Missions

Created by churches or individual missionaries to ‘Christianise’ and ‘civilise’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and ‘train’ them for domestic or agricultural labour. Usually, they were developed on land granted by the government for this purpose. In some cases, families lived on missions, in others, children were forcibly removed from their families and placed there. To varying degrees, there was generally some level of intentional separation of children through schooling or dormitory systems.

Reserves

Unmanaged reserves: parcels of land set aside for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to live on and were not managed by the government or its officials. People living on unmanaged reserves might receive rations but were otherwise largely responsible for their housing and daily needs. Government or church officials were known to ‘round up’ and steal children from unmanaged reserves. This remained an ongoing threat, but generally the lack of management meant relatively less daily surveillance and control than other sites.

Managed reserves: includes government settlements, stations, and government mission-stations. ‘Managed reserves’ were parcels of land managed by officials appointed by the government. The managers usually had total control over Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives including legal guardianship of their children. There was generally some degree of separation of children from families, and in certain states, such as WA and QLD, this was total and systematic. Children were stolen form elsewhere and place on managed reserves. Like church missions, these sites intended to ‘Christianise’ and ‘civilise’ and are often also known as missions by community. This project distinguishes managed reserves from church-run missions to demonstrate the separate but connected roles of the state and church in the Stolen Generations.

Institutions

Government or church-run facilities set up for the purpose of ‘training’, ‘educating’, ‘reforming’, ‘punishing’ or ‘housing’ removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. This included, but was not limited to, industrial schools, training institutions, orphanages, reformatories, dormitories, hostels, adoption centres, reception centres, children’s homes, mission institutions, group homes, and scatter cottages. It included both explicitly racialised sites and those that also housed non-Indigenous children. Children often moved through many different institutions and between state care and fostering or adoption arrangements.

Settlements / Camps

A location where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from diverse language groups collectively lived their lives. A settlement may be located on ancestral lands and/or located close to urban settler communities. For the purposes of this report, a Community Settlement or Camp is an Indigenous place that has developed overtime as people were forced to ‘move into’ urban locations, rural centres and often associated with pastoral stations. In some cases, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may have autonomously chosen to live their lives in a particular location; where they may have engaged with government and religious life; built structures and may have continued to practice their culture, language and responsibility to Country. In other experiences, life on a community settlement represented dramatic change to Indigenous lifeways