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The Aboriginal Tasmanians (
Palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the eas ...
: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the
Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
of the Australian island of
Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers. Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000. First arriving in Tasmania (then a peninsula of Australia) around 40,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Aboriginal Tasmanians were cut off from the
Australian mainland Mainland Australia is the main landmass of the Australian continent, excluding the Aru Islands, New Guinea, Tasmania, and other Australian offshore islands. The landmass also constitutes the mainland of the territory governed by the Commonwealt ...
by rising sea levels c. 6000 BC. They were entirely isolated from the outside world for 8,000 years until European contact. Before
British colonisation of Tasmania The British colonisation of Tasmania took place between 1803 and 1830. Tasmania was a British colony from 1856 until 1901, at which time it joined five other colonies to form the Commonwealth of Australia. By the end of the colonisation in 1 ...
in 1803, there were an estimated 3,000–15,000 Palawa. The Palawa population suffered a drastic drop in numbers within three decades, so that by 1835 only some 400 full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal people survived, most of this remnant being incarcerated in camps where all but 47 died within the following 12 years. No consensus exists as to the cause, over which a major controversy arose. The traditional view, still affirmed, held that this dramatic demographic collapse was the result of the impact of introduced diseases, rather than the consequence of policy.
Geoffrey Blainey Geoffrey Norman Blainey (born 11 March 1930) is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator. He is noted for having written authoritative texts on the economic and social history of Australia, including '' The Tyranny ...
, for example, wrote that by 1830 in Tasmania: "Disease had killed most of them but warfare and private violence had also been devastating." Henry Reynolds attributed the depletion to losses in the
Black War } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
.
Keith Windschuttle Keith Windschuttle (born 1942) is an Australian historian and former board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was editor of '' Quadrant'' from 2007 to 2015 when he became chair of the board and editor-in-chief. He was the pub ...
claimed that in addition to disease, the prostitution of women in a society already in decline, explained the extinction. Many historians of colonialism and genocide, such as Ben Kiernan,
Colin Tatz Colin Tatz AO (18 July 1934 – 19 November 2019) was the director of thAustralian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Professor of Politics at the University of New England, Australia, University of New England, Armidale, and at Macquar ...
, and Benjamin Madley, consider that the Tasmanian decimation qualifies as genocide by the definition of
Raphael Lemkin Raphael Lemkin ( pl, Rafał Lemkin; 24 June 1900 – 28 August 1959) was a Polish lawyer who is best known for coining the term ''genocide'' and initiating the Genocide Convention, an interest spurred on after learning about the Armenian genocid ...
adopted in the UN
Genocide Convention The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was ...
. By 1833,
George Augustus Robinson George Augustus Robinson (22 March 1791 – 18 October 1866) was a British-born colonial official and self-trained preacher in colonial Australia. In 1824, Robinson travelled to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land, where he attempted to negotiate ...
, sponsored by
Lieutenant-Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
George Arthur Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet (21 June 1784 – 19 September 1854) was Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras from 1814 to 1822 and of Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) from 1823 to 1836. The campaign against Aboriginal Tasmania ...
, had persuaded the approximately 200 surviving Aboriginal Tasmanians to surrender themselves with assurances that they would be protected and provided for, and eventually have their lands returned. These assurances were no more than a ruse by Robinson or Lieutenant-Governor Arthur to transport the Tasmanians quietly to a permanent exile in the
Furneaux Islands The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of t ...
. The survivors were moved to Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on
Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colon ...
, where disease continued to reduce their numbers. In 1847, the last 47 survivors on Wybalenna were transferred to Oyster Cove, south of
Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
. Two individuals,
Truganini Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. She was one of the last native speakers of the Tasmanian languages and one of the last individuals solely of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent. Trug ...
(1812–1876) and
Fanny Cochrane Smith Fanny Cochrane Smith (December 1834 – 24 February 1905) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian, born in December 1834. She is considered to be the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca, a Tasmanian language, and her wax cylinder recor ...
(1834–1905), are separately considered to have been the last people solely of Tasmanian descent. The complete Aboriginal Tasmanian languages have been lost; research suggests that the languages spoken on the island belonged to several distinct
language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hi ...
. Some original Tasmanian language words remained in use with Palawa people in the
Furneaux Islands The Furneaux Group is a group of approximately 100 islands located at the eastern end of Bass Strait, between Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. The islands were named after British navigator Tobias Furneaux, who sighted the eastern side of t ...
, and there are some efforts to reconstruct a language from the available wordlists. Today, some thousands of people living in Tasmania describe themselves as Aboriginal Tasmanians, since a number of Palawa women bore children to European men in the Furneaux Islands and mainland Tasmania.


History


Before European settlement

People crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago via a
land bridge In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and Colonisation (biology), colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regre ...
between the island and the rest of mainland Australia, during the Last Glacial Period. Genetic studies show that once the sea level rose to flood the
Bassian Plain Bassian may refer to: * Saint Bassian (c. 320 – c. 409), Italian saint * Bassian thrush, a bird of Australia and Tasmania * Bassian ecoregion, a List of marine ecoregions, marine ecoregion * Bassian Patrikeyev, Russian ecclesiastic and political ...
, the island's population was isolated for approximately 8,000 years, until European exploration in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Until the 1980s, it was thought that Tasmania was only occupied relatively recently, but the discovery of 19,000-year-old deposits at Kutikina (or Fraser) Cave demonstrated the Ice Age occupation of the highlands. In 1990, archaeologists excavated material in the Warreen Cave in the Maxwell River valley of the south-west, proving Aboriginal occupation from as early as 34,000 BP, making Aboriginal Tasmanians the southernmost population in the world during the
Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
era. Digs in southwest and central Tasmania turned up abundant finds, affording "the richest archaeological evidence from Pleistocene Greater Australia" from 35,000 to 11,000 BP.


Migration chronology

Tasmania was colonised by successive waves of Aboriginal people from southern Australia during glacial maxima, when the sea was at its lowest. The archeological and geographic record suggests a period of drying during the colder glacial period, with a desert extending from southern Australia into the midlands of Tasmania, with intermittent periods of wetter, warmer climate. Migrants from southern Australia into peninsular Tasmania would have crossed stretches of seawater and desert, and finally found oases in the King highlands (now
King Island King Island, Kings Island or King's Island may refer to: Australia * King Island (Queensland) * King Island, at Wellington Point, Queensland * King Island (Tasmania) ** King Island Council, the local government area that contains the Tasmanian is ...
). The archeological, geographic and linguistic record suggests successive waves of occupation of Tasmania, and coalescence of three language groups into one broad group. Colonial settlers found two main language and ethnic groups in Tasmania upon their arrival, the western ''Nara'' and eastern ''Mara.'' The admixture of ''Nara'' toponyms (place-names) in the Eastern territory of the ''Mara'' languages seem to be a relic of ancient conquests mirroring the hostilities during colonial times. * ''Pleistocene Palawa'' language group – the first ethnic and language group in Tasmania; absorbed or displaced by successive invasions except for remnant group on Tasman peninsula. Absorbed population in Eastern Tasmania combined with '' Victorian'' speakers to form ''Mara'' language group across broader eastern Tasmania * ''Furneaux speakers'' displace Palawa in north-east Tasmania as far south as Orford. Themselves disappear or are absorbed into the ''Mara'' language group, a composite of Pleistocene Palawa, Furneaux, and Victorian * ''Nara'' speakers invade, but are pushed back to Western Tasmania. Correlates with Western nation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. After the sea rose to create Bass Strait, the Australian mainland and Tasmania became separate land masses, and the Aboriginal people who had migrated from mainland Australia became cut off from their cousins on the mainland. Archeological evidence suggests remnant populations on the
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and Furneaux highlands were stranded by the rising waters – later to die out.


Early European contact

Abel Jansen Tasman, credited as the first European to discover Tasmania (in 1642) and who named it Van Diemen's Land, did not encounter any of the Aboriginal Tasmanians when he landed. In 1772, a French exploratory expedition under Marion Dufresne visited Tasmania. At first, contact with the Aboriginal people was friendly; however the Aboriginal Tasmanians became alarmed when another boat was dispatched towards the shore. It was reported that spears and stones were thrown and the French responded with musket fire, killing at least one Aboriginal person and wounding several others. Two later French expeditions led by
Bruni d'Entrecasteaux Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux () (8 November 1737 – 21 July 1793) was a French naval officer, explorer and colonial governor. He is perhaps best known for his exploration of the Australian coast in 1792, while ...
in 1792–93 and
Nicolas Baudin Nicolas Thomas Baudin (; 17 February 1754 – 16 September 1803) was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer, most notable for his explorations in Australia and the southern Pacific. Biography Early career Born a comm ...
in 1802 made friendly contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians; the d'Entrecasteaux expedition doing so over an extended period of time. The ''Resolution'' under Captain Tobias Furneaux (part of an expedition led by
Captain James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...
) had visited in 1773 but made no contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians although gifts were left for them in unoccupied shelters found on Bruny Island. The first known British contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians was on Bruny Island by Captain Cook in 1777. The contact was peaceful.
Captain William Bligh Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Vice-Admiral William Bligh (9 September 1754 – 7 December 1817) was an officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The Mutiny on the Bounty, mutiny on the HMS ''Bounty'' occurred in 1789 when the ship ...
also visited Bruny Island in 1788 and made peaceful contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians.


