Lutruwita is home to Palawa peoples, who have lived in the area for 40,000 years and today represent 5.4 percent of the population, as well as other First Nations communities who do not identify as Palawa, such as the Lia Pootah peoples. Across the island, less than one percent of land has been returned to First Nations communities.
Lutruwita’s history post-occupation is one of dark frontier violence, but it is also a history of steadfast resilience, resistance and survival on the part of Palawa and other First Nations peoples and their cultural heritage. The genocidal settler colonial project in Lutruwita manifested in egregious settlement policy, including being the only state to have an ‘official’ record of a declared (and deliberately downplayed) war against First Nations peoples that included bounties for those who could ‘bring in live captives’ and extensive civilian offensives. The systemic practice of dispersing or eliminating First Nations peoples under this policy had devastating impacts, with the population of Palawa people estimated at 4000 at the start of colonisation estimated to have been reduced to 139 people by 1891.
First Nations peoples in so-called Tasmania staunchly resisted the settler colonial project, employing guerilla warfare and raiding farms and houses for resources in an attempt to force the British off their lands. The continual and growing resurgence of the Palawa and Lia Pootah peoples in both population and culture (including the revival and reclamation of language, heritage sites and Country) is a powerful embodiment of First Nations resistance and survival. The current battles for recognition and protection of the ancient, and continuing, cultural heritage of Palawa and Lia Pootah peoples must be viewed through this historical lens. In particular, the inadequacy of Tasmanian cultural heritage legislation in recent decades must be understood in this context, where widespread denial of First Nations connections to Country, and even the attempted erasure of their existence in relation to sites like Kuti Kina Cave, is a direct result of two centuries of oppressive colonialism.
Lutruwita is also a region of spectacular natural beauty with tourism a key industry. One of the outcomes of the environmental battle to save the Franklin Dam in the late 1970s resulted in the World Heritage listing of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA). It is one of only three Australian World heritage sites acknowledged as significant to First Nations people – the other two being Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Parks. The TWWHA contains many sites of significance to Palawa people, including hand stencil and rock art sites. Currently about 20 percent of the State is under some form of national park or reserve status.
By its own assessment, the Tasmanian Government’s key legislative piece of cultural heritage protection in the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 1975 is the most outdated of all the states and territories in Australia.
In terms of concrete cultural heritage legislative reform, the Tasmanian Government has promised much but delivered little, with results largely stalling over the last several years. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 1975 was reviewed in 2021 by the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, which found that:
In the view of the vast majority of contributors to this review, the shortcomings of the Act are considerable and cannot be meaningfully addressed through further amendment of the current Act. There is a near consensus on the need for new, modern and contemporary Tasmanian legislation.
Further key flaws identified included:
Since then, the Tasmanian Government acknowledged the report’s findings as significant and released a further consultation paper in 2022 with proposed changes to the bill.
This was followed by the announcement of the development of a draft exposure bill in consultation with the Aboriginal Heritage Council to replace the existing legislation, however the release date has been consistently delayed. The then-Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Roger Jaensch reiterated his support for a comprehensive overhaul of the existing cultural heritage law,stating that the Government will “remain committed to introducing new, stronger Aboriginal Cultural Heritage legislation.” Jaensch also noted the current Heritage Register system was “no longer fit for purpose” but did not provide a definitive date for a new model. The new Aboriginal Affairs minister, Jacquie Petrusma, has since indicated that the draft will be released in the “first half of 2025”. It has been noted that impending Federal cultural heritage reform may be contributing to the delay.
An additional focus of the 2021 review and the upcoming draft exposure bill is updating the definition of cultural heritage to include intangible heritage such as songs, dance, language and medicinal practices alongside objects, places, sites and human remains. However, while intangible heritage is proposed to be formally placed on the newly updated Heritage register, it “will not form part of the permit or management plan approval processes” that work to protect tangible sites, with the Government previously instead referring these cases to intellectual property law. It remains to be seen what new level of protection (if any) intangible heritage will receive following the release of the overhauled legislation.
Trawtha Makuinya compromises more than 6,000 hectares of near-pristine Country adjoining the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, purchased by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in 2012 with financial assistance from the Federal Government’s Caring for Country fund. The Trawtha Makuinya Healthy Country Plan articulates a 5 year plan and Palawa vision of the future in which genuine collaboration with First Nations people is practised, identifying 7 targets or “building blocks” to achieve this vision.
