Why Christian missionaries struggled in Australia

The Australian missions were government funded. Really, they were government agencies trying to assimilate Aboriginal people into white culture. New research from The Australian National University (ANU) has revealed the strength of Aboriginal cultures, as well as heavy-handed government policies reduced the impact of Christian missions to remote Aboriginal communities during the mid-twentieth century. The research, published in a new book, reveals that the Church Missionary Society's North Australian Mission experienced significant difficulties due to the Federal Government's desire that Aboriginal people be assimilated into 'white Australian culture'. The book's author, historian Dr Laura Rademaker, said after decades of trying to convert the people of Groote Eylandt to their Christianity, missionaries were eventually forced to come around to Aboriginal culture. "They realised there was a richness there that they had to come to terms with," Dr Rademaker said. "In the later years you actually saw missionaries help transcribe some of the traditional songs and advocate for bi-lingual education." The research focuses on the mission in the remote community of Groote Eylandt, the largest island in the Northern Territory's Gulf of Carpentaria.