No Blood Stained the Wattle

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This photographic work uses the violent conflicts and massacres of Tasmania's colonisation to reflect on the mythical telling of Australian colonial history.

Tasmania was occupied for an estimated 40,000 years by the Tasmanian Aborigines. This exclusive habitation of the land came to a conclusion with the British invasion in 1803 when their societies were irrevocably shattered by the conflicts of the frontiers. These conflicts and the eventual 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). Within thirty years of British invasion the Tasmanian Indigenous population was almost obliterated.

This photographic series focuses on the little known massacre sites throughout Tasmania to examine the notion of deliberate historical forgetting. The work acknowledges the violence which occurred and uses portraits of Tasmanian Aboriginals whose bloodlines stretch back to the time of the conflict, to reflect on memory, national denial and loss.

The telling of Colonial history throughout Australia has told of the merit and progress of the New Settlers, who were explorers and pioneers in a new country, amid an unfriendly, harsh and hostile landscape. This narrative told of the supposed greatness of the white man in conquering a vast and untamed land and focused on progress and modernity. Throughout this dialogue the voice of Tasmanian Aborigines was silenced and the violence of the frontiers largely ignored. This mythical narrative served to reinforce stereotypes of the Aboriginal people, and was fundamental in creating a nation state which justified the actions of the past. This narrative denied the history of the original occupants of the land, created a distorted perspective of historical events, and was fundamental in creating a falsified collective memory.

Portraits of Indigenous Tasmanians throughout the series show attachment to place and belonging. The portraits and stories of Indigenous Tasmanians comment on the unalterable trajectory of bloodlines and aim to dispel the mythological understanding of ‘The Last Aborigine’. The portraits reflect on the importance of ancestry, culture and human attachment to land.

The images are photographed using a large format camera and film. The physical photographic films are painted with ochre and then scratched with various tools found in Tasmania to uncover diverse truths and perspectives of the past. Some images are over-laid with landscape paintings from the artist John Glover, who painted idyllic scenes of Tasmania at the same point in history, to show the hypocrisy of a nation's collective memory.

Through the overlaying, scratching and re-working these images reflect 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, reflect our own evolving understanding of history.

Eliza is from the same bloodline as Truganini, who is famed as being one of the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals.
Hobart area, 1826. Following 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 measure was considered by the press as a declaration of war against the Aborigines and was the beginning of what is known as 'The Black War.'

References for Captions
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Clements, N. (2014) The Black War. Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press
pp 3-20
David Pross is Eliza Pross's cousin and is from the same bloodline as Truganini who is famed as being one of the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals. David’s mother was Dutch and his father was an Indigenous Tasmanian.
Settled Districts, Hobart area, 1828: Martial law is declared against Aboriginal clans in the Settled Districts around Hobart, and Indigenous Tasmanians are now considered 'Open enemies of the King.'

References:
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Matt Pross's bloodline can be traced back to both Truganini from Bruny island, and Fanny Cochrane Smith, both considered to be two of the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals.
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.

References:
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Liffey Falls massacre site over-laid with a John Glover Painting.
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 who was the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal woman.
Bruny Island, Tasmania. The original home of Truganini, one of the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals. 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. She was consequently a freedom fighter for the rights of Aboriginal people.
Cate Pross's bloodline can be traced back to both Truganini from Bruny island, and Fanny Cochrane Smith, both considered to be two of the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals.
East Coast of Tasmania, 1829/1830.

Settler Robert Ayton wrote to the colonial secretary and said: "On this occasion not less than sixteen (Aboriginal men) were massacred and gathered into heaps and buried."
References for Captions
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Clements, N. (2014) The Black War. Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press
pp 3-20
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 slaughtered. Image is over-laid with a John Glover painting.

References:
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Risdon Cove Massacre, 1804. Facts about deaths at this site are highly debated. One group 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.
Peter Shine's bloodline can be traced back to one of the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginals: Truganini.
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.

References:
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Hills surrounding Liffey Falls, 1827. Settlers on a reprisal raid for the murder of a stock-keeper were reported to have killed 'an immense quantity' of Aboriginal people at Liffey Falls.
References:
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Sally Peak, 1823. Aboriginal men kill 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.

References:
Ryan, L. (2012) Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. pp. 110-161
Southern Districts of Tasmania, 1816 onwards. Kidnapping of Aboriginal Children becomes widespread. Government notices continue to outlaw the practice, to no avail. 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.

No Blood Stained the Wattle

No Blood Stained the Wattle

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