ABSTRACT
Rosalie, an Aboriginal Tasmanian, was one of the grandmothers in our gathering who shared unique information about her Tasmanian community roots. We learned that Dutch navigator Abel Tasman’s arrival in 1642 brought an end to the Aboriginal Tasmanian s 12,000 years of isolation, the beginning of land wars, and the loss of unique languages and Aboriginal identity. Prior to European contact, the Tasmanian Aboriginal lived in small hearth groups consisting of approximately 11 related family members (on average). These hearth groups would join and make up a band of about 50 people, and led by a warrior-hunter. Like the Australian Aboriginals and indigenous people of New Zealand, Hawaii, and North America, the people of Tasmania are deeply connected to their land. However, confl icting understanding about the meaning of land caused rifts between the Aboriginal people and the new settlers. The arrival of European settlers in 1803, brought the fi rst massacre, in 1804, of Aboriginal Tasmanians at Risdon Cove. The struggle for land continued with the poisoning of Aboriginal people, abduction of children, and the rape of women. By 1830, the “Black Line.” a military operation that formed a
human chain across the European settled land of Tasmania, removed the last remaining Aboriginal Tasmanians. Most displaced Aboriginal people were transferred to either Oyster Cove Reserve or the Bass Strait Islands. By the 1850s, the Aboriginal community in the Bass Strait Islands sought recognition and land rights from the Tasmanian Government. By 1912, the Tasmanian Government established the Cape Barren Island Reserve Act, that returned blocks of land to the indigenous people.
