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The Mornington Island Mission in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, was a site of historical engagement between Aboriginal people and missionaries. In this paper, we apply the theoretical concepts of “domains” and the “intercultural” to the investigation of this engagement between 1914 and 1942, when the mission was overseen by the Reverend Robert Wilson. Through the examination of the removal of Aboriginal children, the establishment of a mission compound and Aboriginal camp and the inclusion of Aboriginal adults into the mission compound through production and economy, we show how mutually constituted domains operated. At the same time, the interaction between Aboriginal adults and children with missionaries within these domains was increasingly intercultural in nature. Thus, both “domains” and the “intercultural” are shown to have relevance to the historical case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares two contrasting Australian case studies in the archaeology of Indigenous-European interaction: one mission-like in its intent, the Aboriginal Settlement for Tasmanian Aborigines at Wybalenna on Flinders Island in the Bass Strait (1833–47), the other the Lutheran mission at Lake Killalpaninna (1867–1928) investigated by the Central Australia Archaeology Project (CAAP). Each of the two case studies adopted different strategies of investigation. Wybalenna was a small excavation while Killalpaninna was an extensive surface survey. Both studies reveal diversity in the range of responses to a missionizing program, providing evidence of agency in the formation of the archaeological record. They demonstrate the value of the material evidence and the significance of archaeology in contributing to a more sensitive understanding of the interaction process by providing an alternative to textual sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mapoon Mission Cemetery in Cape York, Queensland contains unmarked pre-contact burials with potential national heritage values, despite a lack of formal recognition and protection through State and National heritage listings. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) showed great potential as a non-intrusive technique to identify over 120 potential unmarked graves and understand mortuary practices at the Cemetery. When integrated with written and oral histories, such information provided new insights into the cultural history of this region, particularly the continuity of Aboriginal occupation and changes in mortuary practices since the establishment of the Mapoon Mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Wellington Valley Convict Station and Mission site, now known as Maynggu Ganai Historic Site (meaning “people’s land” in local Wiradjuri language), contains the archaeological remains of the convict agricultural station that was established in 1823. The site, subsequently taken over by the Anglican Church Missionary Society as a mission to the Wiradjuri, operated from 1832 to 1844. Drawing upon archaeological survey, the extraordinary historical archive associated with this site, and an analysis of community consultative research, this article explores the role of this site in colonial cultural exchange, as well as the contemporary cultural meanings of this history and its physical remains for the community today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Former missions and reserves occupy an increasingly important place in Australian Aboriginal heritage, as sites of recent memory, ancestral resting-places, and the foci of social action in the present. Since the 1970s heritage managers have drawn heavily upon archaeological research in reclaiming places such as Ebenezer Mission for Aboriginal descendants as well as the non-Aboriginal community. This program of research and conservation has been shaped by Aboriginal memories and values that express the community’s self-understandings and its hopes for the future, in a process that reveals the relationship between tangible and intangible aspects of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]