Tasmanian Aborigines

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Map of the Tasmanian Tribes

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

20th century historians, scientists and anthropologists held that they had become extinct with the death of Truganini in 1876. Many still hold this view especially outside of Australia. Some modern aborigines can claim ancestory to the indigenous Tasmanian population but they have interbred heavily. Much of the Indigenous Tasmanian language (which had several different dialects), and a lot of Tasmania's Aboriginal cultural heritage has been lost. [1]

Present-day Tasmanian Aborigines claim heritage from several groups:

• The Palawa claim their heritage from settlers and Mannalargenna's daughters. Some Palawa are linked to a Bass Strait Islands heritage.
• The Lia Pootah are descended from unrecorded Aboriginal women, who partnered with European convicts, sawyers, soldiers, free settlers and farmers.
• The Pungenna community claim direct descent from an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman who married a man of mainland Aboriginal, Torres Strait and European descent.

However, because a great deal of Tasmania's Aboriginal heritage has been lost, the question about who is a Tasmanian Aborigine remains a sensitive issue.

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.

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

After European Settlement

The Tasmanians, estimated to number between 4,000 and 6,000 people in 1803, was reduced to a population of around 300 by 1833, mainly killed by the white settlers who came to Australia from the United Kingdom, although disease and cultural disruption contributed as well. The refusal of the settlers to recognise the Aborigines as human beings can be regarded as a legal injustice, and the suspiscion and acts of violence aroused by their cultural difference has been likened to a witch hunt. [2].

The Black War and subsequent Black Line were turning points in the relationship with European settlers. Even though the tribes managed to avoid capture during these events, they were shaken by the size of the campaigns against them.

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, Robinson abandoned the Aborigines. Of the 300 people who arrived with Robinson, 250 died in the following 14 years in conditions more akin to a prison.

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

Last four Tasmanian Aborigines. Truganini seated right

H. G. Wells, in his famous preface to The War of the Worlds, which was published in 1898, wrote: "We must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals such as the vanished bison and dodo, but also upon its own inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years."

The remains of the Oyster Cove people were treated with much 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 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... 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 Tasmanian Aboriginal culture and conditions.

Who is an Aborigine?

While all agree that a tragedy has occurred, the fate, state and mandate of Tasmanian Aborigines has been particularly controversial in recent years.

In most part of 20th century, it was commonly viewed that the Tasmanian Aborigine was extinct due to the absence of any "full blood" Tasmanian Aborigines after the death of Truganini in 1876. Up until the mid 1970s, this view was widely accepted in white Australia, but the appearance of vocal campaigners for the Aboriginal cause such as Michael Mansell changed this view dramatically, to the point where it is now widely accepted within the Tasmanian community that some 15,000 people have Aboriginal heritage.

Almost all of the Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples today are descendants of several women: two being Fanny Cochrane Smith and Dolly Dalrymple. Fanny Cochrane was born in the Wybaleena camp on Flinders Island and went on to raise 11 children. Dolly Dalrymple had 10 children and was the first Aboriginal woman to marry a European settler. The legitimacy of certain claims to ancestry by the Lia Pootah (those not of Flinders Island descent) has been disputed by Aborigines of the Palawa. Interwoven are controversies about the nature of Aboriginal identity, Aboriginal self-determination, government funding, recent native title entitlements and the Australian reconciliation movement (for example: Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation).

More recently there have been moves to introduce DNA testing to establish a family history with the Palawa, so as to establish who is eligible to vote and participate in local Aboriginal politics and be involved with local issues such as native title claims. This has drawn an angry reaction from many quarters, as some people also claim a spiritual connection as well as, and more importantly, a distinct genetic link.

In June 2005, the Legislative Council extended the Aboriginal Lands Act to define aboriginality. 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 Acknowledgement

Some prominent Tasmanian Aborigines

• Truganini and Fanny Cochrane Smith, both claimants to being the last "pure" Tasmanian Aborigine.
• Kathryn Hay, first Aboriginal elected to the Tasmanian Parliament (of Western Australian Ancestry).
• William Lanne or "King Billy"
• Alma Stackhouse, named in 1989 as Tasmanian Aboriginal of the Year and awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM).
• "Aunty" Ida West, author and social activist, NAIDOC Tasmanian Aboriginal of the Year 2002
• Michael Mansell, Tasmanian Aboriginal lawyer, activist, and leader
• Rodney Dillon, cultural rights activist,NAIDOC National Aboriginal of the Year 2005

External links

• 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)
• [3] 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

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