Reading list: Remembering the Mission Days

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AIATSIS call number: B K110.10/S1
Personal Author: Kabaila, Peter Rimas, 1955 -

Title: Survival legacies : stories from Aboriginal settlements of southeastern Australia

Publication info: Canberra, A.C.T. Canprint, ©2011
Physical descript: xv, 576 p. : ill., facsims, geneal. tables, maps, ports., plans ; 25 cm

Annotation: Vincent Bulger - Approaches: Tribes, tribal areas and movements; Hunter-gatherers : continuing aspects of traditional life after white settlement. Urban people: Expansion of settlement from Sydney 1820's-1830's. Eight generations of Aboriginal and European interaction, Old and new law.

The fight ethic; "Barbed wire occupation" marks the end of hunter-gathering, Emergence of the land rights era, Loss of traditional knowledge, Social fusion and fission; Alcohol; Reserve system in global context; Aboriginal reserve system in southeastern Australia; End of the Aboriginal reserve era - Aboriginal children's homes. NSW state control over Aboriginal children - Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Home, removal - Daily life for a Cootmundra Home girl : daily life 1912-1940; Daily life 1940-1975; Punishment; Sent into domestic service; Changing layout of the girls home - Differing perspectives of Cootamundra Girls Home : Missionary, 1879-1884; Tibby Briar, 1939-1946; Barbara Hart, 1936-1947; Lesley Whitton, 1944-1962; Daphne and Bertha Bell, 1952-1964; Betty Ellis, 1943-1958; Matron, 1945-1967; Caretaker, 1955-1975; Day staff and town people, 1950s to 1960s; Non-Aboriginal girls at the home.  1969-1975 - Different homes and contrasts : Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home, 1950s; Parramatta Girls Home, 1940s - After-effects

Macquarie River (Wiradjuri & Wangaaybuwan) : Wellington settlements: Aboriginal area reduced as the town grew - Wellington's sequence of missions: Wellington Valley Mission 1832-1845; Apsley Mission 1839 to 1848; Blake's Fall Mission 1848 to 1866; "Black's Camp" to 1910;

Town Common 1868 to 1970; Nanima 1910 to present day; Bell River Flat circa 1940 to 1970; Springs at Orange - Dubbo settlements: Black Bridge; Devil's Hole; Talbragar - Peak Hill area settlements: Bulgandramine; Bottom Hill; Top Hill; Whitton Park Road. 

Small Aboriginal farming reserves. Yass and Tumut area (Ngunawal & Wiradjuri) : Yass area settlements; Rye Park : Russell hut; Lane hut; Amos Lewis' block; Creek reserve; Rye Park pioneer cemetery - Yass: Oak Hill; Edgerton Station; Yass "Black's Camp"; Hollywood; "New Mission".

Brungle & Tumut settlements: Brungle; Mission as a centre where pathways meet - Murrumbidgee River: Narrandera settlements: Grong Grong; Woolscour Reserve; Narrandera Sandhills; Hill 60 - Warangesda Mission and its aftermath: Darlington Point Reserve - Griffith and Leeton settlements: Griffith Town camps; Frogs Hollow;

The Three Way; Wattle Hil - Lachlan River: Cowra, Forbes settlements: Erambie; Bag camp; Railway gates; Ryan's Place; Gooloogong; Camp layout reflecting social organisation; Forbes - Condobolin: Murie; Willow Bend; Soup Kitchen; Condobolin town housing; Euabalong reserve.

Marngie Waterhole - Murrin Bridge (Ngiyampaa, Paakantyi & Wiradjuri) : Lake Cargelligo; Forming a reserve community by resettlement; Carowra Tank; Menindee; Murrin Bridge.

Institutionalisation and loss of traditional values - Discussions: Theories and methods : recent shifts in social theory; Social archaeology and marginal groups; Reserves viewed through household archaeology; Reserves viewed as institutions or "ghettos"; Ethnicity; Theories of culture change - colonialism, assimilation, acculturation, creolisation; Is culture change conflict or interaction?; Cultural stereotyping ("racism") - Research methods for settlements: types of documents; "telephone box" archaeology; Misuse of an oral account - Group identity and interaction: impact of occupation: individual responses to Europeans; Yuranigh, path finder and negotiator; Yarri, hero of the floods.

