Religion - Year 9 - The Catholic Church in Australia: First Aboriginal Mission (1840)

Creation of reserve system - Missions, reserves and stations were areas where Aboriginal people were placed in after being forcibly removed from their traditional lands. Missions were usually under the control of churches and missionaries while a station or reserve was typically run by the government. Missions, reserves and stations were often strict and harsh, with government ‘protectors’ controlling the lives of Aboriginal people...
 

Catholics and Indigenous Australians - The early Catholic Church in Australia was stretched with establishing itself in cities and ministering to convicts and Irish settlers. But Archbishop Polding did establish a mission on Stradbroke Island (1843-7). It was ultimately unsuccessful but an indigenous Catholic community developed there later. The bishops’ pastoral letter of 1869 wrote that “White men have too often been apostles of Satan” in their dealings with aboriginals....

Missions, Stations and Reserves - Missions were often created by churches or religious individuals to house Aboriginal people, convert them to Christianity and prepare them for menial jobs. Most of the missions were developed on land granted by the government for this purpose...

Australian Museum: Missions, Reserves and Stations - There is a long history of government control over Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lives. States had Aborigines Protection/Welfare Boards, established through race-based government legislation, which oversaw policies of segregation including the forced physical relocations of First Nations peoples onto designated parcels of land separate to the Australian population. There are known as missions and reserves...