Missions Connect

A Curtin University research study.

In Western Australia, missions run by the government, and later religious organisations, were places that Stolen Generation people were taken to be confined, educated and denied their Aboriginality.

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the country, the Wadjuk Noongar nation, on who’s land Curtin University is situated, their continuing connection to country and culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

We also acknowledge:

The Yuat people, Traditional Owners of the Mogumber site, their Elders past, present and emerging, for allowing the project access to recording the Mogumber site.
The Moore River Native Settlement and Mogumber Survivor, and their families who generously and bravely shared their stories with our team, this project could not have happened without your input.
Bringing Them Home Committee, in particular Uncle Jim Morrison and Alan Carter.

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website and research study may contain images, video and voices of deceased persons.

The content of this website relates to former Mission sites in Western Australia where Aboriginal people were taken from family, country and culture. This content may be distressing as it bears witness to the traumas that occurred in these places.

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Mogumber Mission

Project Scope.

From the early Moore River Native Settlement days to the Mogumber Methodist Mission era, this site had a built history spanning over one hundred years. This necessitated the Mogumber project scope to focus in on the decade of the 1960’s based on the available Survivor stories and photographic documentation that was sourced.

Drone technology was used to create an orthographic map of the Mogumber site in its current form, which was cross referenced against archival records from the State Records office and Battye Library Collection to create a map of the site in the 1960s time period. Survivors added their recollections further refining the site map and enabling the generation of floor plans of buildings that no longer exist on site. Details of these buildings were gleaned from photographs from the 1950s and 60s alongside the memories of those who were there at these times.

A virtual reality (VR) model was constructed from these drawings and photographic images to replicate the site as accurately as possible in the 1960’s time period. The model allows viewers to ‘walk’ through the site and enter key buildings to view the internal layout and furniture that were present in this era.

Survivors recollections of this place and their experiences were recorded and inserted into the model to allow viewers to enter the ‘columns’ and ‘spheres’ within the VR experience and hear the stories of this place, in the voices of those who were there, or for whom this place has had a subsequent impact (children of survivors).

The Mogumber model is a record of the physical fabric of this place that in many cases no longer exists, and powerfully bears witness to the experiences and memories of the survivors in their own voices.

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