Aboriginal Tasmanians

6/12/2020 Aboriginal Tasmanians - Wikipedia
Aboriginal Tasmanians
The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Tasmanian: Palawa or Pakana[4])
are the Aboriginal people of the Australian state of Tasmania, located Palawa / Pakana
south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Parlevar
Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being
an extinct cultural and ethnic group.[5] 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.[1][2]
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 by rising sea levels c. 6000 BC.
They were entirely isolated from the rest of the human race for
8,000 years until European contact.
Before British colonisation of Tasmania in 1803, there were an

estimated 3,000–15,000 Palawa.[a] 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.[6] No consensus exists as to the cause,
over which a major controversy arose.[b] The traditional view, still
affirmed, held that this dramatic demographic collapse was the Illustration from "The Last of the
result of the impact of introduced diseases, rather than the Tasmanians" – Wooreddy,
consequence of policy.[7][8][9][10][c] Geoffrey Blainey, for example, Truganini's husband
wrote that by 1830 in Tasmania: "Disease had killed most of them Regions with significant
but warfare and private violence had also been devastating."[11][12]
populations
Henry Reynolds attributed the depletion to losses in the Black
War.[13] Keith Windschuttle claimed that in addition to disease, the Tasmania 6,000- 23,572[1][2][3]
prostitution of women in a society already in decline, explained the Languages
extinction.[14] Many specialists in the history of colonialism and
English (Australian English,
genocide, such as Ben Kiernan, Colin Tatz, and Benjamin Madley
Australian Aboriginal English)
state that the Tasmanian decimation qualifies as genocide in terms
of the definition set forth by Raphael Lemkin and adopted in the UN Palawa kani; formerly Tasmanian
Genocide Convention.[15][16][17][d] languages
Religion
By 1833, George Augustus Robinson, sponsored by Lieutenant-
Christianity; formerly Aboriginal
Governor George Arthur, had persuaded the approximately 200
surviving Aboriginal Tasmanians to surrender themselves with Tasmanian religion
assurances that they would be protected, be provided for and Related ethnic groups
eventually have their lands returned to them. These "assurances" Aboriginal Australians
were false; there is no suggestion that Robinson or Lieutenant-
Governor Arthur intended anything else but exile to the Furneaux
Islands, and the assurances were given by Robinson in order to facilitate the removal of the Aboriginal
people from mainland Tasmania.[18] The survivors were moved to Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tasmanians 1/36
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.
Two individuals, Truganini (1812–1876) and Fanny Cochrane
Smith (1834–1905), are separately considered to have been the
last people solely of Tasmanian descent.[e][f]
The complete Aboriginal Tasmanian languages have been lost;

some original Tasmanian language words remained in use with
Palawa people in the Furneaux Islands, 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
A picture of the last four Tasmanian
and mainland Tasmania.
Aborigines of solely Aboriginal descent c.
1860s. Truganini, the last to survive, is
seated at far right.
Contents
History
Before European settlement
Migration chronology
Early European contact
Contact with sealers on the north and east coasts
After European settlement
Tasmanian aboriginals and settlers mentioned in
literature 1800–1835
Resettlement of the Aboriginal population
Anthropological interest
20th century to present
Tasmanian Aboriginal nations
Oyster Bay (Paredarerme)
North East
North
Big River
North Midlands
Boundaries of the North Midlands nation
Language of the North Midlands nation
Clans of the North Midlands nation
The Letteremairrener "Port Dalrymple" Clan
Toponymy
Significant sites
Colonial contact
The Panninher "Pennyroyal Creek" Clan
Significant sites
The Tyerrernotepanner "Stony Creek" clan
Significant sites
Ben Lomond
Seasonal movement
North West
South West Coast
South East
Tasmanian Aboriginal culture
Pre-colonial contact
Mythology
Spirituality
Funeral customs
Cosmology
Material culture
Use of fire
Hunting and diet
Basket making
Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace art
Ochre
Ceremony
Visual art
Modern Tasmanian Aboriginal culture
Visual art
Writing
Legislated definition
Government compensation for "Stolen Generations"
Notable Aboriginal Tasmanians
Literature and entertainment
See also
Notes
Citations
Sources
External links
History
Before European settlement
People 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. According to genetic studies, once the sea
level rose, flooding the Bassian Plain, the people were left isolated for approximately 8,000 years, until
the time of European exploration, during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.[19]
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.[20][21] 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
southern-most population in the world during the
Pleistocene era. Modern digs in southwest and central
Tasmania turned up very abundant finds, affording "the
richest archaeological evidence from Pleistocene Greater
Australia" covering the period from 35,000 to 11,000
BP.[22]
Migration chronology
The Shoreline of Tasmania and Victoria about
Tasmania was colonised by successive waves of 14,000 years ago as sea levels were rising
Aboriginal people from southern Australia during glacial showing some of the human archaeological sites
maxima, when the sea was at its lowest. The archeological – see Prehistory of Australia
and geographic record suggests a period of drying, with
the colder glacial period, with a desert extending from
southern Australia into the midlands of Tasmania - with intermittent periods of wetter, warmer weather.
People migrating 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).
The archeological, geographic and linguistic record suggests a pattern of successive occupation of
Tasmania, and coalescence of three ethnic or language groups into one broad group. Evidence for contest
over territory is reflected by the presence of Nara (the broad western Tasmania language group)
toponymy in Mara (the broad eastern language group) territory; for example - suggesting a pattern of
occupation and hostile takeover that mirrors traditional hostilities during colonial times. Colonial
settlers found two main language groups in Tasmania upon their arrival, which correlates with the
broader nation or clan divisions.
Pleistocene Palawa language group - 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 N/E Tasmania as far south as Orford - themselves disappear
or are absorbed into Mara language group -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 and
Furneaux highlands being stranded by 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 in 1792–93 and Nicolas Baudin in 1802 made
friendly contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians; the d'Entrecasteaux expedition doing so over an
extended period of time.[23]
The Resolution under Captain Tobias Furneaux (part of an expedition led by Captain James Cook) 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 also visited Bruny Island in 1788 and made peaceful contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians.[24]
Contact with sealers on the north and east coasts
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.[25]
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.[23]
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 Tarerenorerer (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.[26]
Ryan comes to a different conclusion, that Walyer had been abducted at Port Sorell by Aboriginal people
and traded to the sealers for dogs and flour.[27] 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.
Walyer's attacks are the first recorded use of muskets 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, the
women traded to, or kidnapped by sealers became "a significant dissident group" against white
authority.[28]
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.[29] Bonwick also reports a number of claims of brutality
by sealers towards Aboriginal women including some of those made by Robinson.[30] 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.[28]
"Harrington, a sealer, procured ten or fifteen native women, and placed them on different
islands in Bass's Straits, where he left them to procure skins; if, however, when he returned,
they had not obtained enough, he punished them by tying them up to trees for twenty-four to
thirty-six hours together, flogging them at intervals, and he killed them not infrequently if
they proved stubborn." (H.W.Parker The Rise, Progress, and Present State of V. D. Land
1833)[31]
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",[23] and thus contributed in a significant manner to the demise of the full-
blooded Aboriginal population of Tasmania. However many modern day Aboriginal Tasmanians trace
their descent from the 19th century sealer communities of Bass Strait.
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, 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 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, who edited Robinson's papers, expressed scepticism
about these atrocities and notes that they were not reported to Archdeacon Broughton's 1830 committee
of inquiry into violence towards Tasmanians. Abduction and ill-treatment of Aboriginal Tasmanians
certainly occurred, but the extent is debated.[32]
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.[34] Robert Dowling, Group of Natives of
Tasmania, 1859. Critic Bernard
By 1816, kidnapping of Aboriginal children for labour had become
William Smith assessed the work as
widespread. In 1814, Governor Thomas Davey issued a proclamation a "history painting in the full sense
expressing "utter indignation and abhorrence" in regards to the of the word", with the natives
kidnapping of the children and in 1819 Governor William Sorell not "seated—emblematic of their
only re-issued the proclamation but ordered that those who had been situation—around the dying embers
taken without parental consent were to be sent to Hobart and of a burnt-out log near a great
supported at government expense.[35] A number of young Aboriginal blackened stump, and in the far left
children were known to be living with settlers. An Irish sealer named corner there is a leafless tree with
Brien spared the life of the baby son of a native woman he had shattered branches."[33]
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."[28] 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.[36] Lyndall
Ryan reports fifty-eight Aboriginal people, of various ages, living with settlers in Tasmania in the period
up to 1835.[37]
Some historians argue that European disease did not appear to be a serious factor until after 1829.[38]
Other historians including Geoffrey Blainey and Keith Windschuttle, point to introduced disease as the
main cause of the destruction of the full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal population. Keith Windschuttle
argues that while smallpox never reached Tasmania, respiratory diseases such as influenza, pneumonia
and tuberculosis and the effects of venereal diseases 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 epidemics 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."[39][10]
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, who wrote: "After 1823 the women along with
the tribe seemed to have had no children; but why I do not know.".[8] Later historians have reported that
introduced venereal disease caused infertility amongst the Aboriginal Tasmanians.[40][41] 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.'"[7] Such an epidemic may be linked to contact with sailors or sealers.[9]
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….'"[31] 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 ..."[42]
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 [1830]. 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."[g]
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 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 in 1828 established
military posts on the boundaries and a further proclamation declared martial law 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.[43]
Though many Aboriginal deaths went unrecorded, the Cape Grim

