Founded as the Roper River Mission in 1908, the settlement was taken over by the Northern Territory Government's Welfare Department in 1968, and handed over to the community in 1988, at which time it was renamed Ngukurr.

[3] As well as bringing "Christianity and civilisation" to the local Aboriginal people, it was intended to provide a dwelling place for them, to be safe from mass killings by white settlers.

[4] The Eastern and African Cold Storage Company had driven the people off their lands, planning to set up cattle stations and export the meat around the world.

[8] There are a number of traditional Australian Aboriginal Languages that people of Ngukurr have as part of their heritage, including Alawa, Marra, Warndarrang, Ngandi, Ngalakgan, Nunggubuyu, Ritharrngu and Wägilak.

When he returned in 2005, he brought singer-songwriters Archie Roach and his wife Ruby Hunter, along with 10 members of his Australian Art Orchestra.

[5] The resulting project, called Crossing Roper Bar, toured the Northern Territory, played at the Birrarung Marr park in Melbourne, the National Gallery of Victoria, Apollo Bay Music Festival and the Sydney Opera House.

When the group travelled to Gulkula to play at the 2006 Garma Festival, the Yolngu songmen from nearby regions were amazed, thinking that those songs had been lost long ago.

[5] Phillip Roberts was a resident of the Roper River Mission (now Ngukurr) and his biography became an award-winning book, I, the Aboriginal, by Douglas Lockwood.

[13][14] Actor and musician, Tom E. Lewis, grew up in the Roper River Mission before moving into acting with his role in the film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.

[18] Her career included working as a teacher and educator, leading a local women's Indigenous ranger group[19] and teaching her traditional language of Ngandi.