Aletheia Casey
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NO BLOOD STAINED THE WATTLE
This series uses the violence which occurred during British colonisation of Tasmania (lutruwita) as a backdrop to reflect upon the mythical telling of Australian colonial history.
The island state of Tasmania (lutruwita) was home to Indigenous Tasmanians for over 40,000 years. These societies were irrevocably shattered by the conflicts of the frontier war following the British invasion in 1803. The following conflicts and eventual war (called the Black war) which ensued was a small guerrilla war but of massive proportions for both sides of the conflict with the death per capita for Aboriginals and First Settlers alike higher than in any other war in the history of Australia (even those fought abroad).
This work focuses on the sites of violence throughout Tasmania to examine the notion of deliberate historical ‘forgetting’. The images acknowledge the conflict which occurred and uses portraits of Tasmanian Aboriginals whose bloodlines stretch back to the time of the frontier war, to reflect on injustice, loss and national silencing. The series considers how Australia’s collective national identity has been influenced and informed by a manipulated version of history.
The physical photographic films are painted with ochre and then scratched and manipulated with various tools found in Tasmania, to uncover diverse truths and perspectives of the past.
Through the overlaying of historical paintings, and scratching and re-working this series reflects the distortion and silencing of the past, and by the constant degradation of the painted ochre on the surface of the film, which is continually changing and evolving, attempts to reflect our own reckoning with the injustice of history.
Published by The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jun/22/no-blood-stained-the-wattle-a-picture-essay
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Eliza is a descendant of the Palawa people with ancestors originating from Lunawanna Alonnah (Bruny Island) which lays off the Southern tip of Tasmania.
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Hobart area, 1826. After the alleged killing of 118 colonists by Aboriginal men in the settled districts the government authorised police magistrates to treat all Aboriginal people as 'open enemies' . This is considered to be the beginning of what is known as 'The Black War' in which hundred of Indigenous Tasmanians were killed.
Link to Lyndall Ryan's research
Source: Ryan Lyndall
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David Pross is Eliza Pross's cousin and is from the same bloodline as Truganini who is known as being am ambassador for her people, and who fought for freedom from the colonisers. David’s mother was Dutch and his father was an Indigenous Tasmanian.
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Hills surrounding Liffey Falls, 1827. Settlers on a reprisal raid for the murder of a stock-keeper were reported to have killed numerous Aboriginal people at Liffey Falls.
Source: Ryan Lyndall
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Liffey Falls massacre site over-laid with a John Glover Painting.
Source: Ryan Lyndall
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Christine Walsh's great grandmother was an Aboriginal woman from mainland Tasmania however all birth records were burned in a fire. Christine's Aboriginal ancestry traces back to Fanny Cochrane Smith.
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Risdon Cove Massacre, 1804. Facts about deaths at this site are highly debated. One group claim that less than three Aboriginal people were killed during the conflict, while the majority of historians claim that over 30 Aboriginals were killed. Image is over-laid with a John Glover painting.
Source:
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Risdon Cove Massacre, 1804. Facts about deaths at this site are highly debated. Many claim that less than three Aboriginals were killed during the conflict, while the majority of historians claim that over 30 Aboriginal people were killed during the early days of colonisation.
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Matt Pross's bloodline can be traced back to both Truganini, who is known as being am ambassador for her people, and who fought for freedom from the colonisers.
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Sally Peak, 1823. Aboriginal men killed two stock-keepers in reprisal for the abduction and rape of Aboriginal women. Stock-keepers attack and kill an unknown number of Aboriginal men in retaliation.
Source: Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
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Settled Districts, Hobart area, 1828: Martial law was declared against Aboriginal clans in the Settled Districts around Hobart, and Indigenous Tasmanians were now considered 'Open enemies of the King.'
Source: Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
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Cape Grim, 1828. It is alleged that four shepherds employed by the Van Diemen’s Land Company shot dead 30 Aboriginals in retaliation for killing sheep. Official reports said that only six Aborigines were killed and then revised the number to three.
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Southern Districts of Tasmania, 1816 onwards. Kidnapping of Aboriginal Children became widespread.
The deliberate removal of Indigenous children from their families to be placed into foster care, religious care and non-indigenous families continued well into the 1970s. The survivors of this atrocity are called The Stolen Generations.
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Cate Pross's bloodline can be traced back to both Truganini from Lunawanna Alonnah (Bruny island), and Fanny Cochrane Smith.
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North of Hobart. Site of The Black Line, 1830: As a result of the on-going conflicts between New Settlers and Indigenous Tasmanians Governor Aurthur called for every British man to form a human chain to capture and kill Aboriginal clans. 'The Black Line' was the largest force ever assembled against Aborigines anywhere in Australia. Those captured were forcibly removed to a remote island around 200km from the Tasmanian mainland called Flinders Island, where many later died from influenza.
Source: Ryan Lyndall
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Peter Shine's bloodline can be traced back to Truganini.
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Bruny Island, Tasmania. The original home of Truganini. Truganini witnessed her mother being killed by whalers. Her fiancé was also killed while saving her from abduction, and in 1828, her two sisters were abducted and sold as slaves.
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Sources: Clements, N. (2014) The Black War. Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. pp 3-20Reynolds, H. (2012) A History of Tasmania. Cambridge University Press. Melbourne.Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Ryan, Lyndall; Richards, Jonathan; Debenham, Jennifer; Anders, Robert J; Pascoe, William; Brown, Mark; Price, Daniel Colonial Frontier Massacres in Eastern Australia 1788 – 1872, v1.0Newcastle: University of Newcastle, 2017, http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1340762 (accessed 30/10/2017).