massacre in 1828 demonstrates the level of frontier violence towards
Aboriginal Tasmanians.
The Black War of 1828–32 and the Black Line 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.
Tasmanian aboriginals and settlers mentioned in literature

1800–1835
Europeans killed and Aborigines captured may be considered as

reasonably accurate. The figures for tribal people shot is likely to be a
substantial undercount.[44]
Tribe Captured Shot Settlers killed Proclamation (c. 1828–30) by Sir

Oyster Bay 27 67 50 George Arthur to Aboriginal
Tasmanians, claiming that they
North East 12 43 7
would receive equal treatment
North 28 80 15 before the law.
Big River 31 43 60
North Midlands 23 38 26
Ben Lomond 35 31 20
North West 96 59 3
South West Coast 47 0 0
South East 14 1 2
Total 313 362 183
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.[h]
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.[45] Within months 31 Aboriginal people had died.
They were lodged at night in shelters or "breakwinds." These "breakwinds" were thatched
roofs sloping to the ground, with an opening at the top to let out the smoke, and closed at the
ends, with the exception of a doorway. They were twenty feet long by ten feet wide. In each of
these from twenty to thirty blacks were lodged ... To savages accustomed to sleep naked in the
open air beneath the rudest shelter, the change to close and heated dwellings tended to make
them susceptible, as they had never been in their wild state, to chills from atmospheric
changes, and was only too well calculated to induce those severe pulmonary diseases which
were destined to prove so fatal to them. The same may be said of the use of clothes ... At the
settlement they were compelled to wear clothes, which they threw off when heated or when
they found them troublesome, and when wetted by rain allowed them to dry on their bodies.
In the case of Tasmanians, as with other wild tribes accustomed to go naked, the use of
clothes had a most mischievous effect on their health.[31]
By January 1832 a further 44 captured Aboriginals 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) at a more suitable location, Pea Jacket Point. Pea Jacket Point
Benjamin Duterrau, Mr Robinson's was renamed Civilisation Point but became more commonly known
first interview with Timmy, 1840 as Wybalenna, which in the Ben Lomond language meant
"Blackman's Houses".[31]
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.[i] 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.[35] 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.[46] In March 1847 six Aboriginals at Wybalenna presented a petition to
Queen Victoria, the first petition to a reigning monarch from any Aboriginal group in Australia,
requesting that the promises made to them be honoured.[j] In October 1847, the 47 survivors were
transferred to their final settlement at Oyster Cove station.[47] 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.[35]
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
mudflats. 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 wrote:
While Robinson and others were doing their best to

make them into a civilised people, the poor blacks Oyster Cove Mob
had given up the struggle, and were solving the
difficult problem by dying. The very efforts made for
their welfare only served to hasten on their inevitable
doom. The white man's civilisation proved scarcely
less fatal than the white man's musket.[31]
Anthropological interest
The Oyster Cove people attracted contemporaneous international 0:00 MENU

scientific interest from the 1860s onwards, with many museums 1903 recording of a Tasmanian
claiming body parts for their collections. Scientists were interested in language
studying Aboriginal Tasmanians 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. 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 lay to rest, by
cremation, in 1976.[48] Another case was the removal of the skull and scrotum – for a tobacco pouch – of
William Lanne, 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 for example became famous for delivering such specimens.[49]
Aboriginal people 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
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.[50]
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, 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 of Aboriginal descent.
A dispute exists within the Tasmanian Aboriginal community,

however, over what constitutes Aboriginality. Since splitting from
the Lia Pootah in 1996, the Palawa minority 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 does not represent them Horace Watson recording the songs
politically.[51][52] Since 2007 there have been initiatives to introduce of Fanny Cochrane Smith,
DNA testing to establish family history in descendant subgroups. considered to be the last fluent
This is strongly opposed by the Palawa and has drawn an angry speaker of a Tasmanian language,
reaction from some quarters, as some have claimed "spiritual 1903. Singer Bruce Watson,
connection" with Aboriginality distinct from, but not as important as descendant of Watson, composed a
the existence of a genetic link. The Lia Pootah object to the current song about this picture and later
test used to prove Aboriginality as they believe it favours the Palawa, performed it with singer Ronnie
Summers, a descendant of Smith.
a DNA test would circumvent barriers to Lia Pootah recognition, or
disprove their claims to Aboriginality.[53]
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 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.[54]
The Tasmanian Palawa Aboriginal community is 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.
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.[55][56]
Estimates made of the combined population of the Aboriginal

people of Tasmania, before European arrival in Tasmania, are in
the range of 3,000 to 15,000 people.[57] Genetic studies have
suggested much higher figures which is supported by oral Map of Tasmanian nations
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.[7] 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 indicates that Stockton's original maximum estimate is
likely the lower boundary and, while not indicated by the archaeological record, a population as high as
100,000 can "not be rejected out of hand". This is supported by carrying capacity data indicating greater
resource productivity in Tasmania than the mainland.[19]
The 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.[58]
According to Ryan,[59] 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.[60]
There were more than 60 clans before European colonisation, although only 48 have been located and
associated with particular territories.[55] 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 Tasmanian
Aboriginals[61] but Taylor discusses in his thesis how Jones' original work is uncited and possibly
conjectural.[56] 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.[62] 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.[62] 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.[55] The key determinant of camp sites was topography. The majority of camps
were along river valleys, adjacent north facing hill slopes and on gentle slopes bordering a forest or
marsh (Brown 1986).
Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Winter in the coastal areas of their own lands. Between August and October
St Patricks congregating around Moulting Lagoon and Schouten Island. In October they
Leetermairremener Head near would move inland to St Pauls and Break o' Day Rivers or up the Meredith
St Marys River to the Elizabeth River area.
In January, the band would move back to the coast.
North of
Linetemairrener Great As above.
Oyster Bay
North
Loontitetermairrelehoinner As above.
Oyster Bay
Schouten
Toorernomairremener As above.
Passage
Winter in the coastal areas of their own lands. In August moving west to the
Little
Poredareme Eastern Marshes, and through St Peters pass to Big River Country before
Swanport
returning to the coast in January.
Grindstone
Laremairremener As above.
Bay
Maria
Tyreddeme As above.
Island
Prosser
Portmairremener As above.
River
Tasman
Pydairrerme As above.
Peninsula
Pittwater, Moomairremener tended to move inland later than other bands, leaving
Moomairremener
Risdon between September and October and returning to the coast in June.
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.
Peeberrangner Near Port Dalrymple[63]
Leenerrerter Pleemoommererway country by the Boobyalla River Region[64]
Pinterrairer Layrappenthe country at Mussel Roe.[65]
Trawlwoolway/Trawlwulwuy Big Musselroe to Cape Portland[64] Mt William[66]
Pyemmairrenerpairrener Piper's River.[63] Great Forester River[66]
Leenethmairrener Headwaters of the Great Musselroe River[67]
Panpekanner Between Eddystone Point and Cape Naturaliste[68]
North
The Northern nation consisted of four clans totalling 200–300 people.[69] 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[70] Relatively isolated, the region was first explored by
Europeans in 1824 with the Van Diemen's Land Company being given a grant of 250,000 acres
(100,000 ha), 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 [was] altogether 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.[71]

