Tasmania is the smallest of the Australian states. It was colonised by the British in 1803. At the time, there were approximately 30,000 Indigenous Tasmanians, known as “Palawa.” By the 1870s, only a handful of Palawa had survived one of the worse genocides in recorded history. This is a presentation on genocide in Tasmania by Angela Melville, the current Scientific Director at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law. She explains the history of the physical removal of the Palawa from their land. Genocide, however, is not only a physical act, and she also discusses ways in which the colonists attempted to remove all traces of Palawa culture including language. Unfortunately, genocide has not been limited to the colonial period. Angela discusses more contemporary efforts to eliminate Indigenous culture in Australia. For instance from 1901 until 1972, Indigenous children where forcibly removed from their families, which has caused long-term harm to Indigenous communities. Sir Ronald Wilson, the author of the Stolen Children Report has said that describing the removal of children “genocide” has been an “unnecessary distraction.” However, without formal recognition of both historical and more recent genocide in Tasmania, there cannot be complete reconciliation with the Indigenous survivors.

1. Cultural Genocide in Tasmania
Angela Melville
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4. Van Dieman’s Land
• 1800 approximately 30,000 Aborigines
• 1803 Tasmania becomes a British penal
colony
• 1870 only 250 Aborigines still alive
• 1878 Trugannini dies
• One of the worse genocides in recoded
history

5. First contact
• Convicts started to clash with Aborigines
• Conflict worsened in 1818
• Aborigines did not follow “the rules of
propriety”
• Local massacres, kidnapping of children,
abduction of women
• The state warned against hostilities or
taking of children

6. Black Wars (1823-1834)
• Demarcation Proclamation
• Removal was justified as protecting
Aborigines from slaughter
• Monetary rewards for capture
• George Augustus Robinson: the
“Reconciliator”
• “Resettlement” to islands

8. Escalating violence
• “…they will be hunted down like wild
beasts and destroyed.”
• Roving parties
• Black line (although only one boy was
captured)
• Massacres

9. Massacres
“It would be a waste of time even to
condense, in the most succinct relation, all
the incidents that occurred. Narrative is
tedious by the monotony of detail, and the
events themselves were recorded by
those who witnessed them, with ominous
brevity. Such crimes were of daily
occurrence” (John West 1852)

10. Cultural removal
• Aboriginal people were not “civilised”
• Banned from using their language, or even
their own names
“I gave names to some of the aborigines [sic],
their adopted names being the most
barbarous and uncouth that can be well
imagined. The natives were highly pleased
with the changes: it was what they desired…”
(Robinson 1836)

11. Renaming
Original name 1st change 2nd change
Trowkebuner Rowlebanna Achilles
Maleteherbargener Moutehelargine Ajax
Wowwee Warwee Albert
Moomereriner Long Billy Alexander
Plerpleropa.ner Big Billy Alfred
Memerlannelargenna Charley Algernon
Woorrady Doctor Alpha
Meenerkerpackerminer Big Jemmy Alphonso
Tolelerduick Dray’s Jerry Andrew
Wetilleetyer Jemmy Arthur
Toyenroun Ben Augustus
Pendeworrewic Ben Benjamin
Tremebonener Little Jacky Buonaparte
[Not identified] Dick Christopher
Lenergwin Lenergwin Columbus
Moreerminer Big Jacky Constantine

13. Why?
• Terra Nullius
• Protection of resources
• Social Darwinism
• Myth of the “dying culture”
• Colonialism is also denial of violence

14. Extinction myth
• By 1870 only 250 Aborigines were alive
• Trugannini died in 1878
• To be an authentic Aborigine you must be
“full blooded”
• However, Palawa culture has continued
• Eg effort to reconstruct languages

16. Stolen Children
• Sir John Wilson, Bringing Them Home:
The Stolen Children Report (1997)
• 1901-1972 official policy was to remove
Aboriginal children from their families
• “Breeding out colour”
• Physical and culture assimiliation
• In Tasmania, children were removed from
1930s onwards

