Tasmanian Aborigines

Palawa
(Tasmanian Aborigines)

Regions with significant populations
Australia  Tasmania
Languages
Tasmanian languages and Palawa kani

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

The Tasmanian Aborigines (pronounced /æbɵˈrɪdʒɨniːz/ ( listen), Aboriginal name: Palawa) were the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia.

Prior to British colonisation in 1803, there were an estimated 2,000–8,000 Palawa. Historian Geoffrey Blainey says that by 1830 in Tasmania: “Disease had killed most of them but warfare and private violence had also been devastating.”^[1] Other historians regard the Black War, as one of the earliest recorded modern genocides.^[2]

By 1833, George Augustus Robinson persuaded the approximately 200 Tasmanian Aborigines survivors to surrender themselves with assurances that they would be protected and provided for. They were moved to Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island, where diseases continued to reduce their numbers even further. In 1847, the last 47 living inhabitants of Wybalenna were transferred to Oyster Cove, south of Hobart, on the main island of Tasmania. There, the very last of the full blooded Palawa, a woman called Trugernanner (often rendered as Truganini), died in 1876.

All of the Indigenous Tasmanian languages have been lost. Currently there are some efforts to reconstruct a language from the available wordlists. Today, some thousands of people living in Tasmania and elsewhere can trace part of their ancestry to the Palawa, since a number of Palawa women were abducted, most commonly by the sealers living on smaller islands in Bass Strait; some women were traded or bartered for; and a number voluntarily associated themselves with European sealers and settlers and bore children. Those members of the modern-day descendant community who trace their ancestry to Tasmanian Aborigines have mostly European ancestry, and did not keep the traditional Palawa culture.

Other Aboriginal groups within Tasmania use the language words from the area where they are living and/or have lived for many generations uninterrupted. Many aspects of the Aboriginal Tasmanian culture are continually practised in various parts of the state and the islands of the Bass Strait.

History

Before European Settlement

The Shoreline of Tasmania and Victoria about 14,000 years ago as Sea Levels were rising showing some of the human archaeological sites - see Prehistory of Australia

People are thought to have crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago via a land bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia during the last glacial period. When the sea levels rose, flooding the Bassian Plain, the people were left isolated for approximately 10,000 years until European exploration during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

In the Warreen Cave in the Maxwell River valley of the south-west archaeologists have recently excavated materials proving Aboriginal occupation from as early as 35,000 BP, making indigenous Tasmanians the southern-most population in the world during the Pleistocene era.

After the sea rose to create Bass Strait, the Australian mainland and Tasmania became separate land masses, and the Aborigines who had migrated from mainland Australia became cut off from their cousins on the mainland. Because neither side had ocean sailing technology, the two groups were unable to maintain contact.

It has been a long held view that unlike other populations around the world, the small population of Tasmania was not able to share any of the new technological advances being made by mainland groups, thus making Tasmanian Aborigines the simplest people on Earth.^[3]

It had also been thought that like the mainland Aborigines, they did have stone age technology but because of the ocean divide they did not share any of the mainland Aboriginal advances such as barbed spears, bone tools of any kind, boomerangs, hooks, sewing, and the ability to start a fire.^[3] However, they did possess fire with the men entrusted in carrying embers from camp to camp for cooking and which could also be used to clear land and herd animals to aid in hunting practices.^[4][5]

Very little is known about the nature of social, cultural, or territorial history of the Tasmanian Aborigines, but archaeological research has provided ethnographic evidence debunking many long held myths about Tasmanian Aborigines. Although an explanation has not been found, it has been determined that approximately 4,000 years ago, the Tasmanian Aborigines largely dropped scaled fish from their diet, and began eating more land mammals such as possums, kangaroos, and wallabies.

They also switched from worked bone tools to sharpened stone tools.^[5] It is now believed that they also constructed basic wooden shelters and small domed 'huts' to protect themselves during chilly winter months, although it seems they preferred to live in cave dwellings. ^[4]

Tasmanian Aboriginal Tribes

Map of the Tasmanian Tribes

The social organisation of Tasmanian Aborigines had three distinct levels: the domestic unit or family group, the social unit or band which had a self-defining name with 40 to 50 people, and collections of bands comprising tribes which owned territories. Even though territories were owned there was substantial movement and migration by bands to utilise and share abundant food resources in particular seasons.^[6]

It is believed that prior to European arrival in Tasmania, the Aboriginal people of Tasmania had a combined population of from 5,000 to 10,000 people. The Tasmanian aborigines were a primarily nomadic people who lived in adjoining territory, moving from area to area based on seasonal changes in food supplies such as seafood, land mammals and native vegetables and berries. The different tribes shared similar languages and culture. They socialized, intermarried and fought 'wars' against other tribes. ^[4]

There were at least 50 bands prior to European colonisation, although only 48 have been located and associated with particular territories. Nine tribes were composed of three to ten bands each. The Eastern and northern Group consisted of the Oyster Bay Tribe, North East Tribe, and the North Tribe. the Midlands Group consisted of the Big River Tribe, North Midlands Tribe and Ben Lomond Tribe. The Maritime Group consisted of the North West Tribe, South West Tribe and South East Tribe.^[6]

Oyster Bay (Paredarerme)

The Paredarerme tribe was estimated to be the largest Tasmanian tribe with 10 bands totalling 700 to 800 people. The Paredarerme Tribe had good relations with the Big River tribe, with large congregations at favoured hunting sites inland and at the coast. Generally Paredarerme tribe bands migrated 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, found only on the plateau.^[6]

North East

North

Big River

North Midlands

Ben Lomond

North West

The North west tribe numbered between 400 and 600 people at time of contact with Europeans and had at least eight bands.^[6]

South West Coast

South East

After European Settlement

Between 1803 and 1823, there were two phases of conflict between the Aborigines and the British colonists. The first took place between 1803 and 1808 over the need for common food sources such as kangaroos, and the second between 1808 and 1823, when the small number of white females among the farmers, sealers and whalers, led to the abduction of Aboriginal women as sexual partners and Aboriginal children as labourers.

