Остров Крокера: История, Трагедии и Возвращение

Island of the Northern Territory, Australia

Croker Island is an island in the Arafura Sea off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia, northeast of Darwin. It was the site of the Croker Island Mission between 1940 and 1968.

At the earliest time of European contact, the Indigenous people of Croker Island were the Jaako, an Aboriginal Australian people who spoke Marrgu, a language isolate. The modern Indigenous communities speak Iwaidja (the approximately 150 speakers being the last remaining speakers of the language) and Maung, Kunwinjku and English. Many Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families by the church, part of what is now termed the Stolen Generation. The mission ran a school, and employed several of the male residents who had finished school. The Pacific theatre of World War II saw the Japanese military aerial bombing Darwin in February 1942. Non Indigenous children from the island were evacuated. To avoid the bombing, missionary Margaret Somerville led 95 Indigenous children from the island's orphanage, part of the Croker Island Mission, on a journey that saw the party arrive on the Australian mainland. Travelling a distance overland, they boarded a train through central Australia, arriving in Sydney, New South Wales, on the east coast. Over 44 days, the group covered 5000 mile (8047 km). The children returned to Croker Island in 1946. A class action was undertaken by 12 claimants against the Uniting Church in Australia for sexual and physical abuse which took place at the mission from the 1940s until the late 1960s. They finally received compensation in May 2023, through a private settlement.

Croker Island was severely damaged by Cyclone Ingrid in March 2005.