17. Stolen children
I kept asking, ‘When are we going to see Mum?’ And no-one told
us at this time. And I think on the third or fourth day they piled us
in the car and I said, ‘Where are we going?’ And they said, ‘We are
going to see your mother’.
But then we turned left to go to the airport and I got a bit panicky
about where we were going ... They got hold of me, you know what
I mean, and I got a little baby in my arms and they put us on the
plane. And they still told us we were going to see Mum. So I
thought she must be wherever they’re taking us.
Removal from Cape Barren Island, Tasmania, of 8 siblings in the
1960s. The children were fostered separately.

18. Child labour
• Many other Aboriginal children worked as
domestics and labourers
• Paid in food: black tea & white sugar
• Aborigines could not be paid in money

19. Homes are sought for these children
I like the little girl in centre of group, but if taken by anyone else, any of
the others would do, as long as they are strong.

20. Loss and grief
We may go home, but we cannot relive our
childhoods. We may reunite with our mothers,
fathers, sisters, brothers, aunties, uncles,
communities, but we cannot relive the 20, 30, 40
years that we spent without their love and care,
and they cannot undo the grief and mourning
they felt when we were separated from them.
We can go home to ourselves as Aboriginals,
but this does not erase the attacks inflicted on
our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, by
caretakers who thought their mission was to
eliminate us as Aboriginals.

21. Additional harm
• Loss of native title entitlements
• Compared to children raised in communities,
stolen children are less likely to:
– Have post-secondary education
– Have stable living conditions
– Be able to call on support during a crisis
– Have a sense of Aboriginal cultural identity
• Also twice as likely to be arrested and have
spent time in prison

22. “Sorry, and not sorry” (Barta 2008)
• In 2006, Tasmanian government paid
compensation
• In 2008, Australian government
apologised for past mistreatment,
especially stolen children
• Sir Ronald Wilson:
– “it was a mistake to use the word genocide”
– created an “unnecessary distraction”

23. Continuing discrimination
• Aboriginal children are still 6 times more likely to be removed from
their families than non-Aboriginal children:
– High rates of poverty
– Inadequate housing
– Intergenerational effects of previous separations
– Lack of access to support services
• Lack of recognition within the Constitution
• Average life expectancy (2011)
Man Woman
Aboriginal 67 years 73 years
Non-Aboriginal 79 years 83 years

24. References
Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet (2012) Summary of Australian Indigenous health, 2011.
http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/health-facts/summary
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner (2011). Australian Human Rights
Commission. Constitutional Reform: Creating a Nation for All of Us.
http://humanrights.gov.au/constitution/reform/constitutional_reform2011.doc
Barta, T. (2008) “Sorry, and not sorry, in Australia: how the apology to the stolen generations buried a
history of genocide” Journal of Genocide Research, 10, 2, 201-214.
Bonwick, J. (1869) The Last of the Tasmanians; or the Black War of Van Diemen’s Land (London:
Sampson Low, Son, & Marston).
McCallum, D. (2007) “Informal powers and the removal of Aboriginal children: consequences for
health and social order” International Journal of Sociology of Law, 35(1), 29-40.
Melville, A. (2006) “Mapping the wilderness: toponymic constructions of Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair
National Park, Tasmania, Australia” Cartographica 14, 3, 229-245.
Plomley, N. J. B. (1966) Friendly Mission: The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus
Robinson,1829–1834 (Hobart, Tasmania: Tasmanian Historical Research Association).
Ryan, L. (1981) The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press).
Turnbull, C. (1975) Black War: The Extermination of the Tasmanian Aborigines (Melbourne,
Australia:Lansdowne Press).
Wilson, J. (1997) Bringing Them Home: The ´Stolen Children´ National Inquiry into the Separation of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from
Their Families. Report:http://humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/index.html

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