Punnilerpanner Port Sorell Winter spent on the coast. In summer they would move inland.
Pallittorre Quamby Bluff As above
Noeteeler Hampshire Hills As above
Plairhekehillerplue Emu Bay As above
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. The Oyster Bay People had reciprocal
movement rights through Big River territory.[72]

Leenowwenne New Norfolk
Pangerninghe Clyde – Derwent Rivers Junction
Braylwunyer Ouse and Dee Rivers
Larmairremener West of Dee
Luggermairrernerpairrer Great Lake
North Midlands
The North Midlands nation occupied the Midland plains, a major geographical area formed in a horst
and graben valley which was also subject to previous major freshwater lacustrine inundation.[73][74] The
result being a relatively flat and fertile landscape that supported a large biomass and, thus, a major food
source for the aboriginal people.[74] 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.[61][63][73] The total population of the North Midlands nation has been estimated to be between
300[61] and 500[75] and, although migratory, the archeological and historical record infers seasonal
residency in locations adjacent to permanent water sources in the Midlands valley.[73]
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.[76] 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.[75] 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.[61][76] 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.[61] To the
south their country was constrained by the uplands beyond Tunbridge, as the plains narrow towards Big
River and Oyster Bay country.[67]
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.[77]
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.[61][73]
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 Tasmanian
Aborigines (recorded by Robinson 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.
The 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.[73]
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[78]

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[77][79] as a place of ceremony 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.[80][81] There are no recorded
significant archeological remains in the Gorge precinct, although the area was subject to significant
seasonal flooding before damming.[73]
The Letteremairrener had been recorded to have specific meeting places at Paterson's Plains (near
modern-day St Leonards)[77] and groups as large as 150 had been recorded in colonial times in this
vicinity.[80] 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.[73]
Colonial contact
The Letteremairrener were among the first Tasmanian Aboriginals 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.[82] Between 1811 and 1827 several aboginal children were baptised in
Launceston, either abducted or the progeny of settler/aboriginal liaison. 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.
The 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 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.[75]
The Panninher also freely moved from the Tamar to the central highlands and brokered trade in ochre
from the Toolumbunner mine to neighbouring clans.[61] Robinson describes the aboriginal 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 between modern day Perth and Evandale, where flint quarries were
located and clans met for celebration.[31] Here local historians believe that cemetery (hollowed) trees
were used to inter the dead.[83] Similarly, Reibey's Ford, near modern-day Hadspen, was a known "resort
of the natives" and they named this site moorronnoe.[78] Archaeological evidence shows also indicates
signs of continuous occupation at permanent lagoons near Cleveland,[75] which was known historically as
a clan meeting place.[75][84]
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.[61] 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.[85] 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[85] 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.[31]
The clan Tyerrernotepanner were centred at Campbell Town and were one of up to four clans in the
south central Midlands area.[86] 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[87] and the lacustrine regions of the midlands all show evidence of tool
knapping, middens and records of hut construction consistent with occupation.[75][88]
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.[86] 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.[75]
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
rolemairre: clan at Tunbridge area[75][89]
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.[61] 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.[61]
Leterremairrener Port Dalrymple[63] Ben Lomond Tier in summer.[61]
Panninher Norfolk Plains Tamar River in winter, Great Western Tiers in summer.[61]
Tyerrernotepanner clan group Campbell Town North Oyster Bay in winter.[61]
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 plateau. Three clan names are known but their
locations are somewhat conjectural - the clans were recorded as Plangermaireener, Plindermairhemener
and Tonenerweenerlarmenne.[90][91]
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 is variously described as a chief of the Oyster Bay, Cape Portland and Ben Lomond
nations.[92][93] Plangermaireener is also used as a blanket term for the Ben Lomond nation, which
reflects the suffix "mairreener"; meaning "people".[94]
The Plindermairhemener are recorded in association with the south and south-western aspects of the
region[91][65][95][96] 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.[97] This notwithstanding, the Palawa were a
nomadic people and likely occupied these lands seasonally.[90]
The Ben Lomond nation is sometimes described as the Ben Lomond/Pennyroyal Creek nation from an
entry in Robinson's journal: '(Mannalargenna) ... said that "the smoke...was that of the Ben Lomond-
Pennyroyal Creek natives"'[98]
This is a misnomer, as the Pennyroyal Creek was the original European name for the Liffey River and the
Pennyroyal Creek Tribe was the contemporary name of the Panninher Clan of the North Midlands
nation.[99][100] 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 Aborigines 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 and around the headwaters of the South Esk River near modern-day Mathinna.[95] On the
plateau there is evidence of artifacts around Lake Youl that suggests regular occupation of this site by
aborigines after the last ice age.[95] 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.[90] John Batman 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"[95]
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..."[95]

Plangermaireener SE of Ben Lomond Plateau, St Mary's Plains probable close relations with Oyster Bay nation
Plindermairhemener S-SW of Ben Lomond Plateau reciprocal rights with Leterremairener
Tonenerweenerlarmenne probably upper South Esk valley conjectural
North West
The North West nation numbered between 400 and 600 people at time of contact with Europeans and
had at least eight clans.[55] 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.

Tommeginer Table Cape
Parperloihener Robbins Island
Pennemukeer Cape Grim
Pendowte Studland Bay
Peerapper West Point
Manegin Arthur River mouth
Tarkinener Sandy Cape
Peternidic Pieman River mouth
South West Coast


Mimegin Macquarie Harbour
Lowreenne (Toogee) Low Rocky Point
Ninene Port Davey
Needwonnee Cox Bight
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, chert and quartzite mines in Tasmania.[101] The South East people had a hostile
relationship with the Oyster Bay people whom they frequently raided, often to kidnap women.[72]
Truganini was a Nuenonne from Bruny Island, 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 used to build
many of Melbourne's buildings, such as the Post Office and Parliament House.[102]

Mouheneenner Hobart
Nuenonne Bruny Island
Mellukerdee Huon River
Lyluequonny Recherche Bay
Tasmanian Aboriginal culture