Contact with sealers, and the formation of the Bass Strait community

More extensive contact between Aboriginal Tasmanians and Europeans resulted when British and American seal hunters began visiting the islands in Bass Strait as well as the northern and eastern coasts of Tasmania from the late 1790s. Shortly thereafter (by about 1800), sealers were regularly left on uninhabited islands in Bass Strait during the sealing season (November to May). The sealers established semi-permanent camps or settlements on the islands, which were close enough for the sealers to reach the main island of Tasmania in small boats and so make contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians. Trading relationships developed between sealers and Tasmanian Aboriginal tribes. Hunting dogs became highly prized by the Aboriginal people, as were other exotic items such as flour, tea and tobacco. The Aboriginal people traded kangaroo skins for such goods. However, a trade in Aboriginal women soon developed. Many Tasmanian Aboriginal women were highly skilled in hunting seals, as well as in obtaining other foods such as seabirds, and some Tasmanian tribes would trade their services and, more rarely, those of Aboriginal men to the sealers for the seal-hunting season. Others were sold on a permanent basis. This trade incorporated not only women of the tribe engaged in the trade but also women abducted from other tribes. Some may have been given to incorporate the new arrivals into Aboriginal society through marriage. Sealers engaged in raids along the coasts to abduct Aboriginal women and were reported to have killed Aboriginal men in the process. By 1810 seal numbers had been greatly reduced by hunting so most seal hunters abandoned the area, however a small number of sealers, approximately fifty mostly "renegade sailors, escaped convicts or ex-convicts", remained as permanent residents of the Bass Strait islands and some established families with Tasmanian Aboriginal women. Some of the women were taken back to the islands by the sealers involuntarily and some went willingly, as in the case of a woman called Tarenorerer (Eng: Walyer). Differing opinions have been given on Walyer's involvement with the sealers. McFarlane writes that she voluntarily joined the sealers with members of her family, and was responsible for attacking Aboriginal people and white settlers alike. Ryan comes to a different conclusion, that Walyer had been abducted at
Port Sorell Port Sorell is a town on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is on the waterway of the same name, just off Bass Strait, 20 km east of Devonport and close to Shearwater and Hawley Beach. It borders the Rubicon Estuary, whi ...
by Aboriginal people and traded to the sealers for dogs and flour. Walyer was later to gain some notoriety for her attempts to kill the sealers to escape their brutality. Walyer, a Punnilerpanner, joined the Plairhekehillerplue band after eventually escaping and went on to lead attacks on employees of the
Van Diemen's Land Company The Van Diemen's Land Company (also known as Van Dieman Land Company) is a farming corporation in the Australian state of Tasmania. It was founded in 1825 and received a royal charter the same year, and was granted 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) ...
. Walyer's attacks are the first recorded use of
musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually d ...
s by Aboriginal people. Captured, she refused to work and was banished to Penguin Island. Later imprisoned on Swan Island she attempted to organise a rebellion. Although Aboriginal women were by custom forbidden to take part in war, several Aboriginal women who escaped from sealers became leaders or took part in attacks. According to
Lyndall Ryan Lyndall Ryan, (born 1943) is an Australian academic and historian. She has held positions in Australian Studies and Women's Studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was Foundation Professor of Australian Studies and Head of Sc ...
, the women traded to or kidnapped by sealers became "a significant dissident group" against European/white authority. Historian James Bonwick reported Aboriginal women who were clearly captives of sealers but he also reported women living with sealers who "proved faithful and affectionate to their new husbands", women who appeared "content" and others who were allowed to visit their "native tribe", taking gifts, with the sealers being confident that they would return. Bonwick also reports a number of claims of brutality by sealers towards Aboriginal women including some of those made by Robinson. An Aboriginal woman by the name of Bulrer related her experience to Robinson, that sealers had rushed her camp and stolen six women including herself "the white men tie them and then they flog them very much, plenty much blood, plenty cry." Sealing captain James Kelly wrote in 1816 that the custom of the sealers was to each have "two to five of these native women for their own use and benefit". A shortage of women available "in trade" resulted in abduction becoming common, and in 1830 it was reported that at least fifty Aboriginal women were "kept in slavery" on the Bass Strait islands. There are numerous stories of the sealers' brutality towards the Aboriginal women; with some of these reports originating from Robinson. In 1830, Robinson seized 14 Aboriginal women from the sealers, planning for them to marry Aboriginal men at the Flinders Island settlement.
Josephine Flood Josephine Mary Flood, (née Scarr, born 25 July 1936) is an English-born Australian archaeologist, mountaineer, and author. Early life and education Josephine Flood was born Josephine Scarr in Yorkshire, England. She took a BA in Classics ...
, an archaeologist specialising in Australian mainland Aboriginal peoples, notes: "he encountered strong resistance from the women as well as sealers". The sealers sent a representative, James Munro, to appeal to Governor George Arthur and argue for the women's return, on the basis that they wanted to stay with their sealer husbands and children rather than marry Aboriginal men unknown to them. Arthur ordered the return of some of the women. Shortly thereafter, Robinson began to disseminate stories, told to him by James Munro, of atrocities allegedly committed by the sealers against Aboriginal people, and against Aboriginal women in particular.
Brian Plomley Norman James Brian Plomley (born 6 November 1912 – 8 April 1994) regarded by some as one of the most respected and scholarly of Australian historians and, until his death, in Launceston, the doyen of Tasmanian Aboriginal scholarship ...
, who edited Robinson's papers, expressed scepticism about these atrocities and notes that they were not reported to Archdeacon William Broughton's 1830 committee of inquiry into violence towards Tasmanians. Abduction and ill-treatment of Aboriginal Tasmanians certainly occurred, but the extent is debated. The raids for and trade in Aboriginal women contributed to the rapid depletion of the numbers of Aboriginal women in the northern areas of Tasmania – "by 1830 only three women survived in northeast Tasmania among 72 men" – and thus contributed in a significant manner to the demise of the full-blooded Aboriginal population of Tasmania. However, a mixed-race community of partial Tasmanian Aboriginal descent formed on the Islands, where it remains to the present, and many modern day Aboriginal Tasmanians trace their descent from the 19th century sealer communities of Bass Strait.


