Ngadlu tampinthi ngadlu Kaurna Miyurna yartangka. Munaintya puru purruna ngadlu-itya. Munaintyanangku yalaka tarrkarriana tuntarri.
We acknowledge we are on Kaurna Miyurna land. The Dreaming is still living. From the past, in the present, into the future, forever.
Christine Gehling was born 13 October 1942 and lived at Hermannsburg from 1949-1955 (from the age of 7-13 years). Her father was employed as a bookkeeper/business manager at Hermannsburg Lutheran mission after he was discharged from the army. Ten years later Christine went back to Hermannsburg where she taught from 1965-December 1967 after finishing her teaching diploma in Adelaide . Included in the collection is artwork Gehling found in the classroom from previous years. She had little or no information about them. She was interested in children's art, although not a trained as an art teacher, and was impressed by the quality of much of the work undertaken by her students. She did not collect the work on a systematic basis. The collection consists of those artworks she had in her possession at the end of her teaching period at Hermannsburg, so it is rather random.
Karl Benz (born 1936, Gehling's future husband), a trained motor mechanic taught technical studies to the boys at Hermannsburg. They later went to Yuendumu where he taught tech studies.
Karl Benz's mother Agnes, born in 1913, was the niece of Perc Smith, who worked for the Kidmans as a carpenter and joiner. Smith, who never married, sent photographs he took to his niece. These form part of this collection.