Tasmanian aboriginal culture is one of the world's most enduring. 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 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.[103]
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.[104][105]
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, and
Aboriginal people consequently take the kangaroo as a totem.[5] 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.[5]
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.[104] Toogee Low (Port Davey)
remained in mythology as a residence of many "devils".
Tasmanian Aboriginal mythology also records in their oral history 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.[106]
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. The 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".[88]
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 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[107] this malign spirit might be released
from a sick individual by cutting the skin to "let him out".[108]
Several researchers assert that there was belief in a kind of manichean 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.[109]
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[110]
laga robana - "awful spirit of the dead" i.e. the dead man, some kind of dreaded spirit, malevolent
phantom[111]
maian ginja - "the killer" - translates also to fiend/demon: bringer of death[112]
muran bugana luwana - "the bright spirit of the night" - a kind of benign or ebullient entity, often
described of female form "clothed in grass"[113]
wara wana - "the spirit being" - also warrawah translates to transcendental/ethereal/spirit of dead
associated with celestial bodies- may be malevolent[114]
badenala - "shadow man" - ghost or spirit[109]
kana tana - "the bone man" - Western Nation language term for spirit of the dead[115]
nangina - "shadow/ghost" - contemporary association with "fairy" or "elf" - a supernatural entity
dwelling "in the hill - dancing (and) fond of children"[115]
buga nubrana - "the man's eye" - associated with the sun - possibly a benign entity[116]
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,[117] but other Tasmanians state that after death their spirits
would have a post-corporeal existence in their traditional lands.[118][119]
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.[120]
Funeral customs
The dead might be cremated or interred in a hollow tree or rock grave, dependent on clan custom.[121]
Aboriginal people were also recorded to keep bones of dead people as talismans or amulets. The bones
might be worn on a kangaroo sinew string bare around the neck or enclosed in a kangaroo skin bag.[122]
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.[88]
Material culture
Use of fire
The Tasmanian Aboriginal people preferred to store coals in wrapped bark for the purpose of starting
fires. This was likely due to the difficulty in creating fire in Tasmania's wet maritime climate. When this
source of flame was extinguished they would seek to gain fire from neighbouring hearths or clans but
also were likely to have created fire by friction methods[123][124][125][126][127] and possibly by mineral
percussion.[128][124][127] This practice gave rise to the myth that the native Tasmanians had "lost" the
ability to make fire.[129] The Tasmanian Aboriginal people extensively employed fire for cooking,
warmth, tool hardening and clearing vegetation to encourage and control macropod herds.[130] This
farming may have caused the buttongrass plains in southwest Tasmania to develop to their current
extent.[131]
Hunting and diet
Approximately 4,000 years ago, the Aboriginal Tasmanians largely dropped scaled fish from their diet,
and began eating more land mammals, such as possums, kangaroos, and wallabies. Aboriginal
Tasmanians had employed bone tools, but it appears that they switched from worked bone tools to
sharpened stone tools,[132] as the effort to make bone tools began to exceed the benefit they
provided.[133] The significance of the disappearance of bone tools (believed to have been primarily used
for fishing related activities) and fish in the diet is heavily debated. Some argue that it is evidence of a
maladaptive society, while others argue that the change was economic, 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.[133] 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.[134]
Basket making
Basket making is a traditional craft which has been carried through into contemporary art. Baskets had
many uses, including carrying food, women's and men's 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 water and as drinking vessels.
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 ornamental
expression.[135]
Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace art
Making necklaces from shells is a significant cultural tradition among Tasmanian Aboriginal women.[136]
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.[136] A number of shell necklaces are
held in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.[136]
Ochre
Ochre is an important cultural resource for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. Traditionally,
Aboriginal women had the exclusive role of obtaining ochre. Today, many Tasmanian Aboriginal men
continue to respect the traditional cultural custom by obtaining ochre from women only.
Tasmanian ochre ranges in colour from white through yellow to red. It has many uses, including
ceremonial body marking, colouring wood craft products, tie-dyeing and various other uses in crafts and
arts. Tasmanian Aboriginal people consider ochre to be a special cultural resource.[135]
Traditionally, Aboriginal people have sourced ochre from sites throughout Tasmania. The most
celebrated site is Toolumbunner in the Gog Range in NW Tasmania. This site lies in the traditional lands
of the Pallitorre Clan and was a significant site of ochre mining, tribal meeting, celebration and
trading.[137]
Ceremony
Colonial settlers describe various ceremonies enacted by Aboriginal people. Tasmanians would gather for
ceremony that contemporaries called "corobery", although that is a mainland Aboriginal word adopted
by British settlers. Dance and singing was a feature of these ceremonies and dance would encompass
reenactment of traditional tales and also recent events.[138] Robinson describes reenactment of a
horseman hunting an Aboriginal person via the display of the "horse-dance" as well as the sensual "devil-
dance" performed by women from the Furneaux islands[139]
Battle and funeral was also the time for painting the body with ochre or black paint. The important
ceremonial meaning of painting the body can be inferred by record of discussion at the funeral for the
Aboriginal man "Robert", in Launceston, where an Aboriginal mourner was asked by a settler why he
painted his body for the funeral and he replied "what do you wear fine clothes for?"[140]
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.[141]
The most enduring art form left by Tasmanians are petroglyphs, 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.[142]
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.[143]
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.[144][145]
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."[146]
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.[147] 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.[148]
Writing
The earliest publication attributed to Tasmanian authors, predating the journalism of David Unaipon 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.[149]
Tasmanian Aboriginal authors in the past century have written history, poetry, essays and fiction.
Authors such as Ida West[150] have written autobiographies recounting their experiences growing up
within white society; Phyllis Pitchford, Errol West[k][151] and Jim Everett have written poetry, while
Everett and Greg Lehman have explored their tradition as essayists.[152][5]
Legislated definition
In June 2005, the Tasmanian Legislative Council introduced an innovated definition of aboriginality into
the Aboriginal Lands Act.[153] 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, 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.[154]
Notable Aboriginal Tasmanians

Tunnerminnerwait
Trugernanner (Truganini) and Fanny Cochrane Smith, who both claimed to be the last "full blooded"
Palawa.
William Lanne or "King Billy"
Michael Mansell, lawyer and activist
Mannalargenna
Arra-Maida
Literature and entertainment

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
The poem Oyster Cove by Gwen Harwood
The AFI Award-winning 1980 film Manganinnie, 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.[155]
See also
First Australians, TV documentary series, featuring Aboriginal Tasmanians in Episode 2
Notes
a. Rhys Jones: 3,000–5,000, N. J. B. Plomley: 4,000–6,000, Henry Reynolds: 5,000–7,000, Colin