After European settlement

Between 1803 and 1823, there were two phases of conflict between the Aboriginal people and the British colonists. The first took place between 1803 and 1808 over the need for common food sources such as oysters and kangaroos, and the second between 1808 and 1823, when only a small number of white females lived among the colonists, and farmers, sealers and whalers took part in the trading, and the abduction, of Aboriginal women as sexual partners. These practices also increased conflict over women among Aboriginal tribes. This in turn led to a decline in the Aboriginal population. Historian Lyndall Ryan records 74 Aboriginal people (almost all women) living with sealers on the Bass Strait islands in the period up to 1835. By 1816, kidnapping of Aboriginal children for labour had become widespread. In 1814,
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Thomas Davey issued a proclamation expressing "utter indignation and abhorrence" in regards to the kidnapping of the children and in 1819 Governor
William Sorell William Sorell (1775 – 4 June 1848) was a soldier and third Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. Early life Sorell was born probably in the West Indies, the eldest son of Lieutenant-general William Alexander Sorell and his wife Jane. So ...
not only re-issued the proclamation but ordered that those who had been taken without parental consent were to be sent to Hobart and supported at government expense. A number of young Aboriginal children were known to be living with settlers. An Irish sealer named Brien spared the life of the baby son of a native woman he had abducted, explaining, "as (he) had stolen the dam he would keep the cub." When the child grew up he became an invaluable assistant to Brien but was considered "no good" by his own people as he was brought up to dislike Aboriginal people, whom he considered "dirty lazy brutes." Twenty-six were definitely known (through baptismal records) to have been taken into settlers' homes as infants or very small children, too young to be of service as labourers. Some Aboriginal children were sent to the Orphan School in Hobart. Lyndall Ryan reports fifty-eight Aboriginal people, of various ages, living with settlers in Tasmania in the period up to 1835. Some historians argue that European disease did not appear to be a serious factor until after 1829. Other historians including
Geoffrey Blainey Geoffrey Norman Blainey (born 11 March 1930) is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator. He is noted for having written authoritative texts on the economic and social history of Australia, including '' The Tyranny ...
and
Keith Windschuttle Keith Windschuttle (born 1942) is an Australian historian and former board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He was editor of '' Quadrant'' from 2007 to 2015 when he became chair of the board and editor-in-chief. He was the pub ...
, point to introduced disease as the main cause of the destruction of the full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal population. Keith Windschuttle argues that while
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
never reached Tasmania, respiratory diseases such as
influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...
,
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
and
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
and the effects of
venereal diseases Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, especi ...
devastated the Tasmanian Aboriginal population whose long isolation from contact with the mainland compromised their resistance to introduced disease. The work of historian James Bonwick and anthropologist H. Ling Roth, both writing in the 19th century, also point to the significant role of
epidemic An epidemic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics ...
s and infertility without clear attribution of the sources of the diseases as having been introduced through contact with Europeans. Bonwick, however, did note that Tasmanian Aboriginal women were infected with venereal diseases by Europeans. Introduced venereal disease not only directly caused deaths but, more insidiously, left a significant percentage of the population unable to reproduce. Josephine Flood, archaeologist, wrote: "Venereal disease sterilised and chest complaints – influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis – killed." Bonwick, who lived in Tasmania, recorded a number of reports of the devastating effect of introduced disease including one report by a Doctor Story, a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
, who wrote: "After 1823 the women along with the tribe seemed to have had no children; but why I do not know.". Later historians have reported that introduced venereal disease caused infertility amongst the Aboriginal Tasmanians. Bonwick also recorded a strong Aboriginal oral tradition of an epidemic even before formal colonisation in 1803. "Mr Robert Clark, in a letter to me, said: 'I have gleaned from some of the Aborigines, now in their graves, that they were more numerous than the white people were aware of, but their numbers were very much thinned by a sudden attack of disease which was general among the entire population previous to the arrival of the English, entire tribes of natives having been swept off in the course of one or two days' illness.'" Such an epidemic may be linked to contact with sailors or sealers. Henry Ling Roth, an anthropologist, wrote: "Calder, who has gone more fully into the particulars of their illnesses, writes as follows ...: 'Their rapid declension after the colony was founded is traceable, as far as our proofs allow us to judge, to the prevalence of epidemic disorders....'" Roth was referring to James Erskine Calder who took up a post as a surveyor in Tasmania in 1829 and who wrote a number of scholarly papers about the Aboriginal people. "According to Calder, a rapid and remarkable declension of the numbers of the Aborigines had been going on long before the remnants were gathered together on Flinders Island. Whole tribes (some of which Robinson mentions by name as being in existence fifteen or twenty years before he went amongst them, and which probably never had a shot fired at them) had absolutely and entirely vanished. To the causes to which he attributes this strange wasting away ... I think infecundity, produced by the infidelity of the women to their husbands in the early times of the colony, may be safely added ... Robinson always enumerates the sexes of the individuals he took; ... and as a general thing, found scarcely any children amongst them; ... adultness was found to outweigh infancy everywhere in a remarkable degree ..." Robinson recorded in his journals a number of comments regarding the Aboriginal Tasmanians' susceptibility to diseases, particularly respiratory diseases. In 1832 he revisited the west coast of Tasmania, far from the settled regions, and wrote: "The numbers of Aborigines along the western coast have been considerably reduced since the time of my last visit
830 __NOTOC__ Year 830 ( DCCCXXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Britain * King Wiglaf of Mercia regains control from Wessex, and returns to the throne.S ...
A mortality has raged amongst them which together with the severity of the season and other causes had rendered the paucity of their number very considerable." Between 1825 and 1831 a pattern of guerilla warfare by the Aboriginal Tasmanians was identified by the colonists. Rapid pastoral expansion, a depletion of native game and an increase in the colony's population triggered Aboriginal resistance from 1824 onwards when it has been estimated by Lyndall Ryan that 1000 Aboriginal people remained in the settled districts. Whereas settlers and stock keepers had previously provided rations to the Aboriginal people during their seasonal movements across the settled districts, and recognised this practice as some form of payment for trespass and loss of traditional hunting grounds, the new settlers and stock keepers were unwilling to maintain these arrangements and the Aboriginal people began to raid settlers' huts for food. The official Government position was that Aboriginal people were blameless for any hostilities, but when
Musquito Musquito (c. 1780, Port Jackson – 25 February 1825, Hobart) (also rendered Mosquito, Musquetta, Bush Muschetta or Muskito) was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader, latterly based in Van Diemen's Land. New South Wales and Norfolk Islan ...
was hanged in 1825, a significant debate was generated which split the colonists along class lines. The "higher grade" saw the hanging as a dangerous precedent and argued that Aboriginal people were only defending their land and should not be punished for doing so. The "lower grade" of colonists wanted more Aboriginal people hanged to encourage a "conciliatory line of conduct." Governor Arthur sided with the "lower grade" and 1825 saw the first official acceptance that Aboriginal people were at least partly to blame for conflict. In 1826 the Government gazette, which had formerly reported "retaliatory actions" by Aboriginal people, now reported "acts of atrocity" and for the first time used the terminology "Aborigine" instead of "native". A newspaper reported that there were only two solutions to the problem: either they should be "hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed" or they should be removed from the settled districts. The colonial Government assigned troops to drive them out. A
Royal Proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...
in 1828 established military posts on the boundaries and a further proclamation declared
martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...
against the Aboriginal people. As it was recognised that there were fixed routes for seasonal migration, Aboriginal people were required to have passes if they needed to cross the settled districts with bounties offered for the capture of those without passes, £5 (around 2010:$1,000) for an adult and £2 for children, a process that often led to organised hunts resulting in deaths. Every dispatch from Governor Arthur to the Secretary of State during this period stressed that in every case where Aboriginal people had been killed it was colonists that initiated hostilities. Though many Aboriginal deaths went unrecorded, the Cape Grim massacre in 1828 demonstrates the level of frontier violence towards Aboriginal Tasmanians. The
Black War } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
of 1828–32 and the
Black Line } The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British Empire, British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 ...
of 1830 were turning points in the relationship with European settlers. Even though many of the Aboriginal people managed to avoid capture during these events, they were shaken by the size of the campaigns against them, and this brought them to a position whereby they were willing to surrender to Robinson and move to
Flinders Island Flinders Island, the largest island in the Furneaux Group, is a island in the Bass Strait, northeast of the island of Tasmania. Flinders Island was the place where the last remnants of aboriginal Tasmanian population were exiled by the colon ...
.


Aboriginal Tasmanians and settlers mentioned in literature 1800–1835

European and Aboriginal casualties, including the Aboriginal residents who were captured, may be considered as reasonably accurate. The figures for the Aboriginal population shot is likely a substantial undercount.


Resettlement of the Aboriginal population

In late 1831 Robinson brought the first 51 Aboriginals to a settlement on Flinders Island named The Lagoons, which turned out to be inadequate as it was exposed to gales, had little water and no land suitable for cultivation. Supplies to the settlement were inadequate and if sealers had not supplied potatoes, the Aboriginal people would have starved. The Europeans were living on oatmeal and potatoes while the Aboriginal people, who detested oatmeal and refused to eat it, survived on potatoes and rice supplemented by mutton birds they caught. Within months 31 Aboriginal people had died. Roth wrote: By January 1832 a further 44 captured Aboriginal residents had arrived and conflicts arose between the tribal groups. To defuse the situation, Sergeant Wight took the Big River group to Green island, where they were abandoned and he later decided to move the rest to Green Island as well. Two weeks later Robinson arrived with Lieutenant Darling, the new commander for the station, and moved the Aboriginal people back to The Lagoons. Darling ensured a supply of plentiful food and permitted "hunting excursions." In October 1832, it was decided to build a new camp with better buildings (
wattle and daub Wattle and daub is a composite building method used for making walls and buildings, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung a ...
) at a more suitable location, Pea Jacket Point. Pea Jacket Point was renamed Civilisation Point but became more commonly known as Wybalenna, which in the Ben Lomond language meant 'black men's houses'. Robinson befriended Truganini, learned some of the local language and in 1833 managed to persuade the remaining 154 "full-blooded" people to move to the new settlement on Flinders Island, where he promised a modern and comfortable environment, and that they would be returned to their former homes on the Tasmanian mainland as soon as possible. At the Wybalenna Aboriginal establishment on Flinders Island, described by historian Henry Reynolds as the "best equipped and most lavishly staffed Aboriginal institution in the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century", they were provided with housing, clothing, rations of food, the services of a doctor and educational facilities. Convicts were assigned to build housing and do most of the work at the settlement including the growing of food in the vegetable gardens. After arrival, all Aboriginal children aged between six and 15 years were removed from their families to be brought up by the storekeeper and a lay preacher. The Aboriginal people were free to roam the island and were often absent from the settlement for extended periods on hunting trips as the rations supplied turned out to be inadequate. By 1835 the living conditions had deteriorated to the extent that in October Robinson personally took charge of Wybalenna, organising better food and improving the housing. However, of the 220 who arrived with Robinson, most died in the following 14 years from introduced disease and inadequate shelter. As a result of their loss of freedom, the birth rate was extremely low and few children survived infancy. In 1839, Governor Franklin appointed a board to inquire into the conditions at Wybalenna that rejected Robinson's claims regarding improved living conditions and found the settlement to be a failure. The report was never released and the government continued to promote Wybalenna as a success in the treatment of Aboriginal people. In March 1847 six Aboriginals at Wybalenna presented a petition to
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
, the first petition to a reigning monarch from any Aboriginal group in Australia, requesting that the promises made to them be honoured. In October 1847, the 47 survivors were transferred to their final settlement at Oyster Cove station. Only 44 survived the trip (11 couples, 12 single men and 10 children) and the children were immediately sent to the orphan school in Hobart. Although the housing and food was better than Wybalenna, the station was a former convict station that had been abandoned earlier that year due to health issues as it was located on inadequately drained
mudflat Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...
s. According to the guards, the Aboriginal people developed "too much independence" by trying to continue their culture which they considered "recklessness" and "rank ingratitude." Their numbers continued to diminish, being estimated in 1859 at around a dozen and, by 1869, there was only one, who died in 1876. Commenting in 1899 on Robinson's claims of success, anthropologist
Henry Ling Roth Henry Ling Roth (3 February 1855 – 12 May 1925) was an English-born anthropologist and museum curator, active in Australia. Early life Roth was born in London, the son of Dr Mathias Roth, an Austrian-born surgeon, and his English wife Anna Mar ...
wrote:


