Aboriginal warrior: Tasmanians commemorate the anniversary of Mannalargenna's death

Updated December 04, 2016 12:24:28

Photo: Mannalargenna convinced Aboriginals to leave their country and move to Flinders Island. (Supplied: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)

The life of one of Tasmania's greatest "unsung heroes", Aboriginal warrior Mannalargenna, has been celebrated 181 years after his death.

Many Tasmanian Aboriginal people can trace their lineage back to Mannalargenna, a revered warrior and clan-leader during the island state's colonial settlement.

He was also one of the key negotiators and diplomats involved in convincing Aboriginal people to leave their country and travel to Wybalenna on Flinders Island in 1834 rather than continue suffering attacks from the British settlers.

A small gathering was held to remember Mannalargenna on December 4, 2015, the 180th anniversary of his death.

Numbers of people jumped this year, and they celebrated Mannalargenna Day with traditional dancing, music and food at the Tebrakunna Visitors Centre at Little Musselroe Bay.

Photo: A girl is taught by an elder on Mannalargenna Day. (Supplied: MJ Anders and Natalie Barnes)

Tasmanian Aboriginal academic Greg Lehman said Mannalargenna Day was one of the most important developments in Tasmania's recent history.

"Unfortunately in Tasmania, people tend to have their backs to the past. If you start talking about Aboriginal people in colonial history, nobody wants to talk about it," he said.

"The reason is that it was an incredibly bloody and devastating experience for Aboriginal people in Australia - and there was no better example of that than in Tasmania, where the impact on Aboriginal people was very severe."

Mr Lehman said Mannalargenna was a complex man, and represented the strength and resolve of Aboriginal people to defend their country against invasion.

"At the same time, he also represents a willingness to try and negotiate a diplomatic solution.

"He stands for resistance and cultural strength, but also a pragmatic desire to try and work out a way to live together.

"I think that resonates right through to today, 200 years later, with the ongoing need for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people."

Mannalargenna Day event organiser Aunty Patsy Cameron, one of the warrior's direct descendants, said this year's celebration had drawn people from around Tasmania and from interstate.

The event was held in Tebrikunna country in Cape Portland in the north-east, where Mannalargenna was the leader of the Pairrebeenne clan.

"It is also the place from which our ancestors were taken into exile, and Mannalargenna was one of those ancestors in 1830," Ms Cameron said.

"It is a place from which Mannalargenna would have seen his homeland as he sailed away on those boats all that time ago.

Photo: Aunty Patsy Cameron is one of Mannalargenna's direct descendants. (Supplied: MJ Anders and Natalie Barnes)

"Mannalargenna Day is a time when we celebrate our continuing culture, our connections to Mannalargenna, and celebrate our survival."

Tasmanian Governor Kate Warner recently became the Mannalargenna Day patron, and attended the event, where she unveiled a memorial at the visitors centre.

"To be patron means to support and encourage the day  ̶   the commemoration of the passing of Mannalargenna at Wybalenna on Flinders island - and the celebration of the fact that the Aboriginal culture lives on through his daughters and their descendants," Professor Warner said.

"Mannalargenna negotiated the exchange of his sister and four daughters with [seamen] and it is through these unions that many Tasmanian Aboriginal families trace their heritage, and it is through these unions that Aboriginal culture has been kept alive. 

"It is also significant because it is the place where Mannalargenna agreed to help Englishman George Augustus Robinson [who was hired] to make contact with the remaining Aborigines after the Black Wars [in the 1820s], and encourage them to go into exile for a short time, after which they could be free to return to their own lands and be free to continue their cultural traditions."

Topics: aboriginal, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, community-and-society, tas

First posted December 04, 2016 11:28:34