Mercia Butler née Roberts (24 December 1933 – 29 September 1990) was an Alawa woman born at Ngukurr in the Northern Territory and she spent much of her early life at various missions and institutions around the region including the Channel Island Leprosarium.
Butler went on to become a Catholic nun and part of the Indigenous order ''Handmaids of Our Lord' which was formed and based in Papua New Guinea.
Butler remembers a happy childhood there and that watermelons thrived there and that the matron, Elsie Muriel Jones, grew beautiful flowers.
She never saw her mother again and Norah, who left the leprosarium after the Bombing of Darwin died elsewhere shortly afterwards and the family were never able to find her grave.
[1] As they were some of the few role models she knew Butler decided to become a nun and, in 1956, she was sent to Port Moresby where she joined the Indigenous order, which had been formed there, the 'Handmaids of Our Lord'.
[1] After 12 years in Papua New Guinea Butler decided to return home and, in 1968, visited Darwin and was able to meet with her father and brothers.