Anthropological interest

The Oyster Cove people attracted contemporaneous international scientific interest from the 1860s onwards, with many museums claiming body parts for their collections. Scientists were interested in studying Aboriginal Tasmanians from a
physical anthropology Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a scientific discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct Hominini, hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly ...
perspective, hoping to gain insights into the field of
paleoanthropology Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as hominization, through the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship ...
. For these reasons, they were interested in individual Aboriginal body parts and whole
skeletons A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...
. Tasmanian Aboriginal
skulls The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...
were particularly sought internationally for studies into
craniofacial anthropometry The history of anthropometry includes its use as an early tool of anthropology, use for identification, use for the purposes of understanding human physical variation in paleoanthropology and in various attempts to correlate physical with racial ...
. Truganini herself entertained fears that her body might be exploited after her death and two years after her death her body was exhumed and sent to Melbourne for scientific study. Her skeleton was then put up for public display in the Tasmanian Museum until 1947, and was only laid to rest, by cremation, in 1976. Another case was the removal of the skull and scrotum – for a tobacco pouch – of
William Lanne William Lanne (1835 – 3 March 1869), also spelt William Lanné and also known as King Billy or William Laney, was an Aboriginal Tasmanian man, known for being the last " full-blooded" Aboriginal man in the colony of Tasmania. Early lif ...
, known as King Billy, on his death in 1869. However, many of these skeletons were obtained from Aboriginal "mummies" from graves or bodies of the murdered.
Amalie Dietrich Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (née Nelle) (26 May 1821 – 9 March 1891) was a German naturalist who was best known for her work in Australia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg. Australia Dietrich was one o ...
for example became famous for delivering such specimens. Aboriginal people have considered the dispersal of body parts as being disrespectful, as a common aspect within Aboriginal
belief systems A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...
is that a soul can only be at rest when laid in its homeland.


20th century to present

Body parts and ornaments are still being returned from collections today, with the
Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The ...
returning samples of Truganini's skin and hair (in 2002), and the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
returning ashes to two descendants in 2007. During the 20th century, the absence of Aboriginal people of solely Aboriginal ancestry, and a general unawareness of the surviving populations, meant many non-Aboriginal people assumed they were
extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
, after the death of
Truganini Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. She was one of the last native speakers of the Tasmanian languages and one of the last individuals solely of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent. Trug ...
in 1876. Since the mid-1970s Tasmanian Aboriginal activists such as
Michael Mansell Michael Alexander Mansell (born 5 June 1951 in northern Tasmania) is a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader who, as an activist and lawyer, has worked for social, political and legal changes to improve the lives and social standing of Tasmanian Aborigina ...
have sought to broaden awareness and identification of Aboriginal descent. A dispute exists within the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, however, over what constitutes
Aboriginality Aboriginal Australian identity, sometimes known as Aboriginality, is the perception of oneself as Aboriginal Australian, or the recognition by others of that identity. This is often related to the existence of (or the belief of the existence of) ...
. The Palawa, mainly descendants of white male sealers and Tasmanian Aboriginal women who settled on the Bass Strait Islands, were given the power to decide who is of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent at the state level (entitlement to government Aboriginal services). Palawa recognise only descendants of the Bass Strait Island community as Aboriginal and do not consider as Aboriginal the Lia Pootah, who claim descent, based on oral traditions, from Tasmanian mainland Aboriginal communities. The Lia Pootah feel that the Palawa controlled
Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...
does not represent them politically. Since 2007 there have been initiatives to introduce
DNA testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
to establish family history in descendant subgroups. This is strongly opposed by the Palawa and has drawn an angry reaction from some quarters, as some have claimed " spiritual connection" with Aboriginality distinct from, but not as important as the existence of a genetic link. The Lia Pootah object to the current test used to prove Aboriginality as they believe it favours the Palawa, a
DNA test Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
would circumvent barriers to Lia Pootah recognition, or disprove their claims to Aboriginality. In April 2000, the Tasmanian Government ''Legislative Council Select Committee on Aboriginal Lands'' discussed the difficulty of determining Aboriginality based on oral traditions. An example given by Prof.
Cassandra Pybus Cassandra Jean Pybus (born 29 September 1947) is an Australian historian and writer. She is a former professorial fellow in history at the University of Sydney, and has published extensively on Australian and American history. Pybus was born i ...
was the claim by the Huon and Channel Aboriginal people who had an oral history of descent from two Aboriginal women. Research found that both were non-Aboriginal convict women. The Tasmanian Palawa Aboriginal community is making an effort to reconstruct and reintroduce a Tasmanian language, called
palawa kani Palawa kani is a constructed language created by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre as a composite Tasmanian languages, Tasmanian language, based on reconstructed vocabulary from the limited accounts of the various languages once spoken by the eas ...
out of the various records on Tasmanian languages. Other Tasmanian Aboriginal communities use words from traditional Tasmanian languages, according to the language area they were born or live in.


Tasmanian Aboriginal nations

The social organisation of Aboriginal Tasmanians had at least two hierarchies: the domestic unit or family group and the social unit or clan - which had a self-defining name with 40 to 50 people. It is contentious whether there was a larger political organisation, hitherto described as a "tribe" in the literature (and by colonial observers), as there is no evidence in the historical literature of larger political entities above that of the clan. Robinson, who gathered ethnographic data in the early 1800s, described Aboriginal political groups at the clan level only. Nevertheless, clans that shared a geographic region and language group are now usually classified by modern ethnographers, and the Palawa, as a nation. Estimates made of the combined population of Aboriginal people of Tasmania, before European arrival in Tasmania, are in the range of 3,000 to 15,000 people. Genetic studies have suggested much higher figures which is supported by oral traditions that Aboriginal people were "more numerous than the white people were aware of" but that their population had been greatly reduced by a sudden outbreak of disease before 1803. It is speculated that early contacts with sealers before colonisation had resulted in an epidemic. Using archaeological evidence, Stockton (I983:68) estimated 3,000 to 6,000 for the northern half of the west coast alone, or up to six times the commonly accepted estimate, however he later revised this to 3,000 to 5,000 for the entire island, based on historical sources. The low rate of
genetic drift Genetic drift, also known as allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and there ...
indicates that Stockton's original maximum estimate is likely the lower boundary and, while not indicated by the
archaeological record The archaeological record is the body of physical (not written) evidence about the past. It is one of the core concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record. Archaeological th ...
, a population as high as 100,000 can "not be rejected out of hand". This is supported by
carrying capacity The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as t ...
data indicating greater resource productivity in Tasmania than the mainland. Aboriginal Tasmanians were primarily nomadic people who lived in adjoining territories, moving based on seasonal changes in food supplies such as seafood, land mammals and native vegetables and berries. They socialised, intermarried and fought "wars" against other clans. According to Ryan, the population of Tasmania was aligned into nine nations composed of six to fifteen clans each, with each clan comprising two to six extended family units who were relations. Individual clans ranged over a defined nation boundary with elaborate rites of entry required of visitors. There were more than 60 clans before European colonisation, although only 48 have been located and associated with particular territories. The location and migratory patterns discussed below come from the work of Jones (cited in Tindale). Ryan used Jones' work in her seminal history of Aboriginal Tasmanians but Taylor discusses in his thesis how Jones' original work is uncited and possibly conjectural. Moreover, Jones published his work without recourse to Plomley's later extensive descriptions of Tasmanian Aboriginal clan groups. Given this, the clan boundaries and nomadic patterns discussed below should be taken with caution unless referenced from primary documents.


Oyster Bay (Paredarerme)

The Paredarerme was estimated to be the largest Tasmanian nation with ten clans totalling 700 to 800 people. The members of the Paredarerme nation had good relations with the Big River nation, with large congregations at favoured hunting sites inland and at the coast. Relations with the North Midlands nation were mostly hostile, and evidence suggests that the Douglas-Apsley region may have been a dangerous borderland rarely visited (Ferguson 1986 pg22). Generally, the clans of the Paredarerme ranged inland to the High Country for spring and summer and returned to the coast for autumn and winter, but not all people left their territory each year with some deciding to stay by the coast. Migrations provided a varied diet with plentiful seafood, seals and birds on the coast, and good hunting for kangaroos, wallabies and possums inland. The High Country also provided opportunities to trade for ochre with the North-west and North people, and to harvest intoxicating gum from ''
Eucalyptus gunnii ''Eucalyptus gunnii'', commonly known as cider gum, is a species of small to medium-sized tree endemic to the island of Tasmania, Australia. It has mostly smooth bark, lance-shaped to egg-shaped adult leaves, flower buds in groups of three, whi ...
'', found only on the plateau. The key determinant of camp sites was
topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...
. The majority of camps were along river valleys, adjacent north facing hill slopes and on gentle slopes bordering a forest or marsh (Brown 1986).


North East

The North East nation consisted of seven clans totalling around 500 people. They had good relations with the Ben Lomond nation - granted seasonal access to the resources of the north-east coast.


North

The Northern nation consisted of four clans totalling 200–300 people. Their country contained the most important ochre mines in Tasmania, accessed by well defined roads kept open by firing. They traded the ochre with nearby clanspeople. They would spend part of the year in the country of the North West nation to hunt seals and collect shells from Robbins Island for necklaces. In return, the North West nation had free access to the ochre mines Relatively isolated, the region was first explored by Europeans in 1824 with the
Van Diemen's Land Company The Van Diemen's Land Company (also known as Van Dieman Land Company) is a farming corporation in the Australian state of Tasmania. It was founded in 1825 and received a royal charter the same year, and was granted 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) ...
being given a grant of , which included the greater part of the clan hunting grounds. The settlement was a failure, with the inland areas described as "wet, cold and soggy", while the coastal region was difficult to clear, as Superintendent Henry Hellyer noted the "forest asaltogether unlike anything I have seen in the Island". However, in 1827 a port was established at Emu Bay. In 1828 Tarerenorerer (Eng:Walyer), a woman who had escaped from sealers, became the leader of the Emu Bay people and attacked the settlers with stolen weapons, the first recorded use of muskets by Aboriginal people.


