Aboriginal Tasmanians

A picture of the last four Tasmanian Aborigines c.1860s. Truganini, the last to survive, is seated at far right.

The Tasmanian Aborigines were the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. (Aboriginal name: lutrawita or trouwunna)

In the space of thirty years (1803-1833), the population of the Tasmanian Aborigines was reduced from around 5,000 to around 300, largely through the use of brutal force by the British. Since at least 1876, historians, scientists and anthropologists have held to the consensus that they became extinct with the death of the last full-blooded woman - Truganini. Within Australia there is an alternative view that aspects of their culture (for example, group naming identifications) survive amongst those who are able to establish partial descent. Those members of the modern-day descendent community who can claim ancestry to Tasmanian Aborigines are the result of the former Aboriginal population having been heavily interbred with later-arriving European settler communities (particularly those originating from the British Isles)).

Almost all of the Indigenous Tasmanian language (which had several different dialects), and much of Tasmania's Aboriginal cultural heritage has been lost. Currently there are some efforts to reconstruct one of the languages from the available wordlists and to revive the aboriginal culture from aspects maintained in some families who can trace their ascendancy from aboriginal people.[1]

History

Before European Settlement

People are thought to have first crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago via a land bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia during an ice age. When the sea levels rose, the people were left isolated for approximately 10,000 years until European explorations occurred during the early 19th century.

Map of the Tasmanian Tribes

The Aboriginal people in Tasmania were divided into nine main tribes.

A tribe consisted of groups of forty to fifty people who lived in adjoining territory, shared the same language and culture, socialised, intermarried and fought wars against other tribes.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Tribes

• Big River - Teen Toomle Mennenyer
• South East - Tahuni Lingah
• South West Coast - Toogee
• North
• North Midlands
• Ben Lomond - Plangermaireener
• North East
• North West
• Oyster Bay - Paredarerme

After European Settlement

The Tasmanians, estimated to number between 4,000 and 6,000 people in 1803, were reduced to a population of around 300 by 1833. The vast majority of their deaths were the result of alcoholism and virulent diseases to which they had no natural immunity (including syphilis.) By the most thoroughly researched modern estimate, among that number a total of 118 were in fact deliberately killed at the hands of European settlers in the period from 1803 until 1847 (at which time it has been argued that the frontier nature of Tasmania had essentially ended).

George Augustus Robinson, a Christian missionary, befriended Truganini, learned some of the local language and in 1833 managed to persuade the remaining peoples to move to a new settlement on Flinders Island, where he promised a modern and comfortable environment, and that they would be relocated to the Tasmanian mainland as soon as possible.

Once on Flinders Island, they were left to their own devices. Of the 300 who arrived with Robinson, tragically 250 died in the following 14 years in poor conditions.

In 1847, the 47 survivors were transferred to their final settlement at Oyster Cove, where — no longer perceived as a threat — they were often dressed up and paraded on official engagements. In 1859 their numbers were estimated at around a dozen; the last survivor died in 1876.

Oyster Cove People

The remains of the Oyster Cove people were treated with disrespect during the 1860s, with many museums claiming body parts for their collections, even though one of the central traits of Aboriginal belief is that a soul can only be at rest when laid in its homeland. In one case, the Royal Society of Tasmania received permission to exhume the body of Truganini in 1878 on condition that it was "decently deposited in a secure resting place accessible by special permission to scientific men for scientific purposes." Her skeleton was on display in the Tasmanian Museum until 1947.

Other cases included the removal of the skull and scrotum — for a tobacco pouch — of William Lanne, known as King Billy, on his death in 1869.

Body parts and ornaments are still being returned from collections today, with the Royal College of Surgeons of England returning samples of Truganini's skin and hair in 2002.

On 13th August, 1997 a Statement of Apology (specific to removal of children) was issued - which was unanimously supported by the Tasmanian Parliament - the wording of the sentence was

"That this house, on behalf of all Tasmanian(s)... expresses its deep and sincere regret at the hurt and distress caused by past policies under which Aboriginal children were removed from their families and homes; apologises to the Aboriginal people for those past actions and reaffirms its support for reconciliation between all Australians."

There are many people currently working in the community, academia, various levels of government and NGOs to strengthen what has been termed as the Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and the conditions of those who identify as members of the descendent community.

Tasmanian Aborigine descendants

The general assumption is that Tasmanian Aborigines became extinct due to the absence of any "full blood" Tasmanian Aborigines after the death of Truganini in 1876.

However, since the mid 1970s vocal campaigners from the ranks of Tasmanian Aborigine descendants such as Michael Mansell have sought to repopularise identification with Aboriginal descent.

It is acknowledged that there are presently some 15,000 members of the descendant community. Almost all are descendants of a small few "full-blood" women.

More recently there have been initiatives to introduce DNA testing to establish family history in descendant subgroups. This has drawn an angry reaction from some quarters, as some have claimed spiritual connection with aboriginality distinct from, and more important than the existence of a genetic link.

Legislated definition

In June 2005, the Tasmanian Legislative Council introduced an innovated definition of aboriginality into the Aboriginal Lands Act. The bill was passed to allow Aboriginal Lands Council elections to commence, after uncertainty over who was 'aboriginal', and thus eligible to vote.

Under the bill, a person can claim 'Tasmanian Aboriginality' if they meet the following criteria:

• Self-identification
• Ancestry
• Community Acknowledgment

Government compensation for 'Stolen Generation'

In November 2006 Tasmania became the first Australian state or territory to offer financial compensation for Aborigines forcibly removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions between about 1900 and 1972. Up to 40 Tasmanian Aborigine descendants are expected to be eligible for compensation from the $5 million package.

Some notable Tasmanian Aborigines

• Truganini and Fanny Cochrane Smith, both claimants to being the last Aborigines of original Tasmanian descent.
• William Lanne or "King Billy"

External links

• Foster, S.G. Contra Windschuttle, Quadrant, March 2003, 47:3
• Records Relating to Tasmanian Aboriginal People from the Archives Office of Tasmania "Brief Guide No. 18"
• Statistics - Tasmania - History - Aboriginal occupation (from the Australian Bureau of Statistics)
• The Lia Pootah People Home Page
• Historian dismisses Tasmanian aboriginal genocide "myth" (contains edited transcript of 2002 ABC radio interviews by Peter McCutcheon with historian and author Keith Windschuttle and historian and author Henry Reynolds)
• "Native Fiction" a sympathetic New Criterion review of Keith Windschuttle's book casting doubt on a supposed Tasmanian genocide.
• Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR)
• [2] Reconciliation Australia
• 1984 Review of Tom Haydon's documentary "The Last Tasmanian" (1978)
• "Tension in Tasmania over who is an Aborigine" Article from The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper by Richard Flanagan
• A history from the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
• Transcript of current affairs television program Sunday with Keith Windschuttle, Prof. Henry Reynolds, Prof. Cassandra Pybus, Prof. Lyndall Ryan, and others

References

• Alexander, Alison (editor) (2005)The Companion to Tasmanian HistoryCentre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart. ISBN 186295223X.
• Robson, L.L. (1983) A history of Tasmania. Volume 1. Van Diemen's Land from the earliest times to 1855Melbourne, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195543645.
• Robson, L.L. (1991) A history of Tasmania. Volume II. Colony and state from 1856 to the 1980s Melbourne, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195530314.