Early responses to interaction with Europeans in southeastern Australia - Issues in contemporary survival : questions of new identity; Contemporary situation; Aboriginal family characteristics - Settlement distribution: Location of the outsider near the town; Factors for the growth and decline of settlements; Magnets of settlement - "super waterhole" theory; Constraints on settlement - Adaptive technologies: Assimilation of European technologies; The Yass/Brungle spear - case study of composite technology; Hut building technologies; Fading of bush technologies - Layout and living space : Comparing Aboriginal reserves and community camps; Camps; Aboriginal reserves; Territory, overcrowding and stress; "Caring and sharing" in the camp; The move from camp to town; Paired settlements in towns "The Block" in Sydney - Koori country - Looking to the future - List of settlements surveyed - Index : Family names - Index : Place names.

AIATSIS Call number: Electronic Access only
Personal Author: Djenidi, Valerie

Title: State and church involvement in Aboriginal reserves, missions and stations in New South Wales, 1900-1975 [electronic resource] : and a translation into French of John Ramsland, Custodians on the Soil: a history of Aboriginal-European relationships in the Manning Valley of New South Wales.

Publication info: 2008
Physical descrip: Electronic file
Annotation: "In this study, we examine the involvement of Churches and Government in New South Wales Aboriginal Reserves and Stations during the twentieth century (1900-1975). Two non-denominational Missions, the United Aborigines' Mission (UAM) also called the Australian Aborigines' Mission (AAM) and the Australian Inland Mission (AIM) were particularly active and they both started their work in New South Wales before extending it into other Australian States. Their action in New South Wales was distinctive because it mostly involved women and the missionaries were sent to live with Aboriginal communities. Therefore, unlike the 'strictly authoritarian' approach adopted in Northern Territory or Western Australia, missionaries in NSW lived by themselves among people who had settled in Reserves and maintained as much as possible a sense of community.

The establishment of Aboriginal Schools gave Missions the opportunity to strengthen their influence among the communities. Elementary education was at the core of the intervention of the Government and the Missions. While the Missions' involvement was accepted and even encouraged by the State Government at first, as soon as its agency, the Aborigines' Protection Board was given the legislative power to control Aboriginal people, the Missions were induced to confine themselves to the religious sphere. The study demonstrates that while the White institutions sought to extend their authority over Aboriginal people, the latter were asserting their agency. Thus, some communities appear to have embraced evangelical forms of Christianity when the control of the administration was reaching its peak. As government managers were sent in Aboriginal reserves, in the 1930s, exclusive Native Church Conventions gained momentum.

In 1940, the new agency of the Government, the Aborigines' Welfare Board, aimed at implementing a new policy: the assimilation of Aboriginal people. From that time, the Government became reluctant about the involvement of the Missions and encouraged town local denominational churches to open their congregations to accept Aborigines. This attempt failed as neither the Black nor the White congregations were disposed to integrate. Thus the study highlights how the relations between the Church and the Government ebbed and flowed as both institutions wanted to assert their control over New South Wales Aboriginal communities. The research also demonstrates how Aboriginal people were able to resist within the constraints, revealing a constant negotiation - overt but also concealed - between these three groups.

The translation into French of an Australian history book about the relations between Aboriginal people and Europeans is closely related to the historical research. Indeed, the Manning Valley was one of the places where the Missions and later on the Native Churches were particularly influential. Therefore some people like Ella Simon and Bert Marr are present in both works - the thesis and the history book. It seems appropriate to end the thesis with the translation of an interview given by Ella Simon. As always she talks proudly of her Aboriginal culture and at times continues without addressing the interviewer's question. Thus when the interviewer asked if she is telling a 'true story and not a legend', her only answer is: 'it's about Forster'. The translation will hopefully offer a more informed view of Australian history and more specifically Aboriginal-European relations to a francophone readership. Although aware that 'rewriting is a manipulation undertaken in the service of power', we would like to think that 'in its positive aspect', rewriting or translating 'can help in the evolution of a literature and a society'" [taken from abstract]
Electronic access to digitised thesis available online at University of Newcastle.

