Trucanini: Queen or Traitor? (Aias New Series)

In this first published biography of the vivacious Aboriginal woman who lived to become famous as Queen Trucanini - the Last Tasmanian, V.R.Ellis describes the drama of Trucanini's life against the background of violence, terror and disruption imposed on the Aboriginal tribes of Tasmania by the invasion of Europeans at the beginning of the 19th century. Trucanini was born c. 1812 on Bruny Island in D'Entrecasteaux Channel south of Hobart Town; her early years were passed in a traditional tribal environment but the final years of her childhood coincided with the quickening pace of exploration, exploitation and settlement of Tasmania (Van Diemens Land) by the white man. At this time the Aboriginal people were hunted, killed and finally expelled from their island home, and when she died in 1876 Trucanini had a valid claim to be the last Tasmanian to die in her homeland (though she was survived by others living outside Tasmania). Trucanini was, in fact, never a queen; the Tasmanian Aborigines saw her, rather, as a traitor. Why? And for whom was she a queen? This book tells the tragic story. With Trucanini's death there arose a clamour in medical and scientific circles for possession of her unique skeleton, and the sordid manoeuvrings to obtain her bones are detailed here. At last, but only in 1976, following insistent Aboriginal demands, her remains were cremated and her ashes scattered in D'Entrecasteaux Channel within sight of her birthplace. The book first appeared in 1976, marking the centenary of Trucanini's death. In this new and expanded edition the author has included additional material, an account of Aboriginal land rights claims especially in the Bass Strait islands and the Oyster Cove settlement just south of Hobart, as well as a number of new illustrations depicting Trucanini and other Tasmanians of her generation. She also raises some controversial questions about the true identity of the skeleton cremated as that of Trucanini on 30 April 1976.