David Unaipon was born at Raukkan, on the southern bank of Lake Alexandrina in South Australia on 28 September 1872. Raukkan means "ancient place" in the indigenous language of the area, Ngarrindjeri; the anglicized name for the place, Point McLeay (named for the British explorer Charles Sturt's secondin-command) often appears on the maps of the area. Point McLeay was the site chosen for a mission set up in 1860 by the Aborigines' Friends' Association (AFA), an interdenominational group, although it was dominated by Protestant clergymen, which had formed a year earlier. Unaipon's father, James Ngunaitponi (the name Unaipon is also an Anglicization) was the first Aboriginal convert, arriving at the mission from Wellington on the eastern bank of the lake by boat in 1864. In 1866 he married Nymbulda, the daughter of Pullum, the rupulle, or president of the Karatindjeri tribe. It was the first Christian ceremony held at the mission. David Unaipon was the fourth of their nine children. Unaipon writes of his father in his 1951 autobiographical pamphlet My Life Story, which was published by the AFA: "He became a good liaison officer between the black and white races, for he was the first convert to the Christian faith among the Narrinjeri tribe and used his influence to persuade others to accept the Gospel. Without any assistance from schools he learned to read some chapters from the Bible and expounded them to others. . . . When a later portion of the Scriptures was translated into the native