aboriginalchildren

Aboriginal school children at Mornington Island, Queensland, ca. 1950

from State Library of Queensland

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  Mornington Island, also known as Kunhanhaa, is an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. It is the northernmost and largest of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The largest town, Gununa, is in the southwestern part of the island. The Lardil people are the traditional owners of the island, but there are also Kaiadilt people, who were relocated from nearby Bentinck Island, as well as people of other nations on the island. The Mornington Island Mission operated from 1914 until 1978 when it was taken over by the Queensland Government, which had proclaimed the islands an Aboriginal reserve in 1905. The Mirndiyan Gununa Aboriginal Corporation owns and manages an art center, MIArt, and a dance troupe, the Mornington Island Dancers. There is also a significant history of performance on the island, and the Mornington Island Dancers was one of the earliest established Aboriginal performing arts groups in Australia.[23] They performed publicly in Cairns in August 1964,[27] and again in 1973 at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Opera House. Since 2009 and as of 2022 the dancers operate as a business unit of MGAC called MIDance.[23] The dancers celebrate Lardil culture through traditional dance and song. They have toured overseas many times, including in Italy, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Sweden.[2 Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Island