AIATSIS call number: B C971.74/T1
Personal Author: Cummings, Barbara, 1948-

Title: Take this child : from Kahlin Compound to the Retta Dixon Children's Home

Publication info: Canberra:Aboriginal Studies Press, 1990
Physical descrip: xvi, 139 p.; ill., ports.
Annotation: Impact of institutionalisation on Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory; views of those who grew up under the dormitory system; Aboriginal people were brought from all over the Top End to Kahlin Compound, which was later transferred to Bagot Reserve; Retta Dixon Childrens Home administered by the Aborigines Inland Mission; assimilation; child welfare; children; institutional care.

AIATSIS call number: MS 1440
Personal Author: Whittburn, John A

Title: Emerging patterns in Aboriginal Christianity, with special reference to Christian missions

Publication info: Warrabri, N.T.:Warrabri Baptist Church, c1978
Physical description: 66 p.
Access: Open access - reading. Open copying & quotation. Not for Inter-Library Loan
Annotation: Continued uses of traditional culture; Aboriginal lay involvement and training; Christian missions and the government based on questionnaires to individuals personally known to author.

AIATSIS call number: B S971.68/A1
Personal author: Swain, Tony and Deborah Bird Rose (eds)

Title: Aboriginal Australians and Christian missions : ethnographic and historical studies

Publication info: Bedford Park, S. Aust. : Australian Association for the Study of Religions, c1988
Physical description: ix, 489 p. : ill., facsims., maps, ports. ; 25 cm
Annotation: Part One. Perspectives: comparative, philosophical and reflective - Elegy / Jack Bruno (translated by Barry Alpher) - Aborigines and Christianity: an overview / Kenelm Burridge - A Pygmalion complex among missionaries: the Catholic case in the Kimberley / Michael Alroe - Body and soul: more than an episode! / Ronald M. Berndt and Catherine H. Berndt - Reflections on a failed crusade / Robert Tonkinson - 

Part Two. Early history and denominational developments - 'Writing on sand': the first missions to Aborigines in Eastern Australia / Jean Woolmington - The Aborigines and Tasmania and Christianity: an essay / N.J.B. Plomley - Concern and contempt: church and missionary attitudes towards Aborigines in North Queensland in the nineteenth century / Noel Loos - Lazarus at Australia's gateway: the Christian mission enterprise in eastern Cape York Peninsula / Athol Chase - 'Pearls from the deep': re-evaluating the early history of Colebrook Home for Aboriginal Children / Jane M. Jacobs, Caroline Laurence and Faith Thomas - The cry for justice and equality: some exceptional Protestant missionaries in Western Australia / Neville Green - Anglican missions to Aborigines / Keith Cole - From missions to Aboriginal churches: the Uniting Church in Australia and Aboriginal missions / Bill Edwards and Bernard Clarke - Maverick missionaries: an overlooked chapter in the history of Catholic missions / Eugene Stockton - 

