Aboriginal Tasmanians

by Lyndall Ryan

The extinction of the Tasmanian Aborigines has long been viewed as one of the great tragedies resulting from the British occupation of Tasmania. This book demonstrates that the Aborigines in Tasmania, although dispossessed, did not die out then or at any other period in Tasmania's history. Some eight thousand descendants remain today. In examining the myth created by nineteenth-century historians and scientists that Aborigines could not survive invasion, Lyndall Ryan investigates the nature of that invasion, Aboriginal resistance, and white Tasmanian policies towards the Aborigines after dispossession. The Aboriginal Tasmanians then follows the emergence of a new Aboriginal community outside the boundaries of white society yet denied Aboriginal identity. In this new edition, Lyndall Ryan explores the fortunes of the present day community in their quest for landrights and social justice. Tasmania was the cradle of race relations in Australia in the nineteenth century. It ret

Genres: History

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Lyndall Ryan is Professor of Australian Studies at the University of Newcastle and the author of The Aboriginal Tasmanians.

Reviews

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Ever since the nineteenth century, Australians have accepted without question that the Tasmanian
Aborigines perished in 1876 when Truganini died in Hobart.’

Forty-five years after leaving Tasmania, I am revisiting what I learned as history during the 1960s. I recently read and then reviewed ‘The Pakana Voice Tales of a War Correspondent from Lutruwita (Tasmania) 1814-1856’ by Ian Broinowski. A friend, after reading my review, asked if I’d read ‘Aboriginal Tasmanians’ by Lyndall Ryan. I hadn’t (even though it was on my reading list) and borrowed a copy from my local library. I found this book informative and interesting.

Much of what I was taught during the 1960s was predicated on the belief that only those of ‘full blood’ had a legitimate claim to be Aboriginal. And, as there were no ‘full blood’ Aboriginal Tasmanians, then there were no Aboriginal Tasmanians. Simple. But the May 1967 referendum enabled the Commonwealth government to assume new financial and policy responsibilities for Aboriginal people in Australia. And, as Ms Ryan writes:

‘The new responsibility had an immediate impact in Tasmania where the Commonwealth provided funds for Aboriginal housing in Launceston in 1968. This provision immediately raised the question: who were the Aboriginal people in Tasmania?’

It’s confronting to read the uncomfortable truths of our colonial history. To be reminded that notions of white superiority enabled both the dispossession of Aborigines and a belief that Aboriginal people could not (and did not) survive. It’s difficult to revisit ‘The Black Line’, to read of the resettlement efforts which attempted to Europeanize and Christianize Aboriginal people without regard to their own culture. I read about the sealers who, while they were instrumental in the destruction of several Aboriginal tribes on the Tasmanian north coast also (because of their economic activity) enabled some Aboriginal traditions to continue.

And as I read, I wondered about how we presume to define or identify Aboriginal people. So often we base this on skin colour (or whether they are ‘full blood’) rather than their culture, customs, languages and kinship ties.

What are we trying to achieve by denying people their Aboriginal identity? And why?
For me, reading this book is an uncomfortable starting point.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith