Maurie Ryan Japarta was born at Wave Hill Station. At the age of four, Japarta was removed from his family and taken to Croker Island Mission. He was later fostered in a supportive family in Adelaide. Japarta was conscripted into the Army in 1966. Later he became a teacher and won the seat of Victoria Downs as a Democrat candidate in 1981. Japarta has also served as Chairperson on the Northern Territory Stolen Generation Corporation.
Japarta's story was recorded by the National Library of Australia for the Bringing Them Home oral history project and appeared in the associated publication Many Voices: Reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation edited by Doreen Mellor and Anna Haebich (2002).
