Kowanyama, Queensland: History
Kunjen (also known as Koko Wanggara, Ngundjan and Olkola) is a language of Western Cape York. The Kunjen language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of Kowanyama Community Council and Cook Shire Council.
The name Kowanyama means "the place of many waters".
Kowanyama State School opened in January 1904. Since the beginning of 2014, the school has also started to enrol students in a year 11 and 12 pathways program.
In 1905, Trubanamen Mission was established inland on Topsy Creek, and Aboriginal peoples of the region were gradually drawn from their ancestral lands into the mission settlement. Later, in 1916, Mitchell River Mission was founded on the present site of Kowanyama and the Trubanamen site abandoned. Some people continued to live on their traditional lands, only moving into Kowanyama in the 1940s.
In 1964, Tropical Cyclone Dora destroyed the mission. The Queensland Government funded the rebuilding.
Kowanyama Post Office opened by 1967.
In 1967 the Anglican church were no longer able to sustain their activities in the area as a Church Mission. The Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs, a government department, under the Act continued running the affairs of the community.
In July 1987, the State Government of Queensland implemented legislation for a DOGIT (Deed of Grant in Trust) over the lands in the Mitchell River delta, an area of 250 square kilometres (97 sq mi). The deed covered the traditional lands of the people of Kowanyama. Like other DOGIT communities of the time, Kowanyama had a town Council elected by Aboriginal people living in the community. The newly formed Kowanyama Council assumed responsibility for implementing certain conditions of the DOGIT. Seven elected aboriginal residents hold three-year terms in office.
Since the 1990s, many Kowanyama people have been returning to their ancestral lands through the Homelands Movement.
Other homelands, including the Oriners Pastoral Lease and the Sefton Pastoral Lease, were independently purchased by the Kowanyama Council and are located outside the DOGIT boundary.