Pardoe: 12,000+ and David Davies: 15,000. (Madley 2008, p. 78, n.7)
b. "Despite over 170 years of debate over who or what was responsible for this near-extinction, no
consensus exists on its origins, process, or whether or not it was genocide". (Madley 2008, p. 78)
c. Tasmanian novelist Richard Flanagan is also skeptical of the notion of genocide, if understood as an
accomplished extermination:"Tasmania is still frequently - and wrongly - cited as the site of the only
successful genocide in history.." (Flanagan 2002)
d. "In light of the U.N. definition, sufficient evidence exists to designate the Tasmanian catastrophe
genocide." (Madley 2008, p. 104)
e. For discussion of the Truganini claim, and the other candidates, Suke and Fanny Cochrane Smith,
see Taylor 2008a, pp. 140ff.
f. Lyndall Ryan denies Truganini was the last "full-blood" and makes a case for Suke (d. circa 1888)
(Ryan 1996, p. 220)
g. Robinson writing to Edward Curr, 22 Sept 1832. (Plomley 2008, p. 732)
h. The Lagoons was located on a narrow sandbank, covered with ferns and scrub. It was bounded on
one side by the sea, and on the other side by a saltwater lagoon bordered with thick tea-tree which
cut off access to the main island.
i. Flood cites Henry Reynolds. (Flood 2006, p. 88)
j. Since the 1980s this petition has been the focus of a major argument in the legal battle regarding the
promises that Robinson and Governor Arthur made to the Tasmanian Aborigines.
k. "In the 1970s a young Tasmanian Aborigine, Errol West, wrote a beautiful poem, The Moon Birds of
Big Dog Island, about the great gaping absence that was being a Tasmanian Aborigine."
Citations
1. Shine 2017. 22. Lourandos 1993, pp. 72–73.
2. Hunt 2017. 23. Flood 2006, pp. 58–60.
3. Census probe 2017. 24. Bonwick 1870b, pp. 3–8.
4. Berk 2017, pp. 2–20. 25. Flood 2006, pp. 58–60,76.
5. Lehman 2006. 26. McFarlane 2008, p. 119.
6. Madley 2008, p. 78. 27. Ryan 1996, p. 141.
7. Bonwick 1870a, pp. 84–85. 28. Merry 2003.
8. Bonwick 1870b, p. 388. 29. Bonwick 1870b, pp. 295–297.
9. Flood 2006, pp. 66–67. 30. Bonwick 1870b, pp. 295–301.
10. Windschuttle 2002, pp. 372–376. 31. Roth 1899.
11. Blainey 1980, p. 75. 32. Flood 2006, p. 76.
12. Rouse 2003, p. 45. 33. Smith 1971, p. 57.
13. Tatz 2003, p. 79. 34. Ryan 1996, p. 313.
14. Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. ?. 35. Bringing them Home – The Report.
15. Kiernan 2008, pp. 265ff. 36. Flood 2006, p. 77.
16. Tatz 2003, pp. 78–79. 37. Ryan 1996, p. 176.
17. Lawson 2014, pp. 1ff,31ff.. 38. Boyce 2009, p. 65.
18. Boyce 2009, p. 297. 39. Flood 2006, pp. 77,90,128.
19. Pardoe 1991, pp. 1–27. 40. Flood 2006, p. 90.
20. Reynolds 2006, pp. 58–63. 41. Windschuttle 2002, pp. 375–376.
21. Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. 31. 42. Roth 1899, pp. 172–173.
43. Cove 1995, pp. 25–29. 87. Casella 2002, p. 30.

44. Ryan 1996, pp. 313–314. 88. Plomley 2008.
45. Roth 1899, p. 3. 89. Plomley 1992b, pp. 23, 24.
46. Howson 2004. 90. Ryan 2012, p. 32.
47. Bonwick 1870b, pp. 270–295. 91. Plomley 2008, p. 1005.
48. Fforde & Hubert 2006, pp. 79–80. 92. Mannalargenna.
49. Turnbull 1991. 93. Ryan 2012, p. 20.
50. Bodies of Knowledge. 94. Plomley 1992b, p. 13.
51. Lia Pootah Community 2008. 95. Kee 1991, p. ?.
52. Australian Broadcasting Corporation 2002. 96. Hansen 2004, p. 125.
53. Denholm 2007. 97. Syme, Ball & Elder 2012.
54. Legislative Council Select Committee 2002. 98. Plomley 2008, p. 315.
55. Ryan 1996, pp. 10–11. 99. Plomley 1992b, p. 31.
56. Taylor 2006. 100. Plomley 2008, p. 1011.
57. Madley 2008, pp. 77–106. 101. Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Survey 2001.
58. ABS 2008. 102. Tasmania. Regional Guide Series. Lonely
59. Ryan 1996, p. 14. Planet 2008 pp 136–137 ISBN 1-74104-691-2
60. Huys 2009, p. 17. 103. Reynolds 2006.
61. Ryan 2012, p. ?. 104. Haynes 2000, pp. 53–90.
62. Ryan 1996, p. 17. 105. Plomley 2008, p. 436.
63. Plomley 1992b, p. 18. 106. Plomley 2008, p. 514.
66. Ryan 2012, p. 15. 109. Worms 1960, pp. 1–16.
67. Plomley 1992b, pp. 18–20. 110. Worms 1960, p. 7.
68. Plomley 1992b, pp. 18–21. 111. Worms 1960, p. 8.
69. Ryan 1996, p. 22. 112. Worms 1960, p. 9.
70. Ryan 1996, pp. 23–26. 113. Worms 1960, p. 10.
71. Burnie City Council. 114. Worms 1960, p. 11.
72. Refshauge 1804. 115. Worms 1960, p. 14.
73. Kee 1990, p. ?. 116. Worms 1960, p. 15.
74. Gilfedder 2003 ? 117. Plomley 2008, p. 498.
75. Kee 1990. 118. Plomley 1991.
76. Plomley 1992b, pp. 18–19. 119. Roe.
77. Breen & Summer 2006. 120. Worms 1960, p. 12.
78. Plomley 1992a. 121. Plomley 2008, p. 540.
79. Clarke 2015. 122. Plomley 2008, p. 70.
80. Bonwick 1870a, p. ?. 123. Cotton 1887.
81. Richards & Johnson 2007, p. 63. 124. Taylor 2008b.
82. Bethell 1957. 125. Gott 2002, pp. 650–656.
83. Haygarth 2013, pp. 4–5. 126. Breen 1992, pp. 40–43.
84. Stancombe 1968. 127. Plomley 1991, p. 106.
85. Clements 2014. 128. Volger 1973, pp. 58–63.
86. Plomley 2008, p. ?. 129. Taylor 2008b, pp. 1–26.
30. Gammage 2008, pp. 241–254. 143. Jones 1995.

31. McBey 2018. 144. Humphries 2015.
32. Ryan 1996. 145. Gough 2012.
33. Manne 2003. 146. Ricky Maynard.
34. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002. 147. Rosalind Langford - Connecting Spirits.
35. Tasmanian art online. 148. Tasmanian aboriginal art.
36. National Museum of Australia. 149. Miller 2010, p. 9.
37. Sagona 1994. 150. West 1987.
38. Plomley 2008, p. 706. 151. Flanagan 2002.
39. Plomley 2008, p. 579. 152. Thornley 2010, p. 259.
40. Plomley 2008, p. 626. 153. Tasmanian Legislation – Aboriginal Lands Act
41. Plomley 2008, p. 575. 199.
42. Bednarick 2007, pp. 161–170. 154. Lennon.
155. Wilson 2011.
Sources
"2011 Census" (http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/tas-32?opendocument&na
vpos=620). Australian Bureau of Statistics.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Population: 2016 Census Data Summary" (http://www.abs.gov.a
u/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject). Australian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
"Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Survey" (http://www.southwoodresources.com.au/southwood/pdf/planni
ng/APPKABOR.PDF) (PDF). January 2001.
"Aboriginal Occupation" (http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/dc057c1016e548b4ca256c47002
5ff88/F6FA372655DCC15FCA256C3200241893?opendocument). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 26
March 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
Bednarick, Robert (2007). "Petroglyphs of Meenamatta, Blue Tier mountains, Tasmania". Rock Art
Research. 14:2: 161–170.
Berk, Christopher D. (2017). "Palawa Kaniand the Value of Language in Aboriginal Tasmania".
Oceania. 87 (1): 2–20. doi:10.1002/ocea.5148 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Focea.5148). ISSN 0029-
8077 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0029-8077).
Bethell, L (1957). The Story of Port Dalrymple. Hobart, Tasmania: L.G. Shea.
Blainey, Geoffrey (1980). A Land Half Won. Macmillan, Melbourne.
"Bodies of Knowledge". The Museum. Season 1. Episode 2. 17 May 2007.
Bonwick, James (1870a). Daily Life and Origins of the Tasmanians (https://archive.org/details/dailylife
andori02bonwgoog) (PDF). Sampson, Low, Son and Marston.
Bonwick, James (1870b). The last of the Tasmanians; or, the black war of Van Diemen's Land (http
s://archive.org/details/lasttasmanianso00bonwgoog) (PDF). Sampson, Low, Son and Marston.
Boyce, James (2009). Van Diemen's Land (https://books.google.com/books?id=tarto-9aKqMC&pg=P
A295). Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-921-82539-2.
Breen, Shayne (March 1992). "Tasmanian Aborigines. Making Fire". Papers and Proceedings:
Tasmanian Historical Research Association. 39 (1): 40–43.
Breen, Shayne; Summer, Dyan (2006). Aboriginal Connections with Launceston Places. Launceston,
Tas: Launceston City Council. ISBN 0959609040.
"Bringing them Home – The Report" (http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/sorry/stolen12.html). Human
Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
"Burnie: A Thematic History" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110218084323/http://www.burnie.net/file

