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