document may contain images or

names of deceased people.

Warning: Indigenous and Torres Strait
Islanders need to be aware that this

Figure 1: Painting of Ebenezer mission, displayed at State Library of Victoria.

Ebenezer Mission.
1856-1904
By Reannan Purcell
Student number: 18093841
Latrobe University subject: 2016 HIS3MHI Making
history.
Subject co-ordinator: Ruth Ford
Tutor: James Kirby

Ebenezer Mission was established in

1859 by the Moravian missionaries
Reverends Spieseke and Hagenauer
in the Wimmera region of Victoriai.
Ebenezer Mission and the
surrounding Wimmera region were
home to a significant number of
Indigenous people belonging to the
Kulin Nation. The Kulin Nation is
made up of hundreds of different
language groups which are then
separated into smaller tribes.
Wergaia is the name of the particular
Indigenous language group that was
known to live in the Wimmera region,
within this language group there was
approximately twenty different
tribesii. Due to the multiple tribes
that exist within one language group
it becomes difficult to pin point
exactly which tribes were primarily
involved with Ebenezer mission,
however it is mostly suggested that
Ebenezer mission was established on
the traditional lands of the
Wotjobaluk people who are a tribe
within the Wergaia languageiii group
whose territory was the Wimmera
regioniv.
The Moravian missionaries had
established missions all over Victoria
however Ebenezer mission was one
of the largest and deemed the first
successful mission, by the Board for
the Protection of Aborigines due to
the success they had with converting
Indigenous Australiansv.

Figure 2: Missionaries on the banks of

the Wimmera, displayed at State Library
of Victoria

Who were the Moravians?

The Moravians were a Protestant
Evangelical denomination that
originated in Moravia a province that
is now in the Czech Republic during
the 15th centuryvi. Come the 19th
century the Moravian church had
spread throughout Europevii. The
Moravians believed it was their duty
to spread the word of God
throughout the worldviii. Before
coming to Australia the Moravian
missionaries had set up a global
network, working in areas of the
world deemed as the colonial
frontier. The Moravians worked in a
number of British colonies around
the world during this period. After
founding missions in Africa, America,
Asia and Europe, the Moravians
eventually arrived in Australia where
they set up multiple missions around
the country. Ebenezer mission saw a
number of Moravians come and go
over the years it was running. Every
time a reverend left another
Moravian reverend would take their
place. A few of the reverends who
moved on from Ebenezer went on to
run other missions while others are
buried on Ebenezers grounds to this
day. Their history forever ingrained

on the mission grounds. The

historical narrative of Ebenezer
Mission is embedded into a wider
historical narrative of colonialism;
many historians view the mission
system as a tool of European
colonisation. The Moravians ultimate
goal was to convert the Indigenous
people of Australia to Christianity. In
order to do this they needed the help
of the government of the colonyix.
After all the ultimate goal of
colonialism is to take the land for the
empire and missions certainly helped
the Europeans do that. Missions were
built on the traditional lands of
Indigenous tribes of Australia; this
meant that the owners of the land
had to be displaced in order for the
mission to be built. While Indigenous
Australians were being dispossessed
by missions they were also being
allowed to live on the mission ground
although they could not use the land
as they habitually would have. The
mission system was also used almost
as a containment system. The
missionaries kept the Indigenous
Australians on the missions stopping
their movement around the country,
thus allowing for the Europeans to
colonise the rest of the country
without as many run ins with the
people they termed savages or
heathens.

