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The
Moore River Native Settlement was the name of the now defunct Aboriginal settlement and internment camp located 135 kilometres (83.9 mi) north of
PerthPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) west of Mogumber in
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, near the
headwatersThe source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:There is no universally agreed upon definition for determining a stream's source...
of the
Moore RiverMoore River is a river in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia.The headwaters of the river near Walebing and flow westerly before joining with the Moore river East near Mogumber then flow in a Westerly direction...
.
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
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
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
Jack Davis , was a notable Australian 20th Century playwright and poet, also an Indigenous rights campaigner. He was born in Western Australia, in the small town of Yarloop, and lived in Fremantle towards the end of his life. He was of the Aboriginal Noongar people, and much of his work dealt with...
' 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
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence is an Australian book by Doris Pilkington. Based on a true story, the book is a personal account of an Indigenous Australian family's experiences as members of the "Stolen Generation" – the forced removal of mixed-race children from their families during the...
by Doris Pilkington and its film adaptation (Rabbit-Proof FenceRabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed by Phillip Noyce based on the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara...
) tell the story of three mixed race Aboriginal girls who ran away from the settlement in 1931.