Living with the Munpitch: the history of Mitchell River Mission, 1905 - 1967
Freier, Philip L. (1999) Living with the Munpitch: the history of Mitchell River Mission, 1905 - 1967. PhD thesis, James Cook University.
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Abstract
This thesis examines the interaction between missionaries and Aborigines in a remote North Queensland mission conducted by the Church of England (Anglican) denomination. In particular it explores the relationship of the pre-mission Aboriginal contact history of this area with Aboriginal perspectives of whites. It looks at the ambiguities implicit in missionary policy and how this influenced the development of relationships on the Mitchell River Mission. In Queensland, church missions were used by the state government as a cheap way of carrying out its policies for Aborigines. Even though missionaries acted with apparently complete authority on the Mission there was a complex interplay of politics involving Aborigines, missionaries, higher church officials, the national mission agency of the Church of England, and the state government. The outcome of this was a consistent trend towards pauperisation of Aborigines and their remaining in a situation of entrenched disadvantage. A dialectical analysis of the history of race relations, through discussion of the Munpitch concept of the Kokobera people, provides a theoretical basis to the study.