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Bark water-craft from Peron, Francois and Freycinet, Louis Claude, 'Voyages de decouvertes aux terres Australes',
Atlas, No. 4, 2nd ed., Paris, 1824
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Aboriginal residents and Framlingham Reserve 1867
on loan from Maise Clarke and family
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The story of Tasmania's Aboriginal people
The First Australians gallery tells the story of Tasmania's Aboriginal people who are not extinct and continue to maintain strong relationships to the land.
The exhibition demonstrates Tasmanian Aboriginal people's long-established hunting practices including mutton-birding. It also shows how Tasmanian Aboriginal people are active in protecting rights to land and culture.
A shattered past
Tasmanian Aboriginal people have strong links with the Tasmanian landmass, inshore waters and the surrounding islands. British colonisation shattered 10,000 years of isolation. Soon after, Tasmanian Aboriginal people were fighting for their land.
In 1830, as the conflict dragged on, Lieutenant Governor Arthur commissioned Methodist lay preacher, George Augustus Robinson, to peacefully round up any surviving Aboriginal people. About 140 people were taken to Flinders Island where most died of disease and despair.
Descendants determined to be recognised
An Indigenous community, descended from Aboriginal women and European settlers, sealers, and whalers, has grown up in rural areas and on Bass Strait islands. Today they are campaigning for recognition of their Aboriginal identity and reaffirming their links to their land.
Mutton-birding: a link to the past
Mutton-birding has been central to the preservation of the culture of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. The mutton-bird (Puffinus tenuirostris) travels from the far northern Pacific each year to nest in south-eastern Australia, particularly Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait.
Tasmanian Aboriginal people have harvested the birds for generations. During each mutton-bird season families reaffirm their identity and their connection to kin and country. Control of mutton-bird rookeries is a major part of the campaign for land rights.
An Aboriginal mission experience
My mother and grandmother hid me in the Gagun basket when the police come to take me away I was three or four yrs old, and they warmed my body with the fire so the 'bulliman' would(n't) come and take me.
Wilma Walker, 1997
Since the beginning of European colonial settlement Aboriginal people's lives have been heavily controlled by governments and Christian organisations.
For many Aboriginal people, missions, reserves, stations and children's homes became the only place they knew. Their real families became faded memories and their links to country were severed.
Assimilation: separation from family
Artist Treahna Hamm was separated from her family and adopted, together with two other Aboriginal children. She grew up in a caring environment that did not deny her Aboriginality. Her natural family came from Cummeragunja Mission on the Murray River. Her work on display in the Gallery shows Hamm's emotional response when, as an adult, she met her natural mother.
Linking up families
The Bringing Them Home Report, released in 1997, revealed to the Australian community the devastating effect on many individuals and families of the removal of Aboriginal children. Organisations like Link-Up (NSW) have been reuniting these 'stolen' Aboriginal people with their families since 1980.
There are now services like Link-Up (NSW) operating in all states and territories throughout Australia.