These practices also increased conflict over women among Aboriginal tribes. This in turn led to a decline in the Aboriginal population. European disease, however, does not appear to have become a serious factor until after 1829.

Rapid pastoral expansion and an increase in the colony's population triggered Aboriginal resistance from 1824 onwards. Whereas settlers and stock keepers had previously provided rations to the Aborigines during their seasonal movements across the settled districts, and recognised this practice as some form of payment for trespass, the new settlers and stock keepers were unwilling to maintain these arrangements.

Jan Morris in her book Heaven's Command^{[citation needed]} documents how the British settlers treated the aborigines. "By the 1820s horrible things were happening in Tasmania. Sometimes the black people were hunted for fun..sometimes they were raped in passing, or abducted as mistresses or as slaves. The sealers of Bass Islands established a slave society of their own with harems of women, employing the well tried discipline of slavery - clubbing, stringing up from trees, or flogging with kangaroo-gut whips. In one foray seventy aborigines were killed, the men shot, the women and children dragged from crevices in the rocks to have their brains dashed out."

While many aboriginal deaths went unrecorded the Cape Grim massacre in 1828 demonstrates the level of frontier violence towards Tasmanian aborigines.

The Aborigines began to raid settlers' huts for food. This resistance first took shape in 1824 when it has been estimated by Lyndall Ryan that 1000 Aborigines remained in the settled districts.

Between 1826 and 1831 a pattern of guerrilla warfare by the Aborigines was identified by the colonists, some of whom acknowledged the Aborigines as fighting for their country. The colonial government responded with a series of measures to limit the conflict, culminating in the declaration of martial law in 1828.

The Black War of 1828-32 and the Black Line of 1830 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, and this brought them to a position whereby they were willing to surrender to Robinson and move to Flinders Island.

George Augustus Robinson, a Christian missionary, befriended Truganini, learned some of the local language and in 1833 managed to persuade the remaining "full-blooded" people 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.

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’,^[7] 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. The Aborigines were free to roam the island and were often absent from the settlement for extended periods of time on hunting trips.^[8] However, of the 220 who arrived with Robinson, most tragically died in the following 14 years from introduced disease. The birth rate was extremely low with few children surviving infancy.

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

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 Tasmanian Aborigines from a physical anthropology perspective, hoping to gain insights into the field of paleoanthropology. For these reasons, they were interested in individual Aboriginal body parts and whole skeletons.

Tasmanian Aboriginal skulls were particularly sought internationally for studies into craniofacial anthropometry.

In one case, the Royal Society of Tasmania received government 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.^[9]

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. Truganini, the last Tasmanian Aborigine, had her skeleton exhumed within 2 years of her death in 1876 by the Royal Society of Tasmania, and was later placed on display.

Aborigines have considered the dispersal of body parts as being disrespectful, as a common aspect within Aboriginal belief systems is that a soul can only be at rest when laid in its homeland.

20th century to present day

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); and the British Museum returning ashes to two descendants in 2007.^[10]

During the 20th century, the absence of "full blood" Palawa and a general unawareness of the surviving populations, mean that many non-Palawa assumed they were extinct, after the death of Truganini in 1876. Since the mid 1970s Tasmanian Aboriginal activists such as Michael Mansell have sought to broaden awareness and identification with Aboriginal descent.

There is a dispute within the Tasmanian Aboriginal community over what constitutes Aboriginality. A group that identifies itself as the Lia-Pootah claim to be descendants of Tasmanian Aboriginal women, many of whom had been abducted and had children with European sealers that worked in the Bass Strait in the nineteenth century. The Lia Pootah feel that the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre represent the Palawa politically but not the Lia Pootah.^[11]

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,^[12], as some have claimed spiritual connection with aboriginality distinct from, but not as important as the existence of a genetic link.^{[citation needed]}

The Tasmanian Palawa Aboriginal community is also making an effort to reconstruct and reintroduce a Tasmanian language, called palawa kani 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.

Legislated definition

In June 2005, the Tasmanian Legislative Council introduced an innovated definition of aboriginality into the Aboriginal Lands Act^[13]. 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:

• Ancestry
• Self-identification
• Community recognition

Government compensation for "Stolen Generations"

On 13 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 descendant community.

In November 2006 Tasmania became the first Australian state or territory to offer financial compensation for the Stolen Generations, 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. ^[14]

Some notable Tasmanian Aborigines

• Trugernanner (Truganini) and Fanny Cochrane Smith, who both claimed to be the last "full blooded" Palawa.
• William Lanne or "King Billy"

Literature

• The play The Golden Age by Louis Nowra
• The novel English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
• Historical novel Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World by Mudrooroo

References

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 - 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)
• [1] 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