Raukkan is a small Australian Aboriginal community situated on the south-eastern shore of Lake Alexandrina in the locality of Narrung, eighty kilometres southeast of the centre of South Australia's capital, Adelaide. Raukkan is "regarded as the home and heartland of Ngarrindjeri country."
History
Raukkan, which means "meeting place" in the Ngarrindjeri language, was for thousands of years an important meeting place for Ngarrindjeri "lakalinyeri" (clans) and the location of the Grand Tendi, the parliament of the Ngarrindjeri people. The Grand Tendi was composed of men elected from each of the eighteen lakalinyeri who then elected from its members the Rupulle or leader.
English explorer Charles Sturt first encountered the Ngarrindjeri at Raukkan, who fed the starving Sturt and his party.
In 1860 the Aborigines' Friends' Association was granted 107 hectares in the area and established a mission at Raukkan, which had been named "Point McLeay" by T. B. Strangways in 1837. George Taplin had selected the site, helped build the school, church and mission station to care for the local Aboriginals, and spent the next twenty years in that service. It was intended by the Aborigines' Friends' Association to help the Ngarrindjeri people, but could never be self-sufficient farming due to the poor quality of the land in the area. Land clearing by farmers nearby also limited the ability for hunting, and other crafts and industries also met with difficulties due to changing environment and competition from nearby towns. In 1916, responsibility for Raukkan moved to South Australia's Chief Protector of Aborigines, and since 1974 it has been administered by the Ngarrindjeri people themselves and renamed Raukkan in 1982.
Raukkan Aboriginal School is in the town. In the 2011 Australian Census the population was 99, of whom 95 were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Voting history
In 1896, Aboriginal men and women at Raukkan were granted the vote and voted in state and federal elections (including for the first Commonwealth Parliament in 1901) and the constitutional referendums on Australian federation. More than 100 Aboriginals from Raukkan were listed on the South Australian electoral roll and seventy per cent of these voted at the 1896 South Australian election.
Notable residents
Raukkan was home to James Unaipon and his son David. James Unaipon was the first Australian Aboriginal deacon. and co-authored writings on the Ngarrindjeri language and David was a writer and inventor, who along with the Raukkan Church, is featured on the Australian fifty-dollar note.