Personalising the History Wars

Abstract

Abstract:Warriors in the history wars' do battle over the accuracy and portrayal of Aboriginal history in Tasmania, but for the descendants of the traditional people this contested field is also the site of our families' stories. This paper juxtaposes, via the woven narrative of Woretemoeteryenner, a personal perspective against the history wars sterile dissection of official records. Woretemoeteryenner's story serves as a personalising frame for Tasmanian colonial history. Born before the beginning of European colonisation, by the end of her life fewer than 50 traditional Tasmanians remained. Her story also shines a light on the lived experiences of that small group of Aboriginal women who form the link between the traditional people and present Tasmanian Aboriginal communities. Most critically, Woretemoeteryenner's life is a personal story of a life lived through these now disputed and debated times. Personalising the History Wars: Woretemoeteryenner's StoryKeith Windschuttle chose Tasmania from 1803 to 1847 to begin his challenge to 'the credibility of the received interpretation' (2002, 3) of Aboriginal history. All queried events occurred over 160 years ago; a past era where none of those directly involved are alive or even within living memory. This is especially so in the case of the traditional peoples of Tasmania, whom Windschuttle labels criminals; their attacks on the usurpers of their traditional lands deemed robbery and murder rather than a war against dispossession (2002,(98)(99). Their descendants, our family among them, he dismisses as greedy opportunists taking advantage of misguided collective guilt to lay private claim to valuable public lands. Our respectful burial or cremation of our reclaimed stolen ancestors' remains he derides as 'vandalism' (2002, 417-423) and our Aboriginality, he declares 'invented', largely to claim more generous welfare benefits (2002,(432)(433)(434)(435)(436).While disparaging of both the past and present Aboriginal population, Windschuttle's argument is not actually about our people. What is under his intense scrutiny is how the historical record and archival materials of the time are read and analysed by contemporary historical scholars. Unpacking the intricacies of footnotes and insisting on the pre-eminence of the official record in relation to Aboriginal dispossession and deaths, he alleges that much of the previously accepted story of Aboriginal/European interactions in colonial Tasmania is, in fact, 'fabricated'.But this 'history' that is being so microscopically examined and re-examined, and subjected to claim and counter claim, is also part of our families' stories. While Windschuttle engages in lengthy analysis of the historical records, we wonder about the people themselves. We think about the anger Mannalargenna must have felt as he realised the true intentions of the sealers and the colonists, and the worthlessness of their promises. We imagine his despair when he realised that his sick and disheartened peoples were fatally outnumbered.