s/Volume_1_44480_-_Thematic_History.pdf) (PDF). Burnie City Council. Archived from the original
(http://www.burnie.net/files/Volume_1_44480_-_Thematic_History.pdf) (PDF) on 18 February 2011.
Retrieved 18 December 2010.
Casella, Eleanor Conlon (2002). "Archeology of the Ross Female Factory". Records of the Queen
Victoria Museum. QVMAG Report 108: 30.
"Census 2016: Call for probe following rise in Tasmanians claiming to be Aboriginal" (http://www.abc.
net.au/news/2017-06-29/census-spike-in-tasmanians-identifying-as-aboriginal/8661188). ABC News.
29 June 2017.
Clarke, Chris (29 January 2015). "Video: Aboriginal insight into Gorge's origins" (http://www.examine
r.com.au/story/2850193/video-Aboriginal-insight-into-gorges-origins/). The Examiner. Retrieved
20 July 2015.
Clements, Nicholas (2014). The Black War. St. Lucia, Queensland: UQP. ISBN 978-0-702-25006-4.
Cotton, Edward (1887). "Notes on the Tasmanian Aborigines" (https://eprints.utas.edu.au/1887/1/W9-
C4-1%2811%29.pdf) (PDF). Octavius.
Cove, John J. (1995). What the Bones Say: Tasmanian Aborigines, Science, and Domination (https://
books.google.com/books?id=SacdaNDCMzkC&pg=PA25). McGill-Queen's University Press.
ISBN 978-0-773-58145-6.
Denholm, Matthew (17 February 2007). "A bone to pick with the Brits" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0081006202639/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,21238214-28737,00.html). The
Australian. Archived from the original (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,2123821
4-28737,00.html) on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=XLo9DgAAQBAJ&pg=PT431). W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-60929-5.
Fforde, Cressida; Hubert, Jane (2006). "Aboriginal Human Remains and Changing Museum
Ideology" (https://books.google.com/books?id=j2CSMJu66KwC&pg=PA86). In Layton, Robert;
Shennan, Stephen; Stone, Peter G. (eds.). A Future for Archaeology: The Past in the Present.
Psychology Press. pp. 83–95. ISBN 978-1-844-72126-9.
Flanagan, Richard (17 October 2002). "Tension in Tasmania over who is an Aborigine" (https://www.s
mh.com.au/articles/2002/10/16/1034561211169.html). The Sydney Morning Herald.
Flood, Josephine (2006). The Original Australians: Story of the Aboriginal People. Longford,
Tasmania: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1741148725.
Gammage, Bill (11 April 2008). "Plain facts: Tasmania under aboriginal management". Landscape
Research. 33 (2): 241–254. doi:10.1080/01426390701767278 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F01426390
701767278).
Garvey, Jillian (2006). "Preliminary zooarchaeological interpretations from Kutikina Cave, south-west
Tasmania" (https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Preliminary+zooarchaeological+interpretations+from+Kuti
kina+Cave%2c...-a0152994503). Australian Aboriginal Studies. 1: 58–63.
Gott, Beth (2002). "Fire Making in Tasmania: Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence".
Current Anthropology. 43 (4): 650–656. doi:10.1086/342430 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F342430).
Gough, Julie (3 January 2012). "Artwork about memory, time and place" (http://juliegough.net/artwork
-about-memory-time-and-space/). Retrieved 11 November 2015.
Hansen, David (2004). John Glover and the Colonial Picturesque (https://books.google.com/books?id
=CUBAAAAACAAJ). Hobart: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-975-05451-2.
Haygarth, Nic (2013). Norfolk Plains. A history of Longford, Cressy, Perth and Bishopbourne.
Northern Midlands Council. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0646590141.
Haynes, Roslynn (2000). Astronomy Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Astronomy. Great
Britain: Kluwer. pp. 53–90. ISBN 978-0-7923-6363-7.
Howson, Peter (June 2004). "Pointing the Bone. Reflections on the Passing of ATSIC" (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20050328100809/http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/indigenousaffairs_ctte/sub
missions/sub235att1.pdf) (PDF). Quadrant magazine. Archived from the original (http://www.aph.gov.
au/Senate/committee/indigenousaffairs_ctte/submissions/sub235att1.pdf) (pdf) on 28 March 2005.
Humphries, Alexandra (16 October 2015). "Sculptor carves out his Aboriginal story" (http://www.exa
miner.com.au/story/3428805/sculptor-carves-out-his-aboriginal-story/). The Examiner. Retrieved
11 November 2015.
Hunt, Linda (1 July 2017). "Changes to Tasmania's Aboriginal identity test labelled outrageous" (htt
p://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-01/changes-to-aboriginal-identity-test-labelled-outrageous/756112
8). ABC News.
Huys, Stuart (2009). "Appendix E: A Cultural Heritage Assessment of Cullenswood 2 and 3, Fingal
Valley, Eastern Tasmania" (http://epa.tas.gov.au/Documents/Cornwall_Coal_Cullenswood_EER_App
endix_E.pdf) (PDF). Cornwall Coal: Culllenswood 2 Environmental Effects Report (Report).
Environment Protection Authority Tasmania. p. 17.
"Interview with Kaye McPherson (Lia Pootah elder)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20111006062822/ht
tp://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s658453.htm). Four Corners. Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. 26 August 2002. Archived from the original (http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s658
453.htm) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
Johnson, Murray; McFarlane, Ian (2015). Van Diemen's Land: An Aboriginal History (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=2jd5CAAAQBAJ&pg=PT31). University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-
742-24189-0.
Jones, Rhys (1974). "Tasmanian Tribes" (https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/
114913/2/b13565965.pdf) (PDF). In Tindale, Norman Barnett (ed.). Aboriginal Tribes of Australia:
Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National
University Press. pp. 316–354. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
Jones, Rhys (1995). "Tasmanian archeology: Establishing the Sequences". Annual Review of
Anthropology.
Kee, Sue (1990). Midlands Aboriginal Archeological Site Survey. Hobart, Tasmania: Department of
Parks, Wildlife and Heritage.
Kee, Sue (1991). Aboriginal archaeological sites in North East Tasmania (https://trove.nla.gov.au/ver
sion/231325570). Occasional Paper no.28. Hobart, Tasmania: Department of Parks, Wildlife and
Heritage. ISBN 0724617620 – via Trove.
Kiernan, Ben (2008). Blood and Soil: Modern Genocide 1500-2000 (https://books.google.com/books?
id=R5p7cRyK748C&pg=PA265). MUP. ISBN 978-0-522-85477-0.
Lawson, Tom (2014). The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=rP1fAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31). I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-780-76626-3.
"Legislative Council Select Committee on Aboriginal Lands" (http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/ctee/W
itnesses/PYBUS.htm). 10 April 2002.
Lehman, Greg (2006). "The Palawa Voice" (http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian
_history/P/Palawa%20Voice.htm). Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania.
Retrieved 8 May 2016.
Lennon, Paul. "Stolen Generations Public Release" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070813040234/ht
tp://www.premier.tas.gov.au/speeches/stolen.html). Archived from the original (http://www.premier.ta
s.gov.au/speeches/stolen.html) on 13 August 2007.
Lourandos, Harry (March 1993). "Hunter-Gatherer Cultural Dynamics: Long- and Short-Term Trends
in Australian Prehistory". Journal of Archaeological Research. 1 (1): 67–88. doi:10.1007/BF01327162
(https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01327162). JSTOR 41053069
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/41053069).
Madley, Benjamin (2008). "From Terror to Genocide: Britain's Tasmanian Penal Colony and
Australia's History Wars". Journal of British Studies. 47 (1): 77–106. doi:10.1086/522350 (https://doi.o
rg/10.1086%2F522350). JSTOR 25482686 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/25482686).
"Mannalargenna" (http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/M/Mannalargenn
a.htm). University of Tasmania. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
Manne, Robert (2003). Whitewash. 317–318: Schwartz Publishing. ISBN 0-9750769-0-6.
McBey, Leah (4 August 2018). "Tasmanias intriguing button grass mystery" (https://www.theadvocat
e.com.au/story/5563144/tasmanias-intriguing-button-grass-mystery/). The Advocate.
McFarlane, Ian (2008). Beyond Awakening: the Aboriginal Tribes of North West Tasmania: a History.
Studies in the history of Aboriginal Tasmania. Launceston, Tas.: Fullers Bookshop. ISBN 978-0-980-
47200-4.
Merry, Kay (2003). "The Cross-Cultural Relationships Between the Sealers and the Tasmanian
Aboriginal Women at Bass Strait and Kangaroo Island in the Early Nineteenth Century" (http://ehlt.flin
ders.edu.au/projects/counterpoints/Proc_2003/A8.pdf) (PDF). Flinders University Department of
History.
Miller, John (2010). Australia's Writers and Poets (https://books.google.com/books?id=bSajSxmtQJM
C&pg=PA9). Exisle Publishing. ISBN 978-1-921-49774-2.
Pardoe, Colin (February 1991). "Isolation and Evolution in Tasmania". Current Anthropology. 32 (1):
1–21. doi:10.1086/203909 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F203909). JSTOR 2743891 (https://www.jstor.o
rg/stable/2743891).
Plomley, N. J. B. (1991). The Westlake papers: records of interviews in Tasmania by Ernest
Westlake. QVMAG.
Plomley, N. J. B. (1992a). Tasmanian Aboriginal Place Names (https://web.archive.org/web/2018042
0071258/http://qvmag.cms.dedicated1.autech.com.au/upfiles/qvmag/cont/publications/occasional_pa
pers/tas_aborig_place_names.pdf) (PDF). Occasional Paper no. 3. Hobart: QVMAG. Archived from
the original (http://qvmag.cms.dedicated1.autech.com.au/upfiles/qvmag/cont/publications/occasional
_papers/tas_aborig_place_names.pdf) (PDF) on 20 April 2018.
Plomley, N. J. B. (1992b). The Tasmanian Tribes & Cicatrices as Tribal Indicators Among the
Tasmanian Aborigines (https://web.archive.org/web/20180420071413/http://qvmag.cms.dedicated1.a
utech.com.au/upfiles/qvmag/cont/publications/occasional_papers/tas_tribes.pdf) (PDF). Occasional
Paper no. 5. Hobart: QVMAG. Archived from the original (http://qvmag.cms.dedicated1.autech.com.a
u/upfiles/qvmag/cont/publications/occasional_papers/tas_tribes.pdf) (PDF) on 20 April 2018.
Plomley, N. J. B., ed. (2008) [First published 1966]. Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and
Papers of George Augustus Robinson (2nd ed.). Hobart, Tas and Launceston, Tas: Quintus and
QVMAG. ISBN 978-0-977-55722-6.
Refshauge, W. F. (3 May 1804). "An analytical approach to the events at Risdon Cove on 3 May
1804" (https://web.archive.org/web/20130508212900/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-16609177
4.html). Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. Archived from the original (http://www.high
beam.com/doc/1G1-166091774.html) on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013 – via HighBeam
Research.
Reynolds, Amanda Jane, ed. (2006). Keeping Culture: Aboriginal Tasmania. Canberra ACT: National
Museum of Australia Press. ISBN 1-876944-48-X.
Richards, Paul; Johnson, Murray (2007). Health, Wealth and Tribulation: Tasmania's Cataract Gorge.
Launceston, Tasmania: Myola House. p. 63. ISBN 978-0977565429.
"Ricky Maynard" (http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/maynard/index.php?obj_id=bio). Stills
Gallery. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
Roe, Michael. "Eumarrah (1798–1832)" (http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/eumarrah-12905).
Eumarrah. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National
University.
"Rosalind Langford - Connecting Spirits" (http://www.artmob.com.au/artists/naidoc/27.html). Art Mob -