Big River

The Big River nation numbered 400–500 people consisting of five clans. Little is known of their seasonal movements although it is believed that four of the five clans moved through Oyster Bay territory along the Derwent River to reach their coastal camps near
Pitt Water Pitt most commonly refers to: *The University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as Pitt, a university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States **Pitt Panthers, the athletic teams of the University of Pittsburgh * Pitt (surname), a surname o ...
. The Oyster Bay People had reciprocal movement rights through Big River territory.


North Midlands

The North Midlands nation occupied the Midland plains, a major geographical area formed in a
horst and graben In geology, horst and graben (or range and valley) refers to topography consisting of alternating raised and lowered fault blocks known as horsts and grabens. The features are created by normal faulting and rifting caused by crustal extension ...
valley which was also subject to previous major freshwater lacustrine inundation. The result being a relatively flat and fertile landscape that supported a large biomass, thus being a major food source for the Aboriginal peoples. The North Midlands nation is likely to have consisted of several clans but there are three accepted major clan divisions described in the ethnographic literature today. The total population of the North Midlands nation has been estimated to be between 300 and 500 and, although migratory, the archeological and historical record infers seasonal residency in locations adjacent to permanent water sources in the Midlands valley.


Boundaries of the North Midlands nation

The North Midlands nation was circumscribed by the geographical constraints of the Midlands valley. To the west the nation was bounded by the escarpment of the Great Western Tiers, to the north-east the boundaries are less certain; with the eastern Tamar appearing to have been occupied by the Letteremairrener as far east as Piper's River: where the Poremairrenerner clan of the North-east nation were resident. The occupation of the western Tamar is open to dispute – the ethnographic record suggests that it was the province of the Pallitorre and Parnillerpanner clans of the North nation; or the Leterrmairrener; or a hitherto unnamed clan of the North Midlands nation. It is likely that the west Tamar valley, or the Meander river valley formed the NNW boundaries of the North Midlands nation – with the arc of highlands formed by Cluan Tier and Dry's Bluff forming the nor-western extremity of their country. To the east the natural boundary was the South-Esk River and, running northwards, the high tier of Mts Barrow, Arthur and Tippogoree Hills: beyond which lay the North-east nation. Running south past the eastern bend of the South-Esk it appears that the North Midlands Nation held land to some extent along the south bank of the Esk, at least as far as Avoca and possibly as far as the natural boundary of the St Pauls River, beyond which the Oyster Bay nation were resident. To the south their country was constrained by the uplands beyond Tunbridge, as the plains narrow towards Big River and Oyster Bay country.


Language of the North Midlands nation

The North Midlands language is classified as "mairremenner" and was spoken by the Ben Lomond and North-east nations and also the Luggermairrenerpairer clan of the Central Highlands. This language group is likely to be a derivation of three other Tasmanian languages.


Clans of the North Midlands nation

Three major national divisions are generally ascribed to the North Midlands nation although it is likely that more clans existed and Ryan (2012) asserts the possibility of another two clan territories. What is known of the composition of the North Midlands nation derives from settler description (who ascribed simple tribal divisions based upon locality), direct attribution from contemporary Aboriginal Tasmanians (recorded by
Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 1960 ...
collated by Plomley) and later research by Rhys Jones. From this we can be certain that there were three major clan divisions, described by colonials as the Port Dalrymple tribe (Leterrermairrener clan), at the Tamar River; Pennyroyal Creek tribe (Panninher), at Norfolk Plains; and the Stony Creek tribe (Tyrrernotepanner), at Campbell Town.


=Letteremairrener "Port Dalrymple" clan

= The Letteremairrener (Letter-ramare-ru-nah) clan occupied country from Low Head to modern day Launceston. In colonial times reports were made of clusters of huts, up to ten in number, in the Tamar valley and there are extensive archeological remains of occupation on both sides of the Tamar river and north coastal country.


Toponymy

Little is recorded of the toponymy of their country but some local placenames have survived and are likely to be of the "Nara" language group. * Tamar River: kunermurluker, morerutter, ponrabbel * Low Head: Pilerwaytackenter * Georgetown area: Kennemerthertackenloongentare * Launceston (Port Dalrymple): Taggener, Lorernulraytitteter * North-Esk River: Lakekeller * Mt Barrow: Pialermaligena


Significant sites

Little is known of specific sites of significance to the Letteremairrener, but contemporary Palawa assert the significance of the
Cataract Gorge The Cataract Gorge is a river gorge in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, approximately 1.5 km from the city centre. It is one of the region's premier tourist attractions with Cataract Gorge boat tripleaving from Home Point Parade. It is foun ...
as a place of
ceremony A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...
and significance. Certainly, in 1847, when a surviving Aboriginal "chief" was temporarily returned to Launceston from exile in Wybalenna, he requested to be taken to the Cataract Gorge and was described as being jubilant at return to the Gorge, followed with apparent lamentation at what had been lost to him. There are no recorded significant archeological remains in the Gorge precinct, although the area was subject to significant seasonal flooding before damming. The Letteremairrener had been recorded to have specific meeting places at Paterson's Plains (near modern-day St Leonards) and groups as large as 150 had been recorded in colonial times in this vicinity. The clan country overlapped with that of the Panninher and Tyrrernotepanner and it is likely that, at times, the clans shared resources across clan borders.


Colonial contact

The Letteremairrener were among the first Aboriginal peoples to be affected by the impact of colonisation by the British as colonial occupation commenced at Port Dalrymple and progressed to Launceston, with settlers progressively occupying land up the Tamar valley. By the early 1800s the Letteremairrener had been involved in skirmishes with exploratory parties of colonials, in the second decade of that century they had reached some accommodation with the interlopers; and were observed practicing spear throwing near present-day Paterson Barracks and watching colonial women wash clothes at Cataract Gorge. Between 1811 and 1827 several Aboriginal children were baptised in Launceston, either abducted or the progeny of settler/Aboriginal liaisons. By 1830 the people of the Letteremairenner had largely disappeared from their homeland and the survivors were waging a desperate guerrilla war with colonial British, living a fringe existence in Launceston or living life on the margin at the peripheries of their traditional land. By 1837 the Letteremairrenner had disappeared completely from the Tamar Valley and would eventually die in the squalor of Wybalenna or Oyster Cove.


=Panninher "Pennyroyal Creek" clan

= The Panninher (parn-in-her) were known to colonial people as the Penny Royal Creek tribe, named eponymously from the river that comes off the Western Tiers south of Drys Bluff (which is now called the
Liffey River The River Liffey (Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River ...
). The Panninher named the Liffey river ''tellerpanger'' and Drys Bluff, the mountain rearing above their homeland, was ''taytitkekitheker''. Their territory broadly covered the north plains of the midlands from the west bank of the Tamar River across to what is now Evandale and terminating at the Tyerrernotepanner country around modern day Conara. The Panninher also freely moved from the Tamar to the central highlands and brokered trade in ochre from the Toolumbunner mine to neighbouring clans. Robinson describes the road used by the Panninher from their home up to the Central Highlands, via the gully of the Liffey river, and the South road along the base of the Western Tiers – up the Lake River to modern day Interlaken.


Significant sites

Whilst sites of ritual significance to the Panninher are not known, the Panninher were known to frequent Native Point, on the
South Esk River The South Esk River, the longest river in Tasmania, is a major perennial river located in the northern region of Tasmania, Australia. Location and features The South Esk springs from the eastern foothills of the Ben Lomond plateau near Mathinn ...
between modern day
Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
and Evandale, where flint quarries were located and clans met for celebration. Here local historians believe that cemetery (hollowed) trees were used to inter the dead. Similarly, Reibey's Ford, near modern-day Hadspen, was a known "resort of the natives" and they named this site ''moorronnoe''. Archaeological evidence shows also indicates signs of continuous occupation at permanent lagoons near Cleveland, which was known historically as a clan meeting place. The Panninher were affected early by settlement around Norfolk Plains and aggressive assertion of property rights by settlers at first hindered their hunting and migration through their country and, subsequently, led to outright hostility from both parties. Captain Ritchie, an early settler near Perth, tolerated, or fostered, forays by his assigned men against the Panninher and this culminated in a massacre by settlers near modern-day Cressy. The Panninher, or their neighbouring clansmen, retaliated in various attacks against settlers at Western Lagoon and in remote country up the Lake River, reaching a peak in aggression against the colonial interlopers by 1827. In 1831 a war party of "100 or 150 stout men" attacked settlers at the base of the Western Tiers and up the Lake River but it is unclear whether this was the action of the Panninher alone or a confederation of warriors from remnant North Tasmanian nations. The colonial settlers made little discrimination between Panninher and members of the "Stony Creek tribe" and it is likely that the North Midlands nation had disintegrated and the amalgamated band was known under the overarching name of "Stony Creek tribe" by this time. This notwithstanding, it seems that the Panninher were resourceful enough to survive in some numbers until late in the Black War.


