howard, Michael C. (Michael Carlton), 1949-; Tonkinson, Robert, 1938-; Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (1990), Going It Alone : Prospects for Aboriginal Autonomy: Essays in honour of Ronald and Catherine Berndt, Aboriginal Studies Press , 1990, ISBN978-0-85575-211-8{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