Part Three. Social contexts: colonialism, dependency and reconstruction - Christianity, domination and resistance in colonial social relations: the case of Doomadgee, Northwest Queensland / David S. Trigger - Dependency and assertiveness: three waves of Christianity among Pitjantjatjara people at Ooldea and Yalata / Maggie Brady and Kingsley Palmer - Christianity full circle: Aboriginal Christianity on Yarrabah Reserve / Lynne Hume - Bora, church and modernization at Lockhart River, Queensland / David Thompson - The missionary factor in Adnyamathanha history / Peggy Brock - Mt. Margaret: missionaries and the aftermath / John E. Stanton - Riders in the chariot: Aboriginal conversion to Christianity at Kununurra / Peter Willis - A case study in failure: Kuku-Yalanji and the Lutherans at Bloomfield River, 1887 to 1902 / Christopher Anderson - Intellectual contexts: opposition, inclusion and incarnation - Too many Captain Cooks / Chips Mackinolty and Paddy Wainburranga - Jesus and the dingo / Deborah Bird Rose - Mission not accomplished: Christianity in the Kimberleys / Erich Kolig - A nativistic and millenarian movement in north west Australia / Helmut Petri and Gisela Petri-Odermann - Nativistic movements in Aboriginal Australia: creative adjustment, protest or regeneration of tradition / Klaus-Peter Koepping - North Australian kriol and the kriol 'Holi Baibul' / John Harris - The dreaming and social change in Arnhem Land / Robert Bos - Goods and gods: a follow-up study of "Steel axes for stone age Australians" / John Taylor - he ghost of space: reflections of Warlpiri Christian iconography and ritual / Tony Swain - The incarnation of Nambirrirrma / David H. Turner.

AIATSIS call number: B D312.37/S1

Title: Stone on stone : story of Hammond Island Mission / compiled by Tyrone C. Deere.

Publication info: Thursday Island, Qld. : Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, c1994.
Physical descrip: [80] p. : ill., ports. ; 20 cm.
Annotation: Story of the building of St Joseph's Church, Hammond Island; also includes extracts of letters from the Sacred Heart archives about the Hammond Island Mission
Corporate subject: Hammond Island Mission (Qld.)
Added Author: Deere, Tyrone C.
Electronic access to book digitised by AIATSIS Library.

AIATSIS call number: RB T279.19/A1
Personal Author: Telfer, E. J.

Title: Amongst Australian Aborigines : forty years of missionary work

Publication info: Melbourne : Fraser, Pr. 1939
Physical descrip: 227 p.
Annotation: The story of the United Aborigines Mission; Mission stations at; La Perouse; Plumpton, Illawarra Lake, Port Kembla, Sackville Reach (on Hawkesbury River),
Greenwell Point, Roseby Park, Macleay River, Burnt Bridge (near Kempsey), Forster (on Manning River), Wauchope, Purfleet, Bellinger Heads, Lawrence, Inverell district, Ulgundahi Island, Dulhi-Gunyah Orphanage, Bomaderry Childrens Home at Nowra, Cabbage Tree Island, Ngoorumba near Stoney Creek, Erambie (near Cowra), Fattorina Island, Swan Reach on Murray River (Manunka tribe), Quorn Home, Lake Tyers, Mount Margaret near Morgans, Graham Home for Children (at Morgans), Colebrook Home (South Australia)
Electronic access to book digitised by AIATSIS Library.

AIATSIS call number: B L849.37/P1 ; RB L849.37/P1
Author: Long, Retta

Title: Providential channels

Publication info: Syd.:Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia 1935
Physical descrip: 96p.
Annotation: Experience of author, founder of A.I.M., in the early days of Christianizing the Aborigines Karuah, Walcha, Bringle, Cummeragunja, Yass, Moonah Cullah, Gulargambone, Terry Hie Hie, Singleton, Palm Island, Woorabinda, Barambah, Cherbourg
Electronic access to book digitised by AIATSIS Library.

AIATSIS call number: Rp LON
Author: Long, Retta

Title: In the way of His steps : a brief outline of three decades of history of the Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia 1905-1935

Publication info: Sydney:Aborigines Inland Mission 1936
Physical descrip: 56 p.
Annotation: Missionary work in NSW, Qld, WA.; the native ministry table gives population statistics (full blood; half-castes) by State for 1934
Electronic access to book digitised by AIATSIS Library.

AIATSIS Call number: RB L849.81/O1
Author: Long, Arnold W

Title: On highways and byways in Australia

Publication info: Sydney: The Central Press, [193-] c1930
Physical description: 96 p.; ill., map, port.
Annotation: An account of missionary work undertaken in New South Wales , Queensland and Northern Territory by Aborigines Inland Mission through visits with the L W Long Memorial Van
Electronic access to book digitised by AIATSIS Library.