=The Tyerrernotepanner "Stony Creek" clan

= The Tyerrernotepanner (Chera-noti-pana) were known to colonial people as the Stony Creek tribe, named eponymously from the small southern tributary of the South Esk at Llewellyn, west of modern-day Avoca. The clan Tyerrernotepanner were centred at
Campbell Town Campbell Town is a town in Tasmania, Australia, on the Midland Highway. At the 2021 census, the town had a population of 823. History Traditional owners of the Campbell Town area The traditional custodians of the Campbell Town area were t ...
and were one of up to four clans in the south central Midlands area. Nevertheless, this clan name is now used as a general term for all Aboriginal peoples of this region. The ethnographic and archaeological evidence describes areas of significance to the south central Midlands clans: modern day Lake Leake, Tooms Lake, Windfalls farm, Mt Morriston, Ross township and the lacustrine regions of the midlands all show evidence of tool knapping, middens and records of hut construction consistent with occupation.


= Significant sites

= Lake Leake (previously Kearney's Bogs), Campbell Town, Ellinthorpe Plains (near modern day Auburn) and Tooms Lake were described as "resorts of the natives" by settlers and showed substantial evidence of seasonal occupation. Furthermore, several small lagoons in the midlands area all show substantial archeological evidence of regular occupation consistent with tool-making and semi-nomadic use. Aboriginal roads, ''markenner'', are described as passing up the Eastern Tiers to Swanport, up the Western Tier to Interlaken and up the Lake River to Woods Lake and thence to the Central Highlands. The clan divisions of the southern central Midlands are suggested below. Caution must be exercised as to the provenance of the names and the complete accuracy of attributing discrete geographical regions. * ''Tyrrernotepanner'': clan at Northern Campbell Town/Lake river/ South Fingal Valley * ''Marwemairer'': clan at Ross/Mt Morriston region * ''Peenrymairmener'': clan at Glen Morriston/Lake Leake * ''Polemairre'': clan at Tunbridge area The Tyerrernotepanner are described consistently in contemporary records as a "fierce tribe" and the records describe consistent and concerted violence by the Tyerrernotepanner during the Black War. The Tyeerrernotepanner, along with clansmen from other remnant tribes, conducted raids across the midlands during the Black War and, until "conciliated" by Robinson, were the subject of fearful reminiscence by colonial people. The famed Aboriginal leader Umarrah was a member of this clan and he was noted for his aggression and sustained campaign against European interlopers - although he was raised by colonials himself.


Ben Lomond

The Ben Lomond nation consisted of at least three clans totalling 150–200 people. They occupied the 260 km2 of country surrounding the
Ben Lomond Ben Lomond (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn Laomainn, 'Beacon Mountain'), , is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Situated on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond, it is the most southerly of the Munros. Ben Lomond lies within the Ben Lomond National Me ...
plateau. Three clan names are known but their locations are somewhat conjectural – the clans were recorded as Plangermaireener, Plindermairhemener and Tonenerweenerlarmenne. The Plangermaireener clan is recorded as variously inhabiting the south-east aspect of the Ben Lomond region and also has been associated with the Oyster Bay or Cape Portland clans to the east - indeed the chief
Mannalargenna Mannalargenna, also spelt Manalakina (1770–1835), was a Palawa ( Aboriginal Tasmanian) leader and warrior. Biography Mannalargenna (or was Manalakina)a Chief of the Plangermaireener clan in what is now the Ben Lomond tribal area of nort ...
is variously described as a chief of the Oyster Bay, Cape Portland and Ben Lomond nations. Plangermaireener is also used as a blanket term for the Ben Lomond nation, which reflects the suffix "mairreener"; meaning "people". The Plindermairhemener are recorded in association with the south and south-western aspects of the region and the location of the Tonenerweenerlarmenne is uncertain, but were probably centred in the remaining Ben Lomond nation territory from White Hills to the headwaters of the North and South-Esk rivers or the upper South-Esk Valley. This notwithstanding, the Palawa were a nomadic people and likely occupied these lands seasonally. The Ben Lomond nation is sometimes described as the Ben Lomond/Pennyroyal Creek nation from an entry in
Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 1960 ...
's journal: '(Mannalargenna) ... said that "the smoke...was that of the Ben Lomond-Pennyroyal Creek natives"' This is a misnomer, as the Pennyroyal Creek was the original European name for the
Liffey River The River Liffey (Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the River ...
and the Pennyroyal Creek tribe was the contemporary name of the Panninher clan of the North Midlands nation. Mannalargenna would be familiar with the clans neighbouring his own traditional country and could be relied upon to report accurately the composition of the clanspeople in question. It is plausible that when Robinson was writing in 1830 the remnant peoples of the Ben Lomond nation had federated with that of the Panninher and this was the provenance of the conjoined title.


Seasonal movement

The clans of the Ben Lomond nation were nomadic, and the Aboriginal residents hunted along the valleys of the South Esk and North Esk rivers, their tributaries and the highlands to the northeast; as well as making forays to the plateau in summer. There are records of Aboriginal huts or dwellings around the foothills of
Stacks Bluff The Stacks Bluff is a peak in northeast Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is situated on the Ben Lomond plateau. At above sea level, it is the ninth highest mountain in Tasmania, and is a feature visible throughout the Tasmanian Midlands - p ...
and around the headwaters of the South Esk River near modern-day Mathinna. On the plateau there is evidence of artifacts around Lake Youl that suggests regular occupation of this site by Aboriginal peoples after the last ice age. The clans of the Ben Lomond nation had close enough relationships with neighbouring clans of the East Coast and North Midlands that they enjoyed seasonal foraging rights to these adjoining territories.
John Batman John Batman (21 January 18016 May 1839) was an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer. He is best known for his role in the founding of Melbourne. Born and raised in the then-British colony of New South Wales, Batman settled in Van Die ...
describes the seasonal movement of the Plangermaireener in his diary of May 1830: ''"...the tribe travels around Ben Lomond from South Esk to North Esk – and from thence to St. Patricks Head – Georges Bay and round the East Coast"'' Batman further describes the relationship between the clans of the Ben Lomond nation and the North East nation: ''"...there is (sic) two tribes... they (the 'chiefs' ) are upon friendly terms and often stop and meet and talk 10 days together..."''


North West

The North West nation numbered between 400 and 600 people at time of contact with Europeans and had at least eight clans. They had good relations with the North nation, who were allowed access to the resources of the north-west coast. First explored by Europeans in 1824, the region was considered inhospitable and only lightly settled, although it suffered a high rate of Aboriginal dispossession and killings.


South West Coast


South East

Risdon Cove, the first Tasmanian settlement, was located in south-east country. There is eyewitness evidence that the South East nation may have consisted of up to ten clans, totalling around 500 people. However, only four groups totalling 160–200 people were officially recorded as the main source by Robinson, whose journals begin in 1829. By this time, Europeans had settled in most of the South East tribe's country, with the country dispossessed and food resources depleted. Their country contained the most important
silcrete Silcrete is an indurated (resists crumbling or powdering) soil duricrust formed when surface soil, sand, and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. The formation of silcrete is similar to that of calcrete, formed by calcium carbonate, and ferric ...
,
chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
and
quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...
mines in Tasmania. The South East people had a hostile relationship with the Oyster Bay people whom they frequently raided, often to kidnap women.
Truganini Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman. She was one of the last native speakers of the Tasmanian languages and one of the last individuals solely of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent. Trug ...
was a Nuenonne from
Bruny Island Bruny Island ( Nuenonne: Lunawanna-alonnah) is a island located off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The island is separated from the Tasmanian mainland by the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, and its east coast lies within the Tasman S ...
, which they called ''Lunawanna-Alonnah''. The first two European towns built on the island were named Lunawanna and Alonnah, and most of the island's landmarks are named after Nuenonne people. The island was the source of the
sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
used to build many of
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
's buildings, such as the Post Office and Parliament House.


Tasmanian Aboriginal culture

Aboriginal culture was disrupted severely in the 19th century after dispossession of land and incarceration of Aboriginal people on Wybalenna and Oyster Cove. Much
traditional knowledge Traditional knowledge (TK), indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge generally refer to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities. According to the World Intellectual Property Organ ...
has irrevocably disappeared and what remains has been nurtured over several generations starting with the Aboriginal wives of sealers on the Furneaux Islands. But, as the Aboriginal writer Greg Lehman states, "Aboriginal culture (is not) past tense." Aboriginal people, in a variety of forms, continue to express their culture in unique ways – expressing themes that lament the past but also celebrate endurance and continuity of culture into the future.


Pre-colonial contact

Contemporary accounts of the ceremonial and cultural life of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people are very limited. There were no observers trained in the social sciences after the French expeditions in the 18th century had made formal study of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. Moreover, those who wrote most comprehensively of Aboriginal life in the 19th century did so after colonial contact, and the ensuing violence and dislocation, had irrevocably altered traditional Aboriginal culture. Those that most closely observed Aboriginal cultural practices either did not write accounts of what they observed or, if they did, observed culture through the ethnocentric lens of religious and proselytising 19th century European men.


