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'As much as they can gorge': colonial containment and Indigenous Tasmanian mobility at Oyster Cove Aboriginal station

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posted on 2023-05-24, 05:12 authored by Kristyn HarmanKristyn Harman
In 1803, the British began to expropriate Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) principally as a repository for convicts. They did this without prior negotiation with the estimated 6,000 Aboriginal people residing there, whose ancestors’ custodianship of country dated back at least 40,000 years. As increasing numbers of free settlers arrived, the British settlements in the north and south of the island, and the pastoral frontier, expanded. Consequently, Aboriginal mobility became severely constrained. Conflict over space, mobility, bodies and resources led to sustained warfare between Aboriginal people and colonists throughout the latter half of the 1820s and the early 1830s. The Vandemonian War was ultimately resolved by the exile of Aboriginal survivors to islands in Bass Strait. This was achieved by diplomatic negotiations between Lieutenant Governor George Arthur and Kickerterpoller (known to colonists as Black Tom), and by Conciliator of Aborigines George Augustus Robinson’s ‘friendly mission’ in which Kickerterpoller was a participant.

History

Publication title

Indigenous Mobilities: Across and Beyond the Antipodes

Editors

R Standfield

Pagination

145-165

ISBN

9781760462147

Department/School

School of Humanities

Publisher

ANU Press

Place of publication

Canberra

Extent

11

Rights statement

Copyright 2018 ANU Press. Licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology

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