These include:
Additionally, the 7th target, ‘tunupri’ – meaning to ‘know or to understand’ – acknowledges intangible cultural heritage at Trawtha Makuinya and the intimate relationship Palawa peoples hold with Country, the landscape and natural environment.
Clyde Mansell, Chairman of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, describes Trawtha Makuinya as a milestone for cultural heritage partnership in Tasmania:
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Community has never before witnessed collaboration of this nature in Tasmania. This property carries a virtually uninterrupted cultural landscape, which provides evidence of the past tracks used by our ancestors.
It is unclear whether the Plan has been extended beyond 2020.
As repositories of culture and Country, First Nations languages are deeply interconnected with cultural heritage. At the time of British colonisation, there were approximately 12 First Nations languages spoken in Lutruwita. The speaking and teaching of these languages were severely threatened through the linguicide of Australia’s settler colonial project, leading to the languages becoming ‘sleeping’. Since the 1990s, one of these languages – palawa kani – has undergone significant reconstruction, with more than 1,000 words retrieved ‘thanks to the committed work of the Aboriginal community’. This awakening of palawa kani represents a broader movement of First Nations language resurgence across the continent.
You can listen to a palawa kani playlist here.
Unless otherwise indicated the Timeline entries are sourced from Pathway to Truth- Telling and Treaty.
In 2016, a sacred site called Nirmena Nala in Timtumili Minanya (the Derwent Valley) containing hand stencil ochre art estimated to be as many as 8,000 years old was severely damaged, with vandals scratching out the rock where the stencils resided. According to the Guardian, the site is one of only 10 known stencil art sites in the state. Current penalties for cultural heritage destruction are grossly inadequate, with a theoretical conviction of vandalism in this instance only incurring a $1,500 fine. The penalties have since been upgraded to $857,000 for an individual convicted of deliberate damage and $7,850 for “lesser offences” relating to sacred sites.
Palawa peoples have consistently expressed concern over the last decade regarding poor measures to protect sacred rock art and petroglyphs. Another petroglyph site was investigated in Lutruwita’s West in 2022 after evidence of damage, including signs of the use of a “chisel or stone working tool”. Separately, a damaged petroglyph at Sundown Point was dismissed as having been damaged by weather and storm waves, a finding that was rejected by the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania.
The protection of rock art and petroglyphs in Lutruwita have a murky history, with extractive settler colonial practice often ransacking sites for use in museums and archaeological projects, and some artefacts ending up on the Black Market. In 2021 the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery acknowledged this history and issued a formal apology for “200 years of practices that we acknowledge were morally wrong”. As part of their commitment to truth-telling, the museum further outlined its role in extensive settler colonial practices of dispossession across the state.
During this time, from the very beginnings of colonisation, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery participated in practices, including the digging up and removal, the collection, and the trade of, ancestral remains of Tasmanian Aboriginal people (or respectfully, the Old People.) This was done largely in the name of racial sciences – practices of ethnography and anthropology which were racist, discriminatory, and have long been entirely discredited. These practices showed profound disrespect for Aboriginal people, their families and communities, and their vital spiritual and cultural practices.
The statement, available to read in full here, also acknowledged the museum’s disrespectful treatment of the remains of Trukanini, as well as their direct role in propagating lies about the so-called ‘extinction’ of Palawa peoples. Public acknowledgements of the extractive and violent role that settler colonial museums have had on First Nations cultural heritage are part of a broader movement toward decolonising museum and archival practice, with much of this work being led by First Nations curators and archivists across the continent. While these represent significant steps in the process of truth-telling, the ongoing legacy and trauma of these practices – particularly in tandem with the still grossly inadequate legislative protections for First Nations heritage sites – persists.
Listen / Watch / Sign petitions / Write letters to MP’s as guided.
Write to the Tasmanian Premier and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs to urge the Tasmanian government to proceed with the Recommendations of Pathway to Truth Telling and Treaty, and to make a timeline for resolution of the stalled Land Rights Return process. We suggest that in your correspondence you refer to these key principles:
Further Reading