Mythology

The mythology of the Aboriginal Tasmanians appears to be complex and possibly specific to each clan group. One of their creation myths refers to two creator deities, Moinee and Droemerdene; the children of Parnuen, the sun, and Vena, the moon. Moinee appears as the primeval creator, forming the land and rivers of Tasmania and fashioning the first man, Parlevar – embodied from a spirit residing in the ground. This form was similar to a
kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
, and Aboriginal people consequently take the kangaroo as a totem. Similarly, Moinee then created the kangaroo, who emerged, like the first man, from the soil. Droemerdene appears as the star Canopus who helped the first men to change from their kangaroo-like form. He removed their tails and fashioned their knee joints "so that they could rest" and thus man achieved differentiation form the kangaroo. Moinee fought with his brother Droemerdene, and many "devils", after Droemerdene changed the shape of the first men and Moinee was finally hurled to his death from the sky to take form as a standing stone at Cox Bight. Droemerdene subsequently fell into the sea at Louisa Bay. Toogee Low (Port Davey) remained in mythology as a residence of many "devils". Tasmanian Aboriginal mythology also records in their
oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
that the first men emigrated by land from a far-off country and the land was subsequently flooded – an echo of the Tasmanian people's migration from mainland Australia to (then) peninsular Tasmania, and the submergence of the land bridge after the last ice age.


Spirituality

Little has been recorded of traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal spiritual life. Colonial British recorded that Aboriginal people describe topographical features, such as valleys and caves, as being inhabited by spiritual entities recorded by contemporaries as "sprites". Furthermore, Robinson recorded members of some clans as having animistic regard for certain species of tree within their domain. Robinson recorded several discussions regarding spiritual entities that his companions describe as having agency or a source of interpretive power to aid their navigation of their physical world. Tasmanian Aboriginal people would describe these entities as "devils" and related that these spiritual beings as walking alongside Aboriginal people "carrying a torch but could not be seen". Mannarlargenna, in particular, described consulting his "devil" which seems to be a resident personal spirituality that provided prognostic or oracular powers. The "devil" might also be used to describe
malevolent spiritual In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or c ...
entities in the Aboriginal cosmos. Aboriginal people recounted that there was a prime malevolent spirit called ''rageowrapper'', who appeared as a large black (Aboriginal?) man and is associated with the darkness. ''Rageowrapper'' might appear borne on a strong wind or be the source of severe illness this malign spirit might be released from a sick individual by cutting the skin to "let him out". Several researchers assert that there was belief in a kind of manichaean cosmos with a "good" and "bad" spirit – delineated by day and night – although this may reflect the cultural bias of the observers. Milligan (a contemporary at Wyballenna) described a creator spirit called ''tiggana marrabona'' – translating as "twilight man" but as referred to above there are a number of supernatural beings associated with creation. Etymological study of Milligan's ethnographic data describes a pantheon of spiritual beings associated with environmental or supernatural phenomena: * ''nama burag'' – or "the ghost of the thunderstorm" * ''ragi roba'' – (see rageowrapper) the "revered spirit" – frequently connoted to awesome/revered/dreaded and a signifier of ghosts/phantoms of the departed when connected with signifier ''ragi'' * ''laga robana'' – "awful spirit of the dead" i.e. the dead man, some kind of dreaded spirit, malevolent phantom * ''maian ginja'' – "the killer" – translates also to fiend/demon: bringer of death * ''muran bugana luwana'' – "the bright spirit of the night" – a kind of benign or ebullient entity, often described of female form "clothed in grass" * ''wara wana'' – "the spirit being" – also ''warrawah'' translates to transcendental/ethereal/spirit of dead associated with celestial bodies- may be malevolent * ''badenala'' – "shadow man" – ghost or spirit * ''kana tana'' – "the bone man" – Western Nation language term for spirit of the dead * ''nangina'' – "shadow/ghost" – contemporary association with "fairy" or "elf" – a supernatural entity dwelling "in the hill – dancing (and) fond of children" * ''buga nubrana'' – "the man's eye" – associated with the sun – possibly a benign entity Traditional Aboriginal Tasmanians also related beliefs of a spiritual afterlife. One such belief, related by an Aboriginal person from the west coastal nation, was that the spirit of the dead travelled to a place over the sea: to the far north-west, called ''Moo-ai''. This possibly reflects the ancestral memory of the ''Mara'' language group, resident in Western Tasmania, who are believed to have settled Tasmania from the Warrnambool region in modern day Victoria, but other Tasmanians state that after death their spirits would have a post-corporeal existence in their traditional lands.
Other references are made to an Island of the Dead, ''tini drini'', described as "an island in Bass Strait" where the dead would be reincarnated or "jump up white men". White here does not refer to European, but rather the skeletal or phantasmic nature of returned dead.


Funeral customs

The dead might be cremated or interred in a hollow tree or rock grave, dependent on clan custom. Aboriginal people were also recorded to keep bones of dead people as
talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
s or amulets. The bones might be worn on a kangaroo sinew string bare around the neck or enclosed in a kangaroo skin bag.


Cosmology

Traditional Tasmanian Aboriginals saw the night sky as residence of creator spirits (see above) and also describe constellations that represent tribal life; such as figures of fighting men and courting couples.


Material culture


Use of fire

Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples used bark wrapping to protect fire-starting coals from Tasmania's wet maritime climate. When their last coal was extinguished, they would ask fire from neighbouring hearths or clans, but also probably used friction fire-starting methods and possibly mineral percussion, despite claims that the native Tasmanians had "lost" the ability to make fire. Tasmanian Aboriginal people extensively employed fire for cooking, warmth, tool hardening and clearing vegetation to encourage and control macropod herds. This management may have caused the buttongrass plains in southwest Tasmania to develop to their current extent.


Hunting and diet

Approximately 4,000 years ago, Aboriginal Tasmanians largely dropped scaled fish from their diet, and began eating more land mammals, such as
possums Possum may refer to: Animals * Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi ** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...
,
kangaroos Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
, and
wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...
. Aboriginal Tasmanians had employed bone tools, but it appears that they switched from worked
bone tools In archaeology, a bone tool is a tool created from bone. A bone tool can conceivably be created from almost any bone, and in a variety of methods. Bone tools have been documented from the advent of ''Homo sapiens'' and are also known from ''Homo ...
to more efficient sharpened
stone tools A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...
. The significance of the disappearance of bone tools (believed to have been primarily used for fishing) and fish in the diet is heavily debated. Some argue that it is evidence of a
maladaptive In evolution, a maladaptation () is a trait that is (or has become) more harmful than helpful, in contrast with an adaptation, which is more helpful than harmful. All organisms, from bacteria to humans, display maladaptive and adaptive traits. I ...
society, while others argue that the change was economical, as large areas of scrub at that time were changing to grassland, providing substantially increased food resources. Fish were never a large part of the diet, ranking behind shellfish and seals, and with more resources available, the cost/benefit ratio of fishing may have become too high. Archaeological evidence indicates that around the time these changes took place, the Tasmanian people began expanding their territories, a process that was still continuing when Europeans arrived.


Basket making

Basket making is a traditional craft which has been developed into contemporary art. Baskets had many uses, including carrying food, tools, shells, ochre, and eating utensils. Basket-like carriers were made from plant materials, kelp, or animal skin. The kelp baskets or carriers were used mainly to carry and serve water. Plants were carefully selected to produce strong, thin, narrow strips of fibre of suitable length for basket making. Several different species of plant were used, including white flag iris, blue flax lily, rush and sag, some of which are still used by contemporary basket makers, and sometimes shells are added for ornament.


Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace art

Making necklaces from shells is a significant cultural tradition among Tasmanian Aboriginal women. Necklaces were used for adornment, as gifts and tokens of honour, and as trading objects. Dating back at least 2,600 years, necklace-making is one of the few Palawa traditions that has remained intact and has continued without interruption since before European settlement. A number of shell necklaces are held in the collection of the
National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...
. The necklaces were initially only made out of the shells of the '' Phasianotrochus irisodontes'' snail, commonly known as the rainbow kelp and usually referred to as maireener shells. There are three other species of maireeners found in Tasmanian waters. In the past 20 years, there has been a decline in the number of shells, since the decline in
kelp Kelps are large brown algae seaweeds that make up the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera. Despite its appearance, kelp is not a plant - it is a heterokont, a completely unrelated group of organisms. Kelp grows in "underwat ...
and seaweed growth around Flinders Island, Cape Barren and Big Dog islands due to
climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
, which has led to erosion of the
sea bed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
.


Ochre

Ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...
is highly significant in Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. Tasmanian ochre ranges in colour from white through yellow to red. Its uses include ceremonial body marking, colouring wood craft products, tie-dyeing, and other crafts and arts. Traditionally, Aboriginal women had the exclusive role of obtaining ochre, and many Tasmanian Aboriginal men continue to respect this custom by obtaining ochre only from women. Though ochre is mined from sites throughout Tasmania, the most celebrated source is Toolumbunner in the Gog Range of NW Tasmania, in the traditional lands of the Pallitorre clan. This was also a significant site of tribal meeting, celebration and trading.


Ceremony

Colonial settlers describe various traditional ceremonies of Aboriginal people. One has been called " corobery", although that is a mainland Aboriginal word adopted by British settlers. Ceremonial dance and singing depicted traditional tales as well as recent events. Robinson describes "horse-dance" depicting a horseman hunting an Aboriginal person, as well as the sensual "devil-dance" performed by women from the Furneaux islands. Battles and funerals were also occasions for painting the body with ochre or black paint. At the funeral of an Aboriginal man named "Robert" in Launceston, an Aboriginal mourner was asked the meaning of his body paint, and replied "what do you wear fine clothes for?"


