Roper River
The primary purpose of Roper River Mission was to bring "Christianity and civilisation" to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents of the Mission . Roper River housed many children during its history, and a report in 1913 about the activities of the Mission discussed how the "object of the mission is to educate these children... [and] eradicate their savage instincts" . Roper River, like Groote Eylandt Mission, housed many people who were labelled "half-caste" under government policy and legislation, and the Church Missionary Society believed that it was important to segregate these residents from "the 'degrading influences' of white settlements". With the bombing of Darwin in 1942, many residents of the Mission were transferred to the Church Missionary Society Home for Half-Castes in Mulgoa, New South Wales. Very few children returned to Roper River; the majority of the boys were taken to St Francis House, South Australia, and many of the girls were to St Mary's Hostel in Alice Springs .
0Established in 1909 by the Anglican Church Missionary Society, closed in 1988 and became a self-governing community.
Roper River MissionGary George and Karen George, Roper River Mission (1908 - 188) (28 November 2014) Find & Connect, para 3 https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00010b.htm
Gary George and Karen George, Roper River Mission (1908 - 188) (28 November 2014) Find & Connect, para 9 https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00010b.htm
Gary George and Karen George, Roper River Mission (1908 - 188) (28 November 2014) Find & Connect, para 14 https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00010b.htm
Gary George and Karen George, Roper River Mission (1908 - 188) (28 November 2014) Find & Connect, para 17 https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00010b.htm
NTDavid Horton (ed), The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History, Society and Culture (Aboriginal Studies Press, 1994) vol 2, 1189.
Ngalakan people Ngalakan language Yolngu in north-west Arnhem Land. Anangu in Central Australia. NTPg. 120. Several of these children in later adult years recalled the sorrow of that separation. CMS, however, saw what they were doing as creating some positive opportunities for these children. None of these separations were permanent. Their mothers visited them on Groote Eylandt, and some spent school holidays and other times with their mothers at the Roper River Mission. Pg. 121. The stated intentions of the mission were to protect Aboriginal people from exploitation and murder, to bring the Christian faith, and to provide European education and vocational training. Right from the outset, CMS was concerned about the obligations which the then South Australian government might place upon them if government funding was accepted. The first missionaries told the Premier that they 'did not care to devote their lives to training cheap labour'
Submission 453 - Church Missionary Society
Roper River Mission, 1928
Roper River Mission, 1928
Roper River Mission, 1928