Truganini
Truganini | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1812 |
Died | 8 May 1876 (aged 63–64) |
Other names | Truganini, Trucanini, Trucaninny, and Lallah Rookh "Trugernanner" |
Known for | Being a full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian |
Spouse | Woorrady |
Truganini, also known as Lallah Rookh (c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an
Truganini grew up in the region around the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island. Many of her relatives were killed during the Black War[citation needed]. From 1829 she was associated with George Augustus Robinson, later an official of the colonial government of Van Diemen's Land. She accompanied him as a guide and served as an informant on Aboriginal language and culture. In 1835, Truganini and most[further explanation needed] other surviving Aboriginal Tasmanians were relocated to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait, where Robinson had established a mission. The mission proved unsuccessful, and disastrous for the Aboriginal Tasmanian people.
In 1839, Truganini, among sixteen Aboriginal Tasmanians, accompanied Robinson to the
By the 1860s, Truganini and
Name and spelling
Other spellings of her name include Trukanini,[1] Trugernanner, Trugernena, Truganina, Trugannini, Trucanini, Trucaminni,[a] and Trucaninny.[b] Truganini was also widely known by the nickname Lalla(h) Rookh.[a]
Early life
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2022) |
Truganini was born about 1812
In her youth, her people still practised their traditional culture, but it was soon disrupted by European settlement. When Lieutenant-Governor
When Truganini met
Relocations
Flinders Island
In 1830, Robinson moved Truganini and her husband, Woorrady, to Flinders Island with most of the last surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal people, numbering approximately 100. The stated aim of isolation was to save them,[citation needed] but many of the group died from influenza and other diseases. In 1838, Truganini, among sixteen Aboriginal Tasmanians, helped Robinson to establish a settlement for mainland Aboriginal people at Port Phillip.[6]
Victoria
Oral histories of Truganini report that after arriving in the new settlement of Melbourne and disengaging with Robinson, she had a child named
After about two years of living in and around Melbourne, she joined
Oyster Cove
Truganini and most[further explanation needed] of the other Tasmanian Aboriginal people were returned to Flinders Island several months later. In 1856, the few surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal people at the Flinders Island settlement, including Truganini (not all Tasmanian Aboriginal people on the island as some suggest) were moved to a settlement at Oyster Cove, south of Hobart.[10]
According to The Times newspaper, quoting a report issued by the Colonial Office, by 1861 the number of survivors at Oyster Cove was only fourteen:
...14 persons, all adults, aboriginals of Tasmania, who are the sole surviving remnant of ten tribes. Nine of these persons are women and five are men. There are among them four married couples, and four of the men and five of the women are under 45 years of age, but no children have been born to them for years. It is considered difficult to account for this... Besides these 14 persons there is a native woman who is married to a white man, and who has a son, a fine healthy-looking child...
The article, headed "Decay of Race", adds that although the survivors enjoyed generally good health and still made hunting trips to the bush during the season, after first asking "leave to go", they were now "fed, housed and clothed at public expense" and "much addicted to drinking".[11]
According to a report in The Times she later married a Tasmanian Aboriginal person, William Lanne (known as "King Billy") who died in March 1869.[a] By 1873, Truganini was the sole survivor of the Oyster Cove group, and was again moved to Hobart.
Death
She died in May 1876 and was buried at the former Female Factory at Cascades, a suburb of Hobart. Before her death, Truganini had pleaded to colonial authorities for a respectful burial, and requested that her ashes be scattered in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. She feared that her body would be mutilated for perverse scientific purposes as William Lanne's had been.[12]
Despite her wishes, within two years, her skeleton was exhumed by the
Legacy
Truganini is often incorrectly referred to as the last speaker of a
According to historian Cassandra Pybus's 2020 biography, Truganini's mythical status as the "last of her people" has overshadowed the significant roles she played in Tasmanian and Victorian history during her lifetime. Pybus states that "for nearly seven decades she lived through a psychological and cultural shift more extreme than most human imaginations could conjure; she is a hugely significant figure in Australian history".[21]
Truganini Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in her honour.[22] The suburb of Truganina in Melbourne's outer western suburbs is believed to be named after her, as she had visited the area for a short time.
