Point Pearce, South Australia

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} {{Use Australian English|date=March 2013}} {{Infobox Australian place | type = town | name = Point Pearce | state = sa | image = | caption = | lga = Yorke Peninsula Council | postcode = 5573 | established = 1868 | established_footnotes = <ref name="SA"/> | pop =  | coordinates = {{coord|34|25|01|S|137|30|07|E|display=inline,title}} | pushpin_label_position = |use_lga_map=yes | elevation = 16 | maxtemp = | mintemp = | rainfall = | stategov = Narungga<ref name=ECSA>{{cite map |url=https://edbc.sa.gov.au/redistributions/2016/2016-electoral-district-maps/narungga-map-2016-pdf/download.html |title=Narungga |publisher=Electoral District Boundaries Commission |date=2016 |access-date=1 March 2018}}</ref> | fedgov = Grey | dist1 = 194 | dir1 = NW | location1 = Adelaide | dist2 = 76 | dir2 = S | location2 = Kadina | dist3 = 26 | dir3 = SE | location3 = Maitland }}

'''Point Pearce''', also spelt '''Point Pierce''' in the past, is a town in the Australian state of South Australia. The town is located in the Yorke Peninsula Council local government area, {{convert|194|km|mi}} north-west of the state capital, Adelaide.

It is known for the mission established for Aboriginal people in the late nineteenth century. The location was originally known as Bookooyanna by the local Narungga people, later spelt Bukkiyana or Burgiyana.

Established as Point Pearce Mission Station in 1868, it became the Point Pearce Aboriginal Station after it was taken over by the state government in 1915, as an Aboriginal reserve. In 1972, ownership was transferred to the Point Pearce Community Council under the ''Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966''.

==History==

Also known as Point Pierce, it was one of several missions established in South Australia in the late 19th century, which included Poonindie (1850), Point McLeay (Raukkan, 1850), Killalpaninna (1866) and Koonibba (1898). Some of these missions were the basis for Aboriginal communities which persist until the present; they were among the few places in the southern part of South Australia where dispossessed and displaced Aboriginal people were welcomed, even if the primary aim was Christian evangelism.<ref name=sahmiss>{{cite web | last=Brock | first=Peggy | title=Aboriginal Missions | website=SA History Hub | date=3 June 2015 | url=https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au:443/subjects/aboriginal-missions?hh=1& | access-date=9 February 2020}}</ref>

Soon after the establishment of Adelaide in 1836, settlers had begun moving into Yorke Peninsula. The British concepts of property ownership were incompatible with the Narunggas' nomadic lifestyle, resulting in the gradual displacement of the Aboriginal population. In 1868, the Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission was established by the Moravian missionary Reverend W. Julius Kuhn.<ref name="SA">{{cite web |url=http://www.southaustralia.com/EarlyBeginningsYorkePeninsula.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727033242/http://www.southaustralia.com/EarlyBeginningsYorkePeninsula.aspx |title=Yorke Peninsula |archive-date=27 July 2011}}</ref>

A site of {{convert|600 |acres}} for a settlement was granted on 2 February 1868 at a place known as Bookooyanna (spelt Bukkiyana<ref>{{cite journal | last=Hall | first=Lee-Anne | title= Sitting down in the square: Indigenous presence in an Australian city | journal=Humanities Research | date=January 2004 | volume=11 | issue=1 | url=https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=616781372624399;res=IELHSS | access-date=20 November 2020 | pages=54–77|eissn=1834-8491}} [https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p13471/pdf/5-Hall-HRC11.pdf Another PDF]</ref><ref name=amery2016>{{cite book|last=Amery|first=Rob|date=2016|title=Warraparna Kaurna!: Reclaiming an Australian language|publisher=University of Adelaide Press|url= https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/system/files/2019-04/uap-kaurna-ebook.pdf|isbn=978-1-925261-25-7|doi=10.20851/kaurna|page=12}}</ref> or Burgiyana in later sources{{Fact|date=April 2024}}), about {{convert|70|km}} south of Kadina.<ref name=germanmiss/> The Point Pearce Mission Station, run by the Yorke Peninsula Aboriginal Mission committee, initially attracted 70 Narrungga residents. Poor conditions and illness led to consequent deaths, and by 1874 only 28 remained.<ref name=fac>{{cite web | title=Point Pearce Mission Station (1868 - 1915)| website=Find & Connect | date=19 May 2014 | url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE01331b.htm | access-date=9 February 2020}}</ref>

In 1874 the reserve was extended by another {{convert|12|mi2}}, and including Wardang Island.<ref name=germanmiss/> By 1878, the mission was largely self-sufficient<ref name="SA"/> from its wool and wheat income.

