James JAPANMA

JAPANMA, JAMES (b. Anhem Land, NT, c. 1885; d. Roper River Mission, NT, March 1962). Aboriginal evangelist.

James Japanma was part of the first group of Aboriginal people to seek refuge at the Roper River Mission (now Ngukurr), established by CMS in 1908. In the ten years prior to 1908, most of the Aboriginal people of the region had been systematically massacred by the organised hunting gangs of the Eastern and African Cold Storage Company.

Coming to the new mission as a young man, James showed an early interest in the Christian faith. He was baptised by the Rev R Birch at the mission's first baptismal service on 11 May 1913. James profited greatly from the educational opportunities offered at the mission. Within a few years, he was acting as a teaching assistant in the school. In the 1930s, when there were severe staff shortages at the mission, James ran the school single-handedly in the absence of a trained teacher. When Helen Alder arrived to take over the school in 1941, she wrote 'James ... has been teaching them. All the older ones write well ... a foundation has already been laid.' (Open Door, Oct 1941)

James was now freed to undertake itinerant evangelism among people living in the surrounding cattle stations. In 1944, he travelled further afield, to preach the gospel to the Nunggubuyu people at Rose River. James was made a lay reader, and assumed full responsibility for church services during the frequent absences of clergy from the mission.

In 1953, James was one of four Roper River men chosen for possible ordination. Two controversies prevented this from proceeding. One was the confrontation between the evangelical CMS and the Anglo-catholic bishop of Carpentaria over the type of training; the other was the bishop's stipulation that theological training be undertaken away from the mission for six years. It is a tragedy that godly men such as James Japanma were not finally ordained, a tragedy which adversely affected spiritual growth on the CMS missions.

Keith Cole, Roper River Mission (Melbourne, 1968); Keith Cole, From Mission to Church (Bendigo, 1985); John Harris, One Blood (Sutherland, 1990)

JOHN HARRIS