Point McLeay
Segregated dormitories at Point McLeay Mission accommodated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who had been forcibly removed from their parents . Even children who lived with their parents at Point McLeay were taken away and isolated in the dormitories. Children were removed even when there was no reason to do so: the Chief Protector of Aborigines wrote in 1913 that "although the girl is fairly well cared for, I consider that she should not be reared amongst the aborigines, and would respectfully suggest that the matter be referred to the State Children's Council with a view to her being brought under their control" .
In 1900 The Protector of Aborigines recommended that the State Children's Department remove 'half caste' children at Point McLeay . This was part of an assimilation policy that encouraged "half castes and quadroons be taken away from the camps and taught to become useful members of society" .
0Established in 1859, became self-governing in 1974 (later renamed Raukkan)
Point McLeay MissionGary George, Point McLeay Mission Station (1859 Ð 1974) (24 May 2014) Find & Connect https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE01329b.htm
Chief Protector of Aborigines, Letter Book (State Records of South Australia GRG 52/7, August 1 1911) Fl 176 quoted in Government of South Australia, The Removal of Many Aboriginal Children (Department of Human Services, 3rd ed, 2014) 17.
Government of South Australia, The Removal of Many Aboriginal Children (Department of Human Services, 3rd ed, 2014) 10.
SAKathleen Trimmer, Keeping Our Language and Culture Alive in the Goldfields (April 1997) The Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages and Culture
http://www.fatsilc.org.au/languages/language-of-the-month/lotm-1996-to-2000/1997-apr---kathleen-tri…-
Dad and Mum moved down to town. When they moved down to Adelaide things seemed to go wrong ... The inevitable come when Mum and Dad split up and Mum went back to her Homelands. But because we were light-skinned kids [the manager] told Mum she had to leave [the mission at Point McLeay known as 'Raukken'] and take us with her. I was about 5 or 6, something like that. Sooner or later you got caught up with [the welfare] because we didn't have anywhere else to go. But they made it that Mum had to leave Raukken with us. When she went back to town, there was no support of any sort. So she was told to take us to the courthouse. We had to appear in court. That was their job, to take light-skinned kids. Actually they told Mum to come back on a day to the courthouse when it was going to be heard and I think they told her 2 days wrong. When she come back we had already been committed as wards of the State. Same as they stamp on everyone - neglect (p. 108).
Confidential submission 284, South Australia: woman removed in the early 1940s along with her two sisters.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bringing them Home: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Children from Their Families (1997)
6 years Confidential submission 284
Point McLeay Mission, ca. 1872
Point McLeay Mission, ca. 1900
Point McLeay Mission, ca. 1917: The school bamd
Point McLeay Mission, ca. 19127: Children at the day school