State Heritage-listed Brewarrina Mission
AN IMPORTANT MEMORY OF NATIONAL PAIN
Established by the Aboriginal Protection Board in 1886 as part of its segregation and assimilation policy, the Brewarrina Mission was the oldest and longest-running institutional community in NSW. For over 80 years, it housed First Nations people from across NSW and beyond who were forcibly removed from their lands and families.
During its operation, the Mission featured small cottages, a manager’s residence, butchers’ shop, school, church, small treatment-room, hall, cemetery and a girls dormitory – which housed young Aboriginal girls who were removed from their families, educated in domestic work and then sent out in NSW to work.
Though the buildings no longer stand, the cemetery and former site remain a place of deep belonging for many nations, including the Ngemba, Murrawarri, Weilan, Gamilaraay, Wiradjuri, Yorta-Yorta, Barkindji, Wongaibon, Koamu, Baranbinja, Wanyawalku, Kulluli, Wangkamara, Bunjakali, Kurinu, Walpri and Ardnamatana.
This place is a powerful symbol of resilience, dispossession and the ongoing path to reconciliation.
Explore
Visit the Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum to discover more.
Highlights
The first and longest running forced institutional home in NSW
Displaced people from many different language and cultural backgrounds
A poignant reminder of dispossession and cultural interference
A special place of belonging
