Statues and monuments: Tasmanian Aboriginal
leaders call for conversation
about history
Tasmanian Aboriginal leaders say it's time the state had a conversation about monuments and statues that memorialise and glorify colonial figures who killed and mutilated the remains of Aboriginals and oversaw policies that resulted in mass killings.
While some advocate for authorities to remove these sites, others say plaques should be added to provide full historical information of their misdeeds.
It comes as governments in the US and UK grapple with ways of responding to growing community pressure over the recognition of past figures, which has resulted in protesters removing statues.
Aboriginal leaders provided the following figures whose physical recognition, they believe, should be reviewed.
Colonel William Paterson
Colonel William Paterson led an expedition to Port Dalrymple in 1804 and was blown ashore onto Lagoon Beach at Low Head.
A week later, an Aboriginal was killed and another wounded at the site. Accounts either claim Paterson's men were approached peacefully, or the killing occurred in the context of a conflict.
Either way, Paterson's prior approach to Aboriginals in NSW has been widely documented. In 1795 he ordered officers to "drive the natives to a distance" and "in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets [wooden frames] in different places, whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung".
Imagery of Paterson is featured as part of Launceston's Paterson Street streetscape.George Town was the first European settlement in northern Tasmania, and Paterson is celebrated for this with a monument on Esplanade North. Paterson Street in Launceston is also named in his honour, and includes his imagery at various points, along with a paver in Launceston's Civic Square.
Tasmanian Aboriginal author Adam Thompson said Paterson was responsible for the killing of many Aboriginal people, but passers-by would be unaware of this. He said Paterson should not be celebrated in any way, and he advocated for the renaming of Paterson Street.
Lieutenant John Bowen
The Risdon Cove Massacre of 1804 was the first act of violence committed by Europeans against Tasmanian Aboriginal people, and the site has long been subject to historical debate.
It was the site of the first British settlement in Tasmania, established by Lieutenant John Bowen.
A large number of Mumirimina families approached the area in pursuit of kangaroos, and were fired upon. The number of deaths varies, but women and children were believed to be among the casualties. As a result, it is a site of great mourning, and Risdon Cove was handed back to the Aboriginal community in 1995.
A monument to Bowen remains at the site, and there is disagreement over the role he played in the massacre.
But because the killings were carried out by his men, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre believes the monument is inappropriate, particularly as it is located on Aboriginal land. A sign has since been placed nearby that outlines the massacre that occurred and provides more historical context.
John Batman
Grazier and explorer John Batman's problematic approach to Aboriginal issues has also been widely documented, and resulted in his honours being removed in Victoria in 2018 when the electorate of Batman was renamed Cooper.
In his own words, he admitted to shooting and killing two wounded Aboriginal prisoners he had captured near Ben Lomond. Batman also established roving parties in an attempt to round up Aboriginal people.
The paver in Launceston's Civic Square that mentions John Batman.
The Batman Bridge, which connects the Hillwood and Deviot banks of the Tamar/kanamaluka, was named in his honour. He also has a paver in Civic Square that uncritically speaks of his settlement of Melbourne and his "signing of a treaty with the resident Aborigines".
Mr Thompson said the bridge needed to be renamed.
"It could be something like kanamaluka Bridge. If there's the will to find a new name, then something suitable could definitely be thought up," he said.
"The issue is getting a community agreement, and having leadership from government to change the name. Once that happens, then the new name itself can be discussed."
"Any time is a good time. This still grinds on us a lot," he said.
Governor George Arthur
In the 1820s, violence between settlers and Aboriginal people had become commonplace in Tasmania as disputes over land continually flared up and retaliation occurred over other violent acts.
Governor George Arthur declared Aboriginal resistance fighters to be insurgents, allowing them to be detained on sight and resulting in Aboriginal people, including women and children, being shot on sight
In 1830, he initiated the Black Line military operation in which colonists formed a line across the settled districts and moved south in an attempt to corral Aboriginal people on the Tasman Peninsula where they could be rounded up.
It made conditions easier for George Augustus Robinson to round up the remaining Aboriginal people and negotiate their surrender, before the remainder were sent to Wybalenna on Flinders Island.
Mr Thompson said these sites should be renamed as a way of acknowledging the number of innocent Aboriginal deaths caused by Arthur's policies.
William Crowther
Short-lived premier William Crowther has become most widely-known for mutilating the body of William Lanne, the last full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal man, by removing his head.
The William Crowther statue in Franklin Square is regarded as the most offensive to Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Picture: Adam Holmes
Lanne's head was believed to have been sent to the University of Edinburgh. The remains were returned and reburied well over a century later.
Crowther has a large, prominent statue in Franklin Square in central Hobart. This statue has long been a source of distress for Aboriginal communities who have repeatedly raised this issue.
