The Aboriginal TasmaniansThe extinction of the Tasmanian Aborigines has long been viewed as one of the great tragedies resulting from the British occupation of Tasmania. This book demonstrates that the Aborigines in Tasmania, although dispossessed, did not die out then or at any other period in Tasmania's history. Some eight thousand descendants remain today. In examining the myth created by nineteenth-century historians and scientists that Aborigines could not survive invasion, Lyndall Ryan investigates the nature of that invasion, Aboriginal resistance, and white Tasmanian policies towards the Aborigines after dispossession. The Aboriginal Tasmanians then follows the emergence of a new Aboriginal community outside the boundaries of white society yet denied Aboriginal identity. In this new edition, Lyndall Ryan explores the fortunes of the present day community in their quest for landrights and social justice. Tasmania was the cradle of race relations in Australia in the nineteenth century. It retains this position on the 1990s. In telling the story of the Aboriginal Tasmanians' struggles for a place in their own country, Lyndall Ryan provides special insights into the past and present of Aboriginal people nationwide. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 7 | |
European Visitors 16421802 | 47 |
Woman of Cape Diemen | 55 |
Homme Terre de Diemen | 61 |
The Sealers 18001837 | 66 |
Convicts and Agriculturists | 73 |
The Pastoralists 182028 | 83 |
Walter George Arthur and Mary Ann | 213 |
Truganini William Lanney and Bessy Clark 1866 | 215 |
Truganini 1876 | 219 |
Emergence of a New Aboriginal | 222 |
The Islanders 1868 | 226 |
The Islanders 1868 | 228 |
Boatharbour The Corner Cape Barren Island | 232 |
Cape Barren Islanders | 233 |
Copy of Arthurs Proclamation to the Aborigines | 96 |
The Aboriginal | 114 |
The small outline of a National Picture | 121 |
Robinson the Conciliator 182830 | 124 |
10a Woureddy A wild native of Brune Island one | 127 |
Robinson meets Nee ne vuther and Tau ter ter | 133 |
From Conciliator to Captor | 145 |
The Resistance of the Aborigines beyond the Frontier | 160 |
The Reckoning | 174 |
False Hopes and Broken | 182 |
A Push | 195 |
Aboriginal Establishment at Flinders Island 1845 | 199 |
The Fragments | 205 |
Oyster Cove Aboriginal Station 1848 | 207 |
Aborigines at Oyster Cove 1847 | 208 |
Tasmanian Aborigines at Oyster Cove 1860 | 211 |
Islander Children Cape Barren Island | 235 |
The Tasmanian Aborigines in the Twentieth | 239 |
Cape Barren Island Schoolchildren with the Governor of Tasmania | 241 |
The Corner Cape Barren Island 1974 | 252 |
The Last Tasmanian | 254 |
The Politics | 263 |
Michael Mansell with the Queen 1977 | 265 |
Muttonbirding on Trefoil Island 1980s | 276 |
Memorial cairn Wybalena | 286 |
The New Aboriginal Politics | 290 |
Mrs Claude Mansell | 291 |
Premier meets the Aboriginal communityleaflet | 305 |
Aborigines Accounted for in the Literature | 313 |
Bibliography | 328 |
BibliographySecond Edition | 353 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abori Aboriginal Affairs Aboriginal community Aboriginal Establishment Aboriginal Land Aboriginal politics Aboriginal Tasmanian Aboriginal women April Australian band Bass Strait Ben Lomond Big River Bruny Island Campbell Town Canberra Cape Barren Island Cape Grim captured claim Clyde colonial Council culture Derwent Diemen's Land eastern European Flinders Island Friendly Mission gines Hobart Town hunting huts Ibid Jeanneret July June kangaroos killed kilometres land rights Launceston legislation lived Lomond Mabo Macquarie Harbour mainland Mannalargenna Mercury Michael Mansell mission Aborigines muttonbird native title Norfolk Plains North Midlands North West north-east November ochre October Ouse Oyster Bay Oyster Cove party Plomley Port Davey Port Phillip premier Report reserve Sandy Cape sealers seasonal settled districts settlement settlers society South East South Wales stock-keepers Sydney Tasmanian Aborigines Tasmanian government territory tribe Truganini TSA CSO Umarrah Van Diemen's Land Walter George Arthur west coast William Lanney Woorraddy Wybalenna
Popular passages
Page 51 - They were of the common stature, but rather slender. Their skin was black, and also their hair, which was as woolly as that of any native of Guinea; but they were not distinguished by remarkably thick lips, nor flat noses. On the contrary, their features were far from being disagreeable. They had pretty good eyes ; and their teeth were tolerably even, but very dirty. Most of them had their hair and beards smeared with...
Page 93 - They already complain that the white people have taken possession of their country, encroached upon their hunting grounds, and destroyed their natural food, the kangaroo; and they doubtless would be exasperated to the last degree to be banished altogether from their favourite haunts...
Page 75 - You are to endeavour by every means in your power to open an intercourse with the Natives and to Conciliate their good will, enjoining all Persons under your Government to live in Amity and kindness with them...
Page 303 - That all political leaders and parties recognise that reconciliation between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in Australia must be achieved if community division, discord and injustice to Aboriginal people are to be avoided. To this end, the Commission recommends that political leaders use their best endeavours to ensure bipartisan public support for the process of Reconciliation and that the urgency and necessity of the process be acknowledged.
Page 64 - Arthur O. Lovejoy and George Boas, Primitivism and Related Ideas in Antiquity (Baltimore...
Page 51 - Guinea; but they were not distinguished by remarkably thick lips, nor flat noses. On the contrary, their features were far from being disagreeable. They had pretty good eyes ; and their teeth were tolerably even, but very dirty. Most of them had their hair and beards smeared with a red ointment; and some had their faces also painted with the same composition.
Page 152 - Establishment . . . for, even if they should pine away in the manner the Chief Justice apprehends, it is better that they should meet with their death in that way...
Page 303 - A united Australia which respects this land of ours; values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage; and provides justice and equity for all' (Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, 1993: 1).
Page 99 - Nothing can be conceived more hard than the heart of a thoroughbred metaphysician. It comes nearer to the cold malignity of a wicked spirit than to the frailty and passion of a man. It is like that of the principle of evil himself, incorporeal, pure, unmixed, dephlegmated, defecated evil. It is no easy operation to eradicate humanity from the human breast. What Shakespeare calls " the compunctious visitings of nature...
Page 47 - That they had seen two trees about 2 or 2i fathoms in thickness measuring from 60 to 65 feet from the ground to the lowermost branches, which trees bore notches made with flint implements, the bark having been removed for the purpose; these notches, forming a kind of steps to enable persons to get up the 1 "The coo-ee of the foresters assembling the tribe" suggests Bonwick, p. 2. (The coo-ee is an Australian aboriginal call.) "Black magpies," says Giblin, p. 12. trees and rob the birds...