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Name
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Forrest River Mission
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Type of carceral site
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Reserve, Station, or Mission
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Dates of use
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1913 – 1968
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Quote
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Ah, the missionaries, they was a bit hard maybe - you know, holy, not what you'd call laughing men. And some of the natives [sic] went off on stations and come back again hating the white men there. They was too clever, you see, too big for their boots, not right for stations.'
Novel, Fiction.
Stow, Randolph. To The Islands. Macdonald & Co, 1959, p. 183.
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She relived the lonely, dark, sweltering nights locked in the girl's dormitory at Forrest River Mission. Smoke from a special wood collected during the day, warded off the millions of mosquitoes who preyed on the thin, shabbily dressed bodies all huddled together out of friendship, yearning, and lost parental love. [...] Mum had told us how all the girls brought in from all over the Kimberley and surrounds, planned and hoped for the day they would leave this dark dungeon.
Memoir.
Birch, Reginald. Wyndham Yella Fella. Magabala Books, 2003, p. 183.
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Excerpt from the mission journals of 1929: 20 January. Langenmerri caught stealing meal, chained up for the rest of the day. Three little boys washed on parade for not being clean and two girls admitted stealing [...] They were severely admonished and had their hair cut short with the exception of a tuft of hair on top. Not allowed to wear head-dress of any kind.
Community history.
The Oombulgurri Story: A Pictorial History of the People of Oombulgurri 1884-1988. Edited by Neville Green, Focus Education Services, 1988, p. 63.
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Gumbol was one of the men responsible for driving out the missionaries in 1898. [...] When the mission reopened in 1913, Gumbol was an aging man, but he still retained the tall appearance of a warrior. [...] On 13 September 1913, Mariotte was filling the water buckets at Dadaway Lagoon when Gumbol dropped him with a blow to the head. Grocott heard Mariotte's screams and grabbed a rifle and ran to the rescue. After Mariotte was clubbed, the missionaries strengthened the walls of the mission house until these were half a metre thick. Groctoo dug holes between the rocks to make slits through which a rifle could be fired and the mission house was surrounded by coils of barbed wire to slow down the men if they attacked in force. Gumbol disappeared during the Forrest River Massacres of 1926 and Robert Roberts said that he was shot.
Community history.
The Oombulgurri Story: A Pictorial History of the People of Oombulgurri 1884-1988. Edited by Neville Green, Focus Education Services, 1988, p. 16.
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The mission dormitory served three purposes. It separated children from traditional Aboriginal influences and it helped to instil Christian rituals. It also gave a home to children sent to the mission by the courts, and other children collected by police and Native Welfare patrol officers.
Community history
The Oombulgurri Story: A Pictorial History of the People of Oombulgurri 1884-1988. Edited by Neville Green, Focus Education Services, 1988, p. 66.
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Authority
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Aborigines Protection Act 1886 (WA); Native Administration Act 1936 (WA); Native Welfare Act 1963 (WA)
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Archives and sources
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The Oombulgurri Story: A Pictorial History of the People of Oombulgurri 1884-1988. Edited by Neville Green, Focus Education Services, 1988.
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Contact
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Niamh
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identifier
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SITE-FRM