Cirrus@Austlit

'In his 1968 Boyer Lectures, After the Dreaming, anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner lamented that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples had been omitted from narratives of the nation’s past. Contending that this omission was ‘a structural matter’, he likened Australian history to ‘a view from a window which has been carefully placed to exclude a whole quadrant of the landscape’. He proposed that the kinds of stories which could bring Indigenous history into view for Australian readers would focus on the lives of individuals.' (Introduction)

 (Introduction)

'The task of adequately describing what we call "Aboriginal art" in Australia seems impossible. Whether through the disciplines of art history, anthro-pology, or any of the shifting fields of visual, critical, or postcolonial studies, the challenge is one of the greatest that might be conceived from within the traditions of the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, the idea of assem-bling such a multiplicity of cultural expressions from across vast and diverse historical and geographical dimensions into a coherent whole may seem even more absurd if approached through the epistemologies of Indigenous traditions. It may be argued to be more about imposition than exposition. Yet, this would appear to be the challenge that Ian McLean has set himself with Rattling Spears.' (Introduction)

'`Benjamin Duterrau and his National picture project are at the core of this publication because he was the colonial artist most interested in Tasmania's Aboriginal people, and the only artist who chose to depict, on a substantial scale, their conciliation or pacification by George Augustus Robinson', writes Tim Bonyhady and Greg Lehman in their introduction to The National Picture: The Art of Tasmania's Black War.

'The fresh research presented by Bonyhady and Lehman in this insightful new book from the National Gallery of Australia will no doubt tantalise art lovers and historians alike. It will also appeal to anyone interested in Australia's colonial past and in the ongoing interrogation of the historical record by Aboriginal artists and activists. Bonyhady and Lehman's introduction continues: `For Tasmanian Aboriginal people today, Duterrau's paintings provide a tantalising and rare visual record of the unique culture practice of their ancestors. Robinson's journals offer written descriptions of activities, such as spear-making and throwing, kangaroo hunting and ceremonial dance, accompanied by only a scattering of small, often crude sketches, which are vitally important firsthand observations'.

'This publication serves to conjure up and interrogate Tasmania's colonial past. Colonial representations of Tasmanian Aboriginal people are among the most remarkable and contentious expressions of Australian colonial art. The National Picture sheds new light on the under-examined figures in this difficult narrative: colonial artist Benjamin Duterrau, the controversial George Augustus Robinson and the Tasmanian Aboriginal people upon whose land the British settled.' (Publication summary)

'When British ships first arrived, seeking a new Paradise in what they called Van Diemen's Land, the island was already home to hundreds of Aboriginal families who called it lutruwita. But the British took little interest in Aboriginal culture. Lieutenant John Bowen, who was in charge of the first outpost at Risdon Cove in 1803, pronounced before ever seeing an Aborigine that they would not be 'of any use He thought he would be fortunate if he never saw them.'  (Introduction)

'A Tasmanian Requiem is an ambitious musical and visual conception that faces a past haunted by the terrible legacy of the Black War of Van Diemen’s Land.

'This groundbreaking collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists acknowledges the impact of frontier conflict and the strength, beauty and resilience of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture.

'Performed by Tasmania’s premiere brass ensemble, the Island Brass Quintet, with an extraordinary classical and contemporary vocal mix, A Tasmanian Requiem is at once disturbing and uplifting, a musical gift for a shared future.'  (Production summary)

'Only one seal remains with her on the rock. Unlike the dark forms that have returned to the sea, her companion is silvery white, and has fixed her in a wide-eyed, liquid gaze. She waits for a movement, when she knows that she must quickly strike. But when movement comes it is her that draws back.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In recent years there has been a small but significant explosion of writing about the history of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania and the impact of British invasion. All of it owes a profound debt to a single publication by the Tasmanian Historical Research Association in 1966, which after more than 50 years has now entered its second edition.' (Introduction)