For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the word Mission has a specific meaning, as a residential settlement or institution. Religious missions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people existed in many states and territories from the nineteenth century up to the 1980s. On Aboriginal missions, families were forcibly separated by a dormitory system, where women and children were housed in separate buildings. Some missions also had boarding schools where children would live away from their families.
Missions, reserves and stations were reserves of land to which Aboriginal people were forcibly relocated. Missions were in the control of churches and missionaries with little or no government involvement. Reserves and stations were generally run by the government, although churches, especially the United Aborigines Mission and the Aborigines Inland Mission, were sometimes active on government settlements although they didn’t always have an administrative role (AIATSIS).