Focusing on three communities in South Australia, this book looks at the institutionalisation of Aboriginal people and the consequences of this for both Aborigines and Australian society in general.

1. Introduction; 2. Legislation and policy: the context of outback ghettos; 3. Poonindie, home away from 'country'; 4. An established community and its destruction; 5. Koonibba, a refuge for west coast people; 6. Institutional upheaval and adjustment; 7. Dispersal and the end of the mission era; 8. Adnyamathanha: survival without institutionalisation; 9. Nepabunna mission; 10. The ghetto experience and survival; Bibliography; Index.