John Coulson’s
September 8 letter in the Examiner where he somewhat laments the return of the petroglyphs to the Aboriginal community is interesting. It is apparent that he is clinging to a 20
th Century paradigm and asserting the pre-eminence of Anglocentic Western culture and its values in 2020.
Hopefully, Tasmanians are able to imagine a world view well beyond the such narratives. This Western slant on ‘history’ is all too often found in the narratives of the colonial aftermath that is Tasmania’s unhappy inheritance.
It is now patently clear that the QVMAG never actually
‘accessioned’ the petroglyph held in its collections. There was no need to do so given that it was assumed that the
Trugannini myth was 'a truth'. Myth had it that she was the last of the
First Tasmanians when these cultural artefacts were
‘taken into the museum’ from Van Diemen’s Company land.
This being so, it turns out that the
City of Launceston’s recent ‘deaccessioning’ of these Aboriginal cultural treasures is a total fiction and something that cynically compounds Council’s unwillingness to provide access to the
“unedited accessioning documentation” – if it in fact exists or ever existed. Why might Council as the QVMAG’s default Trustees wish to smooth over the city’s histories via such Machiavellian bureaucratic manoeuvring?
Of course, these cultural treasures are the property of the descendants of the First Tasmanians. It is not drawing too long a bow to assert that the petroglyphs are
‘stolen’ and thus
‘plunder’ of a kind
– a trophy even. The
city’s mayor’s declarations about reconciliation and
‘doing the right thing’ are little more than empty rhetoric.
The Aboriginal community has every right to reclaim their cultural property and do with them as they see fit. More to the point, these petroglyphs should be returned forthwith and without the legal myth making or the charade of government approval. There is no legal principle to be upheld but there are moral and ethical judgements to be made.
Protestations such as John Coulson’s are hollow and are no longer relevant except in the writings of historians perhaps while recounting the excesses Western colonial expansion in Tasmania and in the world more widely.
Reconciliation in Tasmania might well begin with the return of what was disrespectfully, ignorantly and somewhat arrogantly removed from the place where these petroglyphs are deeply embedded in the cultural realities of Tasmania’s First People and as they have been for millennia.
One wonders what John Coulson and his ilk imagine they might do with the petroglyphs and what they imagine they might contribute to any kind of inclusive cultural discourse that cannot be achieved by the scholarship they have demonstrated neither the will nor the capacity to engage with at any level – political posturing yes, scholarship no.
Dear Albert,
Sadly, yet again you need to be called out for your appalling performance on ABC News last night all of it of course reviewable on ABC iVIEW. Your determination that the QVMAG ever ‘owned’ the petroglyphs is entirely untrue, a fiction, and that is putting the kindest possible inflection upon it.
If the QVMAG had ever asserted ‘ownership’ of the petroglyphs the institution would have needed to ‘accession them’ into the collection. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever on the public record for that ever happening albeit that it might have. That is except perhaps at some mysterious point just before they were “deaccessioned” and at that now infamous council meeting. The ink on the documentation at that time was quite likely running wet in a futile attempt to smooth over history – it might well have been wet with blood. It does you no credit to sanction and promote this nonsense.
The Aboriginal community has called you out and if you had the wherewithal you would ensure that this ‘stolen cultural material’ is packed up in the suitable crates and handed back to the Aboriginal community just as soon as that can be done – like next Monday! Whatever the circumstances, stolen property is stolen property.
Any notion that ‘government approval’ is required is just not the case and if the State Government has an issue with ‘the council’ handing Aboriginal cultural property back, let them deal with that in the courts if they dare or are so inclined.
Your position in regard to this matter diminishes all those who dare to care about these matters and are disinclined to smooth over Tasmania’s colonial histories littered as it is with ethnocide, cultural genocide, massacres, systematic genocide and all manner of diabolical behaviours Christian colonialism sanctioned. The consequences of which is the inheritance of those wanting to understand themselves as Tasmanians in 2020.
In this you do not represent people who seek justice and you seem hell bent on denying the facts in some futile attempt to rescue your reputation. That is sullied beyond redemption. For all our sakes do what needs to be done and do it now.
Sincerely,
Ray