Aboriginal Fine Art. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
Roth, Henry Ling (1899). "The Aborigines of Tasmania" (https://archive.org/stream/aboriginestasma0
0tylogoog/aboriginestasma00tylogoog_djvu.txt). Halifax U.K.: F. King & Sons.
Rouse, Tim (2003). "Triumph of the Colonists" (https://books.google.com/books?id=OiG6T_jprbQC&
pg=PA45). In Gare, Deborah; Bolton, Geoffrey; Macintyre, Stuart; Stannage, Tom (eds.). The Fuss
that Never Ended: The Life and Work of Geoffrey Blainey. Melbourne University Press. pp. 39–52.
ISBN 978-0-522-85034-5.
Ryan, Lyndall (1996). The Aboriginal Tasmanians (2nd ed.). Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-
86373-965-8.
Ryan, Lyndall (2012). Tasmanian Aboriginals: A history since 1803. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-742-
69714-7.
Sagona, Antonio (1994). Bruising the Red Earth: Ochre Mining and Ritual in Aboriginal Tasmania.
Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522-84602-7.
Shine, Rhiannon (1 July 2017). "Claiming Aboriginality: Have Tasmania's Aboriginal services been
'swamped with white people'?" (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-01/tasmanias-aboriginality-criter
ia-relaxation-affecting-services/8670254). ABC News.
Smith, Bernard (1971). Australian Painting, 1788–1970. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. p. 57.
ISBN 0-19-550372-4.
Stancombe, Hawley (1968). Highway in Van Diemen's Land. Glendessary, Tas: Stancombe.
ISBN 0959929312.
Syme, Lance; Ball, Patrick; Elder, Stuart (August 2012). "Caason Fingal Tiers Mine Project:
Aboriginal Heritage Impact Report" (http://epa.tas.gov.au/documents/hardrock%20coal%20mining%2
0supplement%20appendices%209%20to%2014.pdf) (PDF). Break O'Day Local Government Area.
Retrieved 29 April 2015.
"Tasmania 2005: Aboriginal occupation" (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/F6FA372655DC
C15FCA256C3200241893?opendocument). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 13 September 2002.
"Tasmanian aboriginal art" (http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/art/tasmanian-art.php). Australian Art.
Retrieved 11 November 2015.
"Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklaces" (https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/collection/highlights/tasmani
an-aboriginal-shell-necklaces). National Museum of Australia.
Tasmanian Aborigines in their own write: a collection of writings by Tasmanian Aborigines (http://Trov
e.nla.gov.au). 1989. ISBN 0731667891.
"Tasmanian art online" (http://www.aboriginalartonline.com/art/tasmanian-art.php). Tasmanian art.
Retrieved 11 November 2015.
"Tasmanian Legislation – Aboriginal Lands Act 1995" (http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/tocview/index.w3
p;cond=;doc_id=98%2B%2B1995%2BAT%40EN%2B20040730000000;histon=;prompt=;rec=;term=)
.
Tatz, Colin (2003). With Intent to Destroy: Reflections on Genocide (https://books.google.com/books?
id=khCffgX1NPIC&pg=PA79). Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-859-84550-9.
Taylor, John (March 2006). The Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) Languages: A Preliminary Discussion
(https://eprints.utas.edu.au/15805/2/1Taylor_whole_thesis.pdf) (PDF) (thesis). University of
Tasmania.
Taylor, Rebe (2008a) [First published 2004]. Unearthed: the Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo
Island (https://books.google.com/books?id=gnxF-LE2grgC&printsec=frontcover). Wakefield Press.
ISBN 978-1-862-54798-8.
Taylor, Rebe (2008b). "The polemics of making fire in Tasmania: the historical evidence revisited" (htt
p://epress.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ch0155.pdf) (PDF). Aboriginal History. 32: 1–26.
JSTOR 24046786 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/24046786).
Thornley, Jenni (2010). "Island Home Country: working with Aboriginal protocols in a documentary
film about colonisation and growing up white in Tasmania" (https://books.google.com/books?id=EJM
wU1kqo7sC&pg=PA259). In Peters-Little, Frances; Curthoys, Ann; Docker, John (eds.). Passionate
Histories: Myth, Memory and Aboriginal Australia. Australian National University. pp. 247–279.
ISBN 978-1-921-66665-0.
Turnbull, Paul (1991). Science, National Identity and Aboriginal Body Snatching in Nineteenth
Century Australia (https://web.archive.org/web/20160304082023/http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/ahri/c
entres/menzies/research/Publications/Workingpapers/WP65PaulTurnbull.pdf) (PDF). Working
Papers in Australian Studies. No. 65. Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, Institute of
Commonwealth Studies. ISBN 1-85507-034-0. Archived from the original (http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshu
ms/ahri/centres/menzies/research/Publications/Workingpapers/WP65PaulTurnbull.pdf) (PDF) on 4
March 2016.
Volger, Gisela (1973). "Making Fire by Percussion in Tasmania". Oceania. 44 (1): 58–63.
doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1973.tb00330.x (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fj.1834-4461.1973.tb00330.x).
West, Ida (1987). Pride against prejudice: reminiscences of a Tasmanian Aborigine. Canberra:
Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. ISBN 0855751800.
"What details do we know about the Aboriginal population?" (https://web.archive.org/web/201605160
70942/http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/health-faqs/aboriginal-population). Australian
Aboriginal health Infonet. Archived from the original (http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-fact
s/health-faqs/aboriginal-population) on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"Who makes up the Tasmanian Aboriginalmunity?" (http://www.tasmanianaboriginal.com.au). Lia
Pootah Community. 26 March 2008. Retrieved 26 March 2008.
Wilson, Rohan (2011). The Roving Party. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-742-37653-0.
Windschuttle, Keith (2002). The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land
1803–1847. Sydney: Macleay Press. ISBN 978-1-876-49205-2.
Worms, E.A. (1960). "Tasmanian Mythological Terms". Anthropos. 55 (1/2): 1–16. JSTOR 40453717
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/40453717).
External links
Media related to Tasmanian Aboriginals at Wikimedia Commons
Records Relating to Tasmanian Aboriginal People (https://web.archive.org/web/20031204201906/htt