In 1894, families from the closed Poonindie Mission were moved to Point Pearce. The mission operated a school, with a separate school house built in 1906.<ref name=fac/> Many children of mixed European and Chinese descent were among the 31 pupils who enrolled.<ref name=germanmiss/>

During World War I, men from Point McLeay and Point Pearce were among the first Aboriginal men in the state to enlist.<ref name=germanmiss/>

As a result of the Royal Commission on the Aborigines<ref name=facrc>{{cite web | title=Royal Commission on the Aborigines (1913 - 1916)| website=Find & Connect | date=21 February 2011 | url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE00284b.htm | access-date=18 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/digitised_collections/remove/92607.pdf|title=Royal Commission on the Aborigines|publisher=South Australia. Government Printer|date=1913|access-date=18 February 2020}}</ref><ref name="Bringing Them Home 1932">{{cite web | title=Chapter 8 South Australia | website=Bringing Them Home | date=1995 | url=https://bth.humanrights.gov.au/the-report/part-2-tracing-the-history/chapter-8-south-australia | access-date=18 February 2020}}</ref> on 1913,<ref name=germanmiss>{{cite web | title=Yorke Peninsula (Point Pearce) (1867-1915) | website=German Missionaries in Australia | url=http://missionaries.griffith.edu.au/mission/yorke-peninsula-point-pearce-1867-1915 | access-date=9 February 2020}}</ref> the South Australian government took over management of the mission in 1915 and it became known as the Point Pearce Aboriginal Station, an Aboriginal reserve.<ref name=sahmiss/> Included in the recommendations was that the government become the legal guardian of all Aboriginal children upon reaching their 10th birthday, and place them "where they deem best".<ref name=facrc/> Seven years after the final report of the commission, the ''Aborigines (Training of Children) Act 1923'', in order to allow Indigenous children to be "trained" in a special institution so that they could go out and work.<ref name="Bringing Them Home 1932" />

The institution is named in the ''Bringing Them Home'' report, as one which housed Indigenous children forcibly removed from their parents and thus creating the Stolen Generations.<ref name="Bringing Them Home 1932"/>

In 1972, ownership was transferred to the Point Pearce Community Council under the ''Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966''.<ref name=fac/>

Many of the buildings remain today.<ref name="SA"/>

==Location and facilities==

Point Pearce is about {{convert|10|km}} north along the coast from Port Victoria, and along with Wardang Island, provides shelter for the small fishing and recreational port.

==People== *Ivaritji ({{circa|1849}} – 1929), Kaurna elder and last known speaker of the Kaurna language, lived there for many years. *Gladys Elphick (1904 – 1988), founding president of the Council of Aboriginal Women of South Australia, grew up there.<ref name=elphick>{{cite book |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/elphick-gladys-12460/text22411 |title=Australian Dictionary of Biography: Elphick, Gladys (1904–1988) |author=E M Fisher |chapter=Elphick, Gladys (1904–1988) |year=2007 |publisher=Melbourne University Press |access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> *Lewis O'Brien (b. 1930), Kaurna elder, was born there. *Alitya Rigney (1942 – 2017), Kaurna elder and scholar, who did much to revive the Kaurna language, was born there. *Tauto Sansbury (c. 1949 – 2019), Indigenous activist, was born there. * Natasha Wanganeen (b. 1984), AFI award-winning actor grew up in Point Pearce.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deadlyvibe.com.au/2007/11/natasha-wanganeen/|title=Natasha Wanganeen|date=2007-11-29|website=Deadly Vibe|language=en|access-date=2019-10-04}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{cite web | title=Aboriginal missions in South Australia: Point Pearce | website=LibGuides at State Library of South Australia | url=https://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/Aboriginal_Missions/PointPearce|date=2019}} *{{cite web | last=Kingston | first=Lucy | title=150 years of Point Pearce | website=South Australian Native Title Services Blog | date=24 January 2020 | url=https://www.nativetitlesa.org/aboriginalway/150-years-of-point-pearce}} (150th anniversary) *{{cite web | title=Kühn, Wilhelm Julius (1834-1913) | website=German Missionaries in Australia | date=2 July 1913 | url=http://missionaries.griffith.edu.au/biography/k%C3%BChn-wilhelm-julius-1834-1913}} *{{cite web| title=Point Pearce | website=SA Memory | url=https://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1241 | publisher=State Library of South Australia|date=2009}}

Category:Towns in South Australia Category:Yorke Peninsula Category:Aboriginal communities in South Australia Category:Australian Aboriginal missions Category:Mission stations in Australia Category:Stolen Generations institutions Category:1868 establishments in Australia