Mission Life
Mission life for Indigenous
Australians, was certainly not an
easy one. The land they knew was
changing as Australia was colonised,
they needed to find a way to survive
in the constantly changing
landscape. While Ebenezer Mission
promised safety, rations and shelter
for Indigenous Australians, it came at

a price. In an indigenous poem about

Ebenezer Mission we are able to hear
an Indigenous persons views of what
mission life was like for them.
He herded us together at Ebenezer
confined us to huts side by sidex
This quote is telling of what the
conditions were like at Ebenezer. The
Indigenous people were confined
forced to live in tiny huts where there
was barely any room for all of them.
The Indigenous Australians would
have been living on top of one
another for people who are nomadic
in nature this would be a massive
adjustment to be confined in such
small spaces. The poem paints a
grim picture of what life was like here
at Ebenezer revealing the feelings of
Indigenous Australians, it is hard to
imagine what living in a place like
this would be like, confined and
herded are terms normally
associated with animals not with
people.
In order to receive rations and a safe
place to stay the Indigenous
Australians had to work and live on
the mission grounds. They were
expected to give up their mobile
nature and key aspects of their way
of life. The Europeans believed they
needed to change the way in which
the Indigenous people lived their
lives in order to civilise them, this
meant things like their normal ways
of life had to come to an end. The
Wergaia people at one point used the
land where Ebenezer was built as a
traditional ceremonial ground; it was
also a place where they held
coroborrees and a meeting place for
the tribesxi. Due to the establishment
of the mission this had to end, for the

missionaries would not allow for the

land to continue to be used for these
traditional purposes. The importance
of the land and location of the
mission is linked to the traditional
usage of the land. One of the
drawing points of a mission for
Indigenous Australians was that even
though the land was still being taken
away from them it still allowed
Indigenous people to maintain a
connection with their land and
ancestors.
Read from the bible and prayed
while we diedxii
Another line from a very telling
poem, this line is probably the most
disturbing of all. It suggests that the
missionaries did not care about the
health of the Indigenous Australians
as long as they were seen to be
succeeding in converting them to
Christianity. The poem also coincides
with correspondence to the Board for
the Protection of Aborigines in which
it is stated that the Indigenous
Australians within missions have a
high death rate. It was suggested
that something in the daily life of the
Indigenous Australians was having
an adverse effect on their healthxiii.
As missions were meant to protect
Indigenous Australians from the
worst of the colonisation processxiv it
makes one wonder why the death
rates of missions were so high. This
is not to say that all missionaries did
not care for the well being of the
Indigenous Australians, some did and
most thought that what they were
doing was in the best interest of the
Indigenous Australians.
The missionaries linked civilising
Indigenous Australians with
converting them, an idea that

stemmed from colonial mentality. In

1860 Nathaniel Pepper converted to
Christianity he was the first ever
Indigenous man to do so, this led the
government to labelling Ebenezer
mission a success and the Moravians
successful missionariesxv. Missions
went through thousands of bags of
flour, plenty of cloth and a number of
other rations a year however this still
were not enough.
Over the years a number of requests
were made to the Board for the
Protection of Aborigines by the
missionaries asking for more rations,
supplies and over all improvements
for the mission showing a need for
improvements suggesting that the
conditions were not the best in the
first place, however most of these
requests were ignored or deniedxvi.
It is important to note that the
Indigenous Australians did not take
the mission system lying down.
There is documented history of
resistance against colonisation and
against colonial missionsxvii. The
mobility of Indigenous Australians
was one of their key forms of
rebelling against European
colonisation, because with their
mobility it became nearly impossible
to track themxviii. Mission life was
based around the need to stop the
mobility of Indigenous Australians,
for the missionaries could only
colonise those that came and lived
on the missions. In many cases this
highlights the power that the
Indigenous Australians had within the
mission system, resistance was not
always physical or violent during
colonisation sometimes the battles
called for passive resistance. Some
of the Wergaia people who lived at
Ebenezer continued their mobile

lives while participating in the

mission system, some would come
and go as they pleased this can be
seen by reports that document the
fluctuating number of Indigenous
people at Ebenezer. By going along
with some aspects of the mission
system despite the knowledge that
they were not always treated right, it
saved a number of Indigenous lives.
The mission system was meant to be
a way to protect Indigenous
Australians from the violence of the
colonial frontier. Which would save
more lives than the continuous
violence and fighting that was known
to be occurring at the time.

