Retta Long

{{Short description|Australian baptist missionary who founded Australian Inland Mission}} {{use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{use Australian English|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Margaret Jane Long (nee. Dixon) | image = W 216 Loved missionary Retta Dixon (Long).jpg | caption = Retta Dixon | birth_date = {{Birth date|1878|04|05}} | birth_place = Ultimo, Sydney, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|10|18|1878|04|05}} | death_place = Normanhurst, New South Wales, Australia | burial_place = Rookwood Cemetery | spouse = Leonard Long }} '''Margaret "Retta" Jane Long''' (5 April 1878 – 18 October 1956; née '''Dixon''') was an Australian Baptist missionary who founded the Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia. The Retta Dixon Home for Aboriginal girls in Darwin was named after her.

== Early life == Margaret "Retta" Jane Long (née Dixon) was born 5 April 1878 in Ultimo, Sydney, to Irish-born Baptist parents Matthew and Matilda Dixon.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Radi |first=Heather |title=Long, Margaret Jane (Retta) (1878–1956) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/long-margaret-jane-retta-10857 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-03-05 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>

Dixon became a member of Petersham Baptist Church before joining the New South Wales Christian Endeavour Union. This brought her into contact with Aboriginal people at the Aboriginal reserve at La Perouse. It was here that Christian Endeavor held Sunday services for the Indigenous people.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Long |first=Egerton C |title=Retta Jane Long (1878-1956) |url=https://sites.google.com/view/australian-dictionary-of-evang/k-l/long-retta-jane-1878-1956 |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=Australian Dictionary of Evangelical Biography}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

== Working life ==

=== La Perouse Mission === The La Perouse Aborigines' Reserve became the New South Wales Aborigines Mission (NSWAM) and in 1899 Dixon became the first resident missionary.

Dixon travelled to Aboriginal communities in New South Wales to preach, with help from La Perouse Aboriginal Community. She journeyed to the south coast, the Hawkesbury, and the mid-north coast.<ref name=":0" />

NSWAM resolved in 1902 to function as a "faith mission" with Dixon acting as publicist. Around 1903, she took the young Emma Callaghan with her when she visited the Dunggutti people at the Nulla Nulla Aborigines' Reserve, Bellbrook, which helped Callaghan with her ambitions to become a nurse.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kelly |first=Shay Ann |title=Emma Jane Callaghan (1884–1979) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/callaghan-emma-jane-9663/text17049 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-11-19 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}</ref>

=== Aborigines Inland Mission === [[File:Mrs Irving, Mrs Retta Long, bride Aileen Willis, groom Don Brady and Mr Irving. Wedding at Cherbourg AIM, 1952.jpg|thumb|Mrs Irving, Mrs Retta Long, bride Aileen Willis, groom Don Brady and Mr Irving. Wedding at Cherbourg AIM in 1952]]

In 1905 Dixon left the NSWAM to establish the Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia (AIM).{{cn|date=June 2025}}

At Singleton Baptist Church on 11 January 1906, she married Leonard Long, who became co-director of AIM. They were to have seven children, two of whom did not survive infancy.<ref name=":1" />

AIM began working in Aboriginal communities on recently gazetted reserves and with government permission, built churches and houses.<ref name=":0" /> In 1910, AIM's headquarters moved to Sydney and local and interstate branches were established in the decades that followed.{{cn|date=June 2025}}

AIM had 43 missionaries in 1931 and 52 by 1940.<ref name=":0" />

Leonard Long died on 28 December 1928 and Retta continued as sole director with support from their son Arnold, driving the AIM van.<ref name=":0" />

=== Training college and Retta Dixon Home === In the 1930s a series of conventions were held, where she promoted her plan for a native training college. After a fund was created and a suitable premises was found, the Native Training College was opened in Port Stephens, where the first two students entered in 1938.<ref name=":0" />

The Retta Dixon Home was opened using a subsidy given to Darwin missionaries when they returned in 1946 after they were evacuated and asked to care for Aboriginal evacuees during World War 2.<ref name=":0" />

The Port Stephens Training College, which was also evacuated during the war, was moved to Dalwood in rented premises and in 1946, moved to Minimbah House, Whittingham, after AIM bought it. In 1953, the Native Training College was renamed to the A.I.M. Bible Training Institute and opened to applicants from other missions.<ref name=":0" />

== Later life and death== Dixon retired from her position as director of AIM in 1953 due to ill-health, her family relieving her of much of her duties.<ref name=":0" /> Her son, Rev. Egerton Long, took over as director.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 March 1954 |title=Rev. Egerton Long inducted as new director |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84596837 |access-date=6 October 2023 |website=Singleton Argus (Trove)}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |date=17 December 1953 |title=Retirement of Mrs. Retta Long |url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/collection/featured-collections/aborigines-inland-mission/our-aim?combine=1953&items_per_page=24#pdf-flip-container |journal=Our AIM |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=5}}</ref>

Dixon died aged 78 on 18 October 1956, survived by three daughters and two sons. She was buried in Rookwood Cemetery with Baptist forms.<ref name=":0" />

== Publications ==  Published under the name Retta Long: * [https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/74VvWDEAzJ4b ''Providential channels''] (Sydney: Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia, 1935) * [https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/74VM4v2LpQJX ''In the way of His steps: a brief outline of three decades of history of the Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia, 1905-1935''] (Sydney: Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia, 1936) * [https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/74Vv87G3OBkA ''The Aboriginal as a subject of the Kingdom of God''] (Sydney: Aborigines Inland Mission of Australia, [196-?]) == References == {{reflist}}

== Further reading ==

*{{Cite web |title=Australian Indigenous Ministries aggregated collection of records and pictorial material, 1903-2003 |url=https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/Yj7deom9 |access-date=6 October 2023 |website=State Library of New South Wales Catalogue}}

== External links ==

* {{Cite web |title=Aborigines Inland Mission (1905 - 1998) |url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/nsw/NE01603#:~:text=The%20Aborigines%20Inland%20Mission%20(AIM,the%20ministry%20became%20broadly%20Protestant |access-date=6 October 2023 |website=Find & Connect}} * {{Cite web |title=Retta Dixon Home (1946 - 1982) |url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00023b.htm |access-date=6 October 2023 |website=Find & Connect}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Margaret Jane (Retta)}} Category:1878 births Category:1956 deaths Category:Australian Aboriginal missions Category:Australian Baptist missionaries Category:Female Christian missionaries

Retta Long

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