The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Maude Tongerie was born in 1928 at Anna Creek, about 80 miles west of Oodnadatta in South Australia. She lived with her people (Arabunna) until the age of nine, when she was taken to the Finke River Mission for an eye treatment. She then went to live with an aunt in Oodnadatta so that she could learn English, and from there she went to Colebrook Home, a non-Government Aboriginal mission, in Quorn. At the age of 15 she started to work as a domestic with a family near Adelaide. She married George Tongerie, a young Aboriginal man who served in the Air Force during the war. In the early 1970s Maude became involved with the Department for Community Welfare, and worked as a social worker with Aboriginal families, particularly in the juvenile courts. In the 1980s she and her husband instituted successful community housing and training programs in Oodnadatta and were both appointed Members of the Order of Australia in 1988, for ‘contributions to the Aboriginal Community’.