Cummeragunja Mission

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Cummeragunja Mission , or Cummeragunja Station, was an Australian Aboriginal mission established in 1881 on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, on the Victorian border near Barmah. The people were mostly Yorta Yorta.

Many of the original residents moved there from nearby Maloga Mission, where they had grown tired of the strict religious lifestyle. At Cummeragunja Station, on 1,800 acres, they established a farm with the aim of communal self-sufficiency. When Maloga finally closed the remaining residents were forced to move to Cummeragunja.

The residents of Cummeragunja shaped most of the land into a productive farm, producing wheat, wool and dairy products.

In 1915 the New South Wales Aboriginal Protection Board took greater control of Cummeragunja and its residents. The farm's committee of management was disbanded, and residents were subjected to confining and restrictive conditions. All the funds raised from the farm went to the Board, which 'rewarded' workers by doling out inadequate and unhealthy rations.

By the 1930s conditions had drastically deteriorated. Residents were confined to the station and many of their relatives were forced away. Decent rations and supplies were lacking and residents were forced to share blankets and live in rag huts. Tuberculosis and whooping cough dramatically affected the elderly and young.

Tired of the conditions and treatment over 150 residents left the Reserve in protest in the Cummeragunja Walk-off. This was the first-ever mass strike of Aboriginal people in Australia.

[edit] Notable people from Cummeragunja

Sir Douglas Nicholls, Churches of Christ pastor and former Governor of South Australia was from Cummeragunja.

William Cooper, a retired shearer from Cummeroogunja, founded the Australian Aborigines League, and was one of the original people to call for a Day of Mourning and Protest on the same day that white Australia was celebrating its success in 1938.

Cooper was an energetic campaigner throughout his retirement, writing letters to Ministers and newspapers to call attention to the conditions faced by indigenous communities throughout the country. He worked with Jack Patten and other NSW Aborigines calling for improved education, equal opportunity and "full citizen rights".

Jack Patten, founder of the Aborigines Progressive Association and organiser of the 1938 Day of Mourning in NSW.