Visual art

Contemporary colonial settlers relate several examples of pictorial art drawn on the insides of huts or on remnants of discarded paper. These designs are generally circular or spiral motifs that represent celestial bodies or figures of clans-people. Robinson related that one design in an Aboriginal hut was very accurately drawn and was created via the use of a kind of wooden compass. The most enduring art form left by Tasmanians are
petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s, or rock art. The most elaborate site is at Preminghana on the West Coast, although other significant sites exist at the Bluff in Devonport and at Greenes Creek. Smaller sites include the cupules at ''meenamatta'' Blue Tier and isolated circle motifs at Trial Harbour. Aboriginal people inhabited Tasmania's South-west from the last glacial maximum and hand stencils and ochre smears are found in several caves, the oldest of which is dated to 10000 years ago.


Modern Tasmanian Aboriginal culture


Visual art

Tasmanian Aboriginal people are asserting their identity and culture through the visual arts. The art expresses the Aboriginal viewpoint on colonial history, race relations and identity. Themes consistent in modern Tasmanian Aboriginal art are loss, kinship, narratives of dispossession but also survival. The art is modern, using textiles, sculpture and photography but often incorporates ancient motifs and techniques such as shell necklaces and practical artifacts. Photographer Ricky Maynard has had his work exhibited internationally and his documentary style "brings to light the stories of Aboriginal people where they have previously been absent or distorted. His photographs mark historical sites, events and figures of great significance to Tasmanian and mainland Aboriginal people, and speak to their struggle in a subtle, poetic, and powerful way." Modern painting in Tasmania is starting to use techniques shared by Aboriginal art in mainland Australia but incorporating traditional Tasmanian motifs, such as spirals and celestial representation. This shows that, like mainland Australia, Aboriginal art is dynamic and evolving from established post-colonial preconceptions. Tasmanian Aboriginal women have traditionally collected '' Maireener'' shells to fashion necklaces and bracelets. This practice continues by Aboriginal women whose families survived on the Furneaux Islands, handed down by elder women to maintain an important link with traditional lifestyle. Late in the nineteenth century a number of women aimed to keep this part of their traditional culture alive in order to allow their daughters and granddaughters to participate in their cultural heritage. Today, there are only a few Tasmanian Aboriginal women who maintain this art, but they continue to hand down their knowledge and skills to younger women in their community. Shell necklace manufacture continues to maintain links with the past but is expressed as a modern art form.


Writing

The earliest publication attributed to Tasmanian authors, predating the journalism of
David Unaipon David Ngunaitponi (28 September 1872 – 7 February 1967), known as David Unaipon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Ngarrindjeri people. He was a preacher, inventor and author. Unaipon's contribution to Australian society helped to bre ...
by a century, was ''The Aboriginal/Flinders Island Chronicle'', written between September 1836 and December 1837, though it is unclear to what degree its composition was influenced by "The Commandant", George Robinson. Tasmanian Aboriginal authors in the past century have written history, poetry, essays and fiction. Authors such as Ida West have written autobiographies recounting their experiences growing up within white society; Phyllis Pitchford, Errol West and Jim Everett have written poetry, while Everett and Greg Lehman have explored their tradition as essayists.


Legislated definition

In June 2005, the
Tasmanian Legislative Council The Tasmanian Legislative Council is the upper house of the Parliament of Tasmania in Australia. It is one of the two chambers of the Parliament, the other being the House of Assembly. Both houses sit in Parliament House in the state capital, H ...
introduced a reformed definition of Aboriginality into the Aboriginal Lands Act. The bill was passed to allow Aboriginal Lands Council elections to commence, resolving the uncertainty over who was "Aboriginal", and thus eligible to vote. Under the bill, a person can claim "Tasmanian Aboriginality" if they meet all of the following criteria: * Ancestry * Self-identification * Community recognition


Government compensation for "Stolen Generations"

On 13 August 1997 a Statement of Apology (specific to removal of children) was unanimously supported by the Tasmanian Parliament: There are many people currently working in the community, academia, various levels of government and NGOs to strengthen Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and improve the conditions of the descendant community. In November 2006 Tasmania became the first Australian state or territory to offer financial compensation for the
Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...
, Aboriginal people forcibly removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between about 1900 and 1972. Up to 40 Aboriginal Tasmanians' descendants are expected to be eligible for compensation from the $5 million package.


Notable Aboriginal Tasmanians

*
Tunnerminnerwait Tunnerminnerwait (c.1812–1842) was an Australian Aboriginal resistance fighter and Parperloihener clansman from Tasmania. He was also known by several other names including Peevay, Jack of Cape Grim, Tunninerpareway and renamed Jack Napoleon Ta ...
*
Trugernanner Truganini (also known as Lallah Rookh; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of the List of islands of Au ...
(Truganini) and
Fanny Cochrane Smith Fanny Cochrane Smith (December 1834 – 24 February 1905) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian, born in December 1834. She is considered to be the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca, a Tasmanian language, and her wax cylinder recor ...
, who both claimed to be the last "full blooded" Palawa. *
William Lanne William Lanne (1835 – 3 March 1869), also spelt William Lanné and also known as King Billy or William Laney, was an Aboriginal Tasmanian man, known for being the last " full-blooded" Aboriginal man in the colony of Tasmania. Early lif ...
or "King Billy" *
Michael Mansell Michael Alexander Mansell (born 5 June 1951 in northern Tasmania) is a Tasmanian Aboriginal leader who, as an activist and lawyer, has worked for social, political and legal changes to improve the lives and social standing of Tasmanian Aborigina ...
, lawyer and activist *
Mannalargenna Mannalargenna, also spelt Manalakina (1770–1835), was a Palawa ( Aboriginal Tasmanian) leader and warrior. Biography Mannalargenna (or was Manalakina)a Chief of the Plangermaireener clan in what is now the Ben Lomond tribal area of nort ...
* Arra-Maida


Literature and entertainment

* The play '' The Golden Age'' by
Louis Nowra Mark Doyle, better known by his stage name Louis Nowra, (born 12 December 1950) is an Australian writer, playwright, screenwriter and librettist. He is best known as one of Australia's leading playwrights. His works have been performed by all o ...
* The novel ''
English Passengers ''English Passengers'' () is a 2000 historical novel written by Matthew Kneale, which won that year's Whitbread Book Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Miles Franklin Award. It is narrated by 20 different characters and ...
'' by
Matthew Kneale Matthew Kneale (born 24 November 1960) is a British writer. He is best known for his 2000 novel ''English Passengers''. Life Kneale was born on 24 November 1960 in London, the son of screenwriter Nigel Kneale, and the children's writer Judith K ...
* Historical novel ''
Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World ''Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World'' is an historical novel by Mudrooroo Nyoongah, first published in 1983. A tragedy, the work explores the reaction of Aboriginal Tasmanians to European colonisation during th ...
'' by
Mudrooroo Colin Thomas Johnson (21 August 1938 – 20 January 2019), better known by his nom de plume Mudrooroo, was a novelist, poet, essayist and playwright. He has been described as one of the most enigmatic literary figures of Australia and his man ...
* The poem ''Oyster Cove'' by
Gwen Harwood Gwen Harwood (née Gwendoline Nessie Foster, 8 June 19205 December 1995) was an Australian poet and librettist. Harwood is regarded as one of Australia's finest poets, publishing over 420 works, including 386 poems and 13 librettos. She won nu ...
* The
AFI Award The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...
-winning 1980 film ''
Manganinnie ''Manganinnie'' is an AFI Award-winning 1980 film which follows the journey of Manganinnie, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman who searches for her tribe with the company of a lost white girl named Joanna. Based on Beth Roberts' novel of the same nam ...
'', based on Beth Roberts's novel. * The Novel ''The Roving party'' by Rohan Wilson – fictional account of Manarlagenna and William "Black Bill" Ponsonby during the Black War. * The
AACTA Award The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...
-winning film '' The Nightingale'', written, directed, and co-produced by
Jennifer Kent Jennifer Kent (born 5 March 1969) is an Australian actress, writer and director, best known for her directorial debut, the horror film ''The Babadook'' (2014). Her second film, '' The Nightingale'' (2018), premiered at the 75th Venice Internati ...
. * The play ''At What Cost'' by Nathan Maynard at
Belvoir (theatre company) Belvoir is an Australian theatre company based at the Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney, Australia, originally known as Company B. Since 2016 and its artistic director is Eamon Flack. The theatre contains a 330-seat Upstairs Theatre and a 80-seat D ...


See also

* ''
First Australians ''First Australians'' is an Australian historical documentary series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired on SBS TV in October 2008. The documentary is part of a greater project that further consists of a ...
'', TV documentary series, featuring Aboriginal Tasmanians in Episode 2 * Woretemoeteryenner (1795–1847), one of the few Palawa people to bridge the times before and after European contact


Further reading

* * * * * * *


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

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External links


Records Relating to Tasmanian Aboriginal People
from th
Archives Office of Tasmania
"Brief Guide No. 18". Retrieved from Internet Archive 13 December 2013.
Statistics – Tasmania – occupation
(from the
Australian Bureau of Statistics The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for statistical collection and analysis and for giving evidence-based advice to federal, state and territory governments ...
)
The Lia Pootah People Home Page

Reconciliation Australia


of Tom Haydon's documentary "The Last Tasmanian" (1978)

from the Australian
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body funded by, but opera ...
.
National Museum of Australia

''List of multiple killings of Aborigines in Tasmania: 1804–1835''
by Lyndall Ryan, 5 March 2008 {{Aboriginal peoples in Tasmania Australian Aboriginal culture