The inscription on the Crowther statue.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre also claims that Crowther dug up the remains of other Aboriginal people at Oyster Cove.
"Even for that time, that's just completely wrong," Mr Thompson said.
"His statue is there, memorialising him in the park, and our people have to see that every day."
St John Street government offices
Use of the term "discover" in relation to Australian sites has been raised by Aboriginal communities many times across the country.
The argument is that it reinforced the "terra nullius" view of history, in which Australia was legally considered an empty country upon British colonisation. It means that explorers "discovered" the continent, rather than it already being discovered and inhabited for tens of thousands of years.
In 1942, a plaque was installed on the government offices in St John Street, Launceston, which "commemorates the discovery of this island by Hon. Abel Tasman in the year 1642".
The plaque on the St John Street government offices in Launceston.
In 2018, City of Launceston mayor Albert van Zetten acknowledged the wording of the plaque was offensive to Aboriginal people. This was backed up by Treasury Department secretary Tony Ferrall who wrote to the council in support of the removal of the plaque.
The council was set to approve a development application for its removal before the decision was vetoed by then-Treasurer Peter Gutwein, who had his department's application withdrawn. At the time, Mr Gutwein said Tasmania needed to "acknowledge the facts of our history, not shy away or remove them".
Mr Thompson said the plaque "showed a very white view of Tasmanian history" and was "unacceptable in today's society".
Major General Lachlan Macquarie
As governor of NSW, Major General Lachlan Macquarie oversaw military operations in 1816 designed to create a sense of "terror" among Aboriginal people, resulting in the deaths of innocent men, women and children.
Macquarie Street in George Town, with the Paterson Monument in the background.
Despite requesting that his soldiers spare the innocent and offer an option of surrender, this appears to have been ignored. Macquarie did not disclose the innocent loss of life to his superiors in England.
The name "Macquarie" adorns many streets in Tasmania, including one of Hobart's main thoroughfares.
Acknowledging the past, looking to the future
Reconciliation Tasmania chief executive officer Mark Redmond said greater historical context needed to be added to many of these monuments to complete the picture, and to aid in reconciliation.
He did not advocate for the removal of these sites, however.
"We need to tell the true story, let all the facts come out. But don't take away some of that symbolism from the past because it reminds us of what happened and who was leading that terrible stuff," Mr Redmond said.
In Bristol in the UK, a statue of slave trader Edward Colson was dragged into the harbour by a crowd. It has since been retrieved, to be placed in a museum as a historical artefact of both the past and present.
Moving monuments to museums has been suggested elsewhere.
Mr Redmond said he did not support this approach.
"It allows people to digest real history out on the street for the common people. We want common people who don't go to the museum to experience some truth telling in their day-to-day lives by having plaques that tell the full story," he said.
"That's a project that the Aboriginal communities could be engaged in."
Tasmanian Aboriginal author Adam Thompson says it's time for Tasmania to reconcile its past.
The issue of statues and monuments has not been formally raised with the Tasmanian Government through Reconciliation Tasmania, which is currently working with RSL Tasmania to establish ways of recognising the Frontier Wars.
There are almost no physical memorials or statues memorialising Tasmania's Aboriginal history and significant figures.
Reconciliation Action Plans are in place in a number of Tasmanian councils to generate greater recognition of Aboriginal history.
Mr Redmond said there was still a lot of work to do.
"It's important to end the silence. We tend to forget what happened here, but it's very recent, it's very raw. There was martial law, near genocide, land was stolen, let's face up to it, and let's address anything we can to rectify this," he said.
"There is racism in the street every day, very subtle racism ... Aboriginal people are sick and tired of this."
Mr Dillon said the statues and monuments were a source of pain for Aboriginal people, and that they "represented the oppressors".
Premier Peter Gutwein says he is "not in the business of looking to rewrite history". Picture: Paul Scambler
Mr Thompson said the removal of Rolf Harris' recognition showed how easily it could be achieved, if the community could recognise how murdering Aboriginal people was wrong and that retaining these monuments was hurtful.
"We're still seeing in Tasmania a resistance to removing those statues and monuments to these notoriously bad people," he said.
"A lot of it will come down to education. The majority of people probably don't understand the bad things that these people did, they're just unaware."
When asked about whether he would reconsider his opposition to changing the plaque in St John Street, Premier Peter Gutwein said he was "not in the business of looking to rewrite history".
He said he was instead focused on future outcomes for the Aboriginal community.
"I understand the sensitivities here and I met with the Aboriginal community leaders this week, primarily Michael Mansell and then also Rodney Dillon, and discussed some of these matters with them," Mr Gutwein said.
"I can't rewrite history, but what I can do is reframe the future. That's what we want to work on.
"When speaking with both of those leaders, what's key and important to them and to me is that we get better outcomes for Aboriginal communities here in Tasmania and that's what we're going to focus on."
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