- Moore River Native Settlement
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The Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located 135 kilometres (84 mi) north of Perth and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) west of Mogumber in Western Australia, near the headwaters of the Moore River.
Contents
Early history
Name change
In 1951 the government handed control of the settlement to the Mogumber Methodist Mission, which re-named it Mogumber Native Mission. A greater emphasis was placed by the new owners on Christian guidance and on the vocational training of youths than had existed when it was a government institution. The facility remained running until 1974, when it was taken over by the Aboriginal Land Trust. Currently the land is leased to the Wheatbelt Aboriginal Corporation, and is known as Budjarra.
Cultural and journalistic coverage
Several plays, films and books have been produced which tell harrowing tales of life in the settlement:
- Aboriginal poet and playwright Jack Davis' play Kullark where an Aboriginal man named Thomas Yorlah is forcibly moved to the settlement and makes numerous attempts to escape. Davis lived in the settlement in the 1920s.
- The book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington and its film adaptation (Rabbit-Proof Fence) tell the story of three mixed race Aboriginal girls who ran away from the settlement in 1931.
See also
- Stolen Generation
- Noongar
- A. O. Neville
Notes
References
- Haebich, Anna (1988). For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the Southwest of Western Australia 1900-1940. Nedlands, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press.
- Manne, Robert. "The Colour of Prejudice". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.alphalink.com.au/~rez/Journey/rpf.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-20.
- Maushart, Susan (2003). Sort of a Place Like Home: Remembering the Moore River Native Settlement. Fremantle, Western Australia: Fremantle Arts Centre Press. ISBN 1920731121.
Categories:- History of Indigenous Australians
- History of Western Australia
- Australian Aboriginal missions
- Populated places established in 1918
- Stolen Generations institutions
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