p://www.archives.tas.gov.au/guides-to-holdings/guide018.htm) from the Archives Office of Tasmania
(http://www.archives.tas.gov.au/default.asp) "Brief Guide No. 18". Retrieved from Internet Archive 13
December 2013.
Statistics – Tasmania – occupation (http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/f6fa372655dcc15fca
256c3200241893?OpenDocument) (from the Australian Bureau of Statistics)
The Lia Pootah People Home Page (https://web.archive.org/web/20040404032651/http://www.tasma
nianaboriginal.com.au/liapootah/index.htm)
[1] (https://web.archive.org/web/20051219004805/http://www.reconciliationaustralia.org/)
Reconciliation Australia
1984 Review (http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/Tasmanian.html) of Tom Haydon's
documentary "The Last Tasmanian" (1978)
A history (https://web.archive.org/web/20040111095905/http://www.hreoc.gov.au/bth/text_versions/m
ap/history/tas.html) from the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
National Museum of Australia (http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/display?irn=60245)
List of multiple killings of Aborigines in Tasmania: 1804–1835 (http://www.massviolence.org/List-of-m
ultiple-killings-of-Aborigines-in-Tasmania-1804?cs=print) by Lyndall Ryan, 5 March 2008
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aboriginal_Tasmanians&oldid=960469019"
This page was last edited on 3 June 2020, at 04:03 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site,
you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization.

Aboriginal Tasmanians

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Aboriginal Tasmanians

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

6/12/2020 Aboriginal Tasmanians - Wikipedia

First arriving in Tasmania (then a peninsula of Australia) around

Before British colonisation of Tasmania in 1803, there were an

on Flinders Island, where diseases continued to reduce their

The complete Aboriginal Tasmanian languages have been lost;

Before European settlement

Until the 1980s, it was thought that Tasmania was only

Early European contact

Contact with sealers on the north and east coasts

After European settlement

Though many Aboriginal deaths went unrecorded, the Cape Grim

Tasmanian aboriginals and settlers mentioned in literature

Europeans killed and Aborigines captured may be considered as

Tribe Captured Shot Settlers killed Proclamation (c. 1828–30) by Sir

Resettlement of the Aboriginal population

By January 1832 a further 44 captured Aboriginals had arrived and

to continue their culture which they considered "recklessness"

Commenting in 1899 on Robinson's claims of success,

While Robinson and others were doing their best to

The Oyster Cove people attracted contemporaneous international 0:00 MENU

20th century to present

A dispute exists within the Tasmanian Aboriginal community,

Tasmanian Aboriginal nations

Estimates made of the combined population of the Aboriginal

Oyster Bay (Paredarerme)

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Peeberrangner Near Port Dalrymple[63]

Leenerrerter Pleemoommererway country by the Boobyalla River Region[64]

Pinterrairer Layrappenthe country at Mussel Roe.[65]

Trawlwoolway/Trawlwulwuy Big Musselroe to Cape Portland[64] Mt William[66]

Pyemmairrenerpairrener Piper's River.[63] Great Forester River[66]

Leenethmairrener Headwaters of the Great Musselroe River[67]

Panpekanner Between Eddystone Point and Cape Naturaliste[68]

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Boundaries of the North Midlands nation

Language of the North Midlands nation

Clans of the North Midlands nation

The Letteremairrener "Port Dalrymple" Clan

Tamar River: kunermurluker, morerutter, ponrabbel[78]

Georgetown area: Kennemerthertackenloongentare

The Panninher "Pennyroyal Creek" Clan

The Tyerrernotepanner "Stony Creek" clan

tyrrernotepanner: clan at Northern Campbell Town/Lake river/ South Fingal Valley

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Leterremairrener Port Dalrymple[63] Ben Lomond Tier in summer.[61]

Tyerrernotepanner clan group Campbell Town North Oyster Bay in winter.[61]

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

South West Coast

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Clan Territory Seasonal migration

Tasmanian Aboriginal culture

nama burag - or "the ghost of the thunderstorm"

Hunting and diet

Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace art

Modern Tasmanian Aboriginal culture

Government compensation for "Stolen Generations"

Notable Aboriginal Tasmanians

Literature and entertainment

a. Rhys Jones: 3,000–5,000, N. J. B. Plomley: 4,000–6,000, Henry Reynolds: 5,000–7,000, Colin

43. Cove 1995, pp. 25–29. 87. Casella 2002, p. 30.

30. Gammage 2008, pp. 241–254. 143. Jones 1995.