Cultural depictions
Visual art
In 1835 and 1836, settler Benjamin Law created a pair of busts depicting Truganini and Woorrady in Hobart Town that have come under recent controversy.[23] In 2009, members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre protested an auction of these works by Sotheby's in Melbourne, arguing that the sculptures were racist, perpetuated false myths of Aboriginal extinction, and erased the experiences of Tasmania's remaining indigenous populations.[24] Representatives called for the busts to be returned to Tasmania and given to the Aboriginal community, and were ultimately successful in stopping the auction.[25]
Artist Edmund Joel Dicks also created a plaster bust of Truganini, which is in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.[26]
In 1997, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, England, returned Truganini's necklace and bracelet to Tasmania.
Music and literature
- "Bunna Lawrie, the founding member, sole songwriter and lead singer of the Australian Aboriginal band Coloured Stone. It appeared on their 1986 album, Human Love, which won the Best Indigenous Release at the ARIA Music Awards of 1987.[citation needed]
- Truganinni, a play about her life by Melbourne writer Bill Reid, had its premiere at the Union Theatre, University of Melbourne on 21 April 1970, directed by George Whaley and starring Jan Hamilton as Truganinni.[citation needed]
- "Truganini" is the name of a song by Midnight Oil, from their 1993 album Earth and Sun and Moon; this song spoke partly of Truganini herself but also of what Midnight Oil saw as Australia's environmental and social problems.[citation needed]
- In Mudrooroo's roman à clef Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World, one of the main characters is Trugernanna, a somewhat fictional portrayal of Truganini.[citation needed]
- A steamer called Truganini sailed in the South Seas in 1886, visiting Papua New Guinea.[27]
- A racehorse named "Truganini" ran in Britain in the early 20th century[28] and another named "Trucanini" started racing aged 2 in the 2012 season.[citation needed]
- Truganini receives explicit mention in Yuval Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.[29]
- Truganani is the name of a song by Troy Kingi, from his 2019 album Holy Colony Burning Acres.[30]
See also
- Black War
- Doctor Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the Ending of the World
- Tunnerminnerwait, leader and resistance fighter
- List of Indigenous Australian historical figures
Notes
- ^ a b c "A royal lady - Trucaminni, or Lallah Rookh, the last Tasmanian aboriginal, has died of paralysis, aged 73. She was Queen Consort to King Billy, who died in March 1871, and had been under the care of Mrs Dandridge, who was allowed £80 annually by the Government for maintenance."[2]
- ^ Colonial-era reports spell her name "Trugernanner" or "Trugernena" (in modern orthography, Trukanana or Trukanina). In 1869, the town of Truganini was established near Bendigo in Victoria. In 1870, the current spelling was first used for Truganini's name.[citation needed]
- ^ According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Louisa Briggs was probably the daughter of Doog-by-er-um-boroke, a Woiorung woman kidnapped from Port Phillip by sealers (Barwick 2005).
Citations
- ^ TAC place names n.d.
- ^ The Times, Thursday, 6 July 1876; p. 6; Issue 28674; col D
- ^ a b Ryan & Smith 1976.
- ^ Flannery 1994.
- ^ Ellis 1981, p. 3.
- ^ The Andersons of Western Port Horton & Morris
- ^ Radeska 2016.
- ^ Barwick 1985, p. 187.
- ^ The Australasian Chronicle 1842, p. 2.
- ^ Gough 2006.
- ^ The Times, issue 23848 dated Tuesday, 5 February 1861; p. 10; col A
- ^ Australian Museum.
- ^ Kühnast 2009.
- ^ Barwick 2005.
- ^ Aboriginal News 1976.
- ^ DPAC Tasmania 2011.
- ^ Barkham & Finlayson 2002.