and who was deemed half-caste;

those who were designated halfcaste were denied aid by the state
meaning they could no longer live on
the missionsxxi. The introduction of
this act meant the separation of
Indigenous Australians from their
family creating devastating effects
for them. For Ebenezer mission this
meant the removal of more than half
of the people whom lived on the
mission for Ebenezer was the home
of half-castes and full bloods alike.
Due to the removal of the half-castes
by the 1886 act Ebenezer mission
was forced to close in 1904 because
the Indigenous population had
rapidly declined there were not
enough people classed as indigenous
remaining on the mission groundsxxii.
This was the ultimate goal of
missions to civilise the Indigenous
Australians living on them, in order
to eventually assimilate them into
European society. The half-caste act
was used to accelerate this process
for those labelled half-caste.

Ebenezer Now
Figure 3: Image of Ebenezer Mission,
displayed at State Library of Victoria

Half-caste Act
In 1886 the Protection of Aborigines
Act was introduced in the state of
Victoriaxix. This act was then and is
now better known as the Half-Caste
act, as the name suggests the act
was designed to identify and label
the Indigenous people of Victoriaxx.
The act allowed the government to
decide who was classed as Aboriginal

After the closure of Ebenezer Mission

in 1904 the 4200 acres of traditional
land that the mission was built on
was returned to the lands
departmentxxiii, instead of back to the
Wergaia people who were the
traditional owners of the land prior to
colonisation. The government at this
time failed to recognise the
importance Ebenezer Mission held
for the Indigenous community of the
Wimmera region both then and now.
Indigenous Australians are extremely
attached to the land that they were
born on and live on. The land brings
them closer to their ancestors
especially when, located on the

grounds of the mission is one of

Australias largest Indigenous
cemeteries that was the final resting
place for over 150 Indigenous
peoplexxiv. The sad part about this is
for all the Indigenous people buried
on the grounds there is nowhere near
as many tombstones to recognize
the people buried there, however
there are tombstones for the
missionaries including one for
Spieseke. It seems that the
missionaries were less inclined to act
when it came to remembering or
memorialising an Indigenous persons
death by the creation of a
tombstone, or maybe this was a way
of hiding how many deaths had
occurred on the grounds. In 2005
Victoria recognised native title of the
land that Ebenezer was built on and
has officially turned the land over to
the Barengi Gadjin Land Councilxxv.
By giving the land back the
government have recognised how
important this site is to Indigenous
Australians.

Australian history to this day. It is

important for us to acknowledge
these scars in order for them to
eventually heal.

Ebenezer Mission is part of a broader

history of colonisation, resistance
and survival. The original mission
buildings are still standing to this day
minus a few repairs here and there,
the upkeep of the building
symbolises the resilience of the
Indigenous culture despite the
multiple attempts to eradicate the
culture. It is important that we as
Australians take notice of places that
bare such historical significance to a
time that has been traditionally been
swept under the rug in favour of a
more constructive national story for
Australia. Even though the mission
era has been and gone, there are still
scars on the landscape and

Victorian Board for the Protection of

the Aborigines; Victorian Parliament
Legislative Council Select Committee
on Aborigines, Protection of
Aborigines Report 12 1876,
Government Printer, https://digitisedcollections.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11
343/21345, pg:13, 1/11/2016

Bibliography
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http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/44035/
200611230000/www.abc.net.au/missi
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343/21356

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the Aborigines; Victorian Parliament
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343/21345, pg:5, 1/11/2016
Images

Figure 1: Roberts, Samuel, Hartley.

Moravian Mission House Blacks
Station, Dimboola Feb 19, 1885

Dimboola. (Shire of Dimboola in

conjunction with Hargreen Publishing
Company, 1985.)

Figure 2: Le Souef, Dudley Mr & Mrs

Brogisch [?], Ebenezer Mission
Station, ,( 1890.)

Lydon, Jane. Fantastic Dreaming.

(AltaMira Press, 2009. ProQuest
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Figure 3: MISSION STATION,

DIMBOOLA. David Syme and Co,
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2010), pp. 3940

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xxiii Victorian Board for the Protection of the Aborigines; Victorian Parliament
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accountid=12001