Woolkabunning Kiaka Aboriginal Corporation

Woolkabunning Kiaka means “We’ve Been There, Left and Returned to Seven Hills”

Where we are located

Roelands Village is located on the Collie River, in the Bunbury Region of Western Australia, approximately 155km from Perth along the South Western Highway, on Seven Hills Road, Roelands.

The property was originally a farm used also as a Mission to house children removed from families from across Western Australia. At times the Mission had more than 100 Aboriginal children living there from all over Western Australia.

Who we are

Woolkabunning Kiaka Aboriginal Corporation is an Aboriginal incorporated organisation with Charitable status approved by the Australian Taxation Office for Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR).

Woolkabunning Kiaka Aboriginal Corporation was established in 1974 by Allan Kickett, a former Roelands Mission resident. WKAC represents the children who had been placed at Roelands Mission throughout the 1940s – early 1970s as part of protection and assimilation policies of the day. Many children were removed from homelands and families from as far away as the Pilbara to the south-west where the Churches of Christ was the administrator of the Roelands Mission establishment.

Today, the former Mission is referred to as Roelands Village. The Village is administered by Woolkabunning Kiaka after being purchased on WKAC’s behalf by the Indigenous Land Corporation in 2004. The ILC is working with WKAC with a view to divestment of the Roelands Village and farm to the organisation by 2015. The ILC purchase happened as a result of protests by WKAC members at the impending sale of the property by the Churches of Christ.

The Woolkabunning Kiaka Aboriginal Corporation Vision

Strong, proud and building for generations to come

Our Purpose

Woolkabunning Kiaka Aboriginal Corporation’s main purpose, as stated in the Strategic Plan 2020, is to provide opportunities for guests and visitors to Roelands to interact with and learn about the Roelands Mission story and Aboriginal cultural heritage – while providing opportunities for Aboriginal people to take responsibility for their future.

Other key Goals are to:

• Contribute to the self support of the Community by the development of social-economic projects
• Create opportunities in education, hospitality, health services, employment and housing for the Community
• Encourage and develop mutual trust and friendly relations between the Community and the general Community
• Promote the success stories that are developed in the Community