- ^ Crowley & Thieberger 2007.
- ^ Roth 1898, pp. 451–454.
- ^ Fanny Cochrane Smith.
- ^ Pybus 2020, p. xv.
- ^ Gazette 1978, p. 14.
- ^ Hansen 2010.
- ^ ABC News 2009.
- ^ Davies 2009.
- ^ NMoA 1931.
- ^ The Times, Saturday, 24 April 1886; p. 4; Issue 31742; col E
- ^ The Times, Thursday, 22 October 1908; p. 13; issue 38784; col A
- ^ Harari 2011, pp. 310–311.
- ^ Kongfooey 2019.
Sources
- Barkham, P. & Finlayson, A. (31 May 2002). "Museum returns sacred samples". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 July 2006.
- OCLC 1011237151.
- Barwick, Laura (2005). "Briggs, Louisa (1836–1925)". ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
- ISBN 978-0-19-921370-2.
- Davies, Caroline (16 September 2009). "Aborigines demand that British Museum returns Truganini bust". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
- ISBN 0-391-02242-3.
- "Fanny Cochrane Smith". Index of Significant Tasmanian Women. Department of Premier and Cabinet (Tasmania). Archived from the original on 19 July 2010. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
She is probably best known for her cylinder recordings of Aboriginal songs, recorded in 1899, which are the only audio recordings of an indigenous Tasmanian language.
- ISBN 0-8021-3943-4.
- Gough, Julie (2006). "Oyster Cove". The Companion to Tasmanian History. Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, ISBN 0-08-029875-3.
- Hansen, David (May 2010). "Seeing Truganini" (PDF). Australian Book Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-099-59008-8.
- Kongfooey (23 July 2019). "Troy Kingi - Album Review: Holy Colony Burning Acres". MUZIC.NET.NZ. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
- Kühnast, Antje (2009). ""In the interest of science and the colony". Truganini und die Legende von den aussterbenden Rassen". In Hund, Wulf D. (ed.). Entfremdete Körper: Rassismus als Leichenschändung [Alienated Bodies: Racism and the desecration of corpses]. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. pp. 205–250. ISBN 978-3-8376-1151-9.
- "The Last Wish: Truganini's ashes scattered in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel". Aboriginal News. Vol. 3, no. 2. 1976.
- "Plaster bust of Truganini by Edmund Joel Dicks". National Museum of Australia. 1931. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
- "Port Phillip". The Australasian Chronicle. Sydney, NSW. 15 February 1842. p. 2. Retrieved 27 March 2015 – via Trove.
- ISBN 978-1-76052-922-2.
- "'Racism not art': Anger at Truganini bust auction". ABC News. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
- Radeska, Tijana (27 August 2016). "Truganini – The Last Full-Blood Speaker of a Tasmanian Language". The Vintage News. Virginia, Nebraska. Archived from the original on 29 March 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
- JSTOR 2842841.
- ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- "Schedule 'B' National Memorials Ordinance 1928–1972 Street Nomenclature List of Additional Names with Reference to Origin". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (S24) (Special (National: 1977–2012) ed.): 14. 8 February 1978 – via Trove.
- "Tasmanian Aboriginal place names". Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre. n.d. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
- "Truganini". Index of Significant Tasmanian Women. Tasmania's Department of Premier and Cabinet. October 2011. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
- "Truganini (1812?-1876)". Australian Museum. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
External links
- The Last of the Tasmanians on Wikisource
- Truganini (1812–1876) NLA Trove, People and Organisation record for Truganini
- Images of Truganini in State Library of Tasmania collection
- Alexander, Alison Truganini at Companion to Tasmanian History, University of Tasmania
- Russell, John (Essay) The Representation of Trucanini 1999. at fotoworkz freelance photographic
- (Article) Truganini's Funeral
- (Radio Feature) Truganini – Bushranger
- (Article) Truganini (1812?–1876) A life reflecting the tragic history of the first Tasmanians.