The most important thing to take from this book is that we need to finally put to bed the longstanding myth that the Indigenous population of trouwerner/Tasmania was completely wiped out in the 19th century. The second-most important thing is that the title is an Indigenous word for Tasmania. This magnificent book is part memoir and part history, examining both Indigenous and non-Indigenous life in our southernmost state. Flanagan is an ardent student of Tasmanian history; Aunty Patsy is a wealth of knowledge of Indigenous history and culture.
The narrative – sometimes shameful, sometimes heroic – meanders much like the longest river in the state, the South Esk. Indigenous culture gives that river three names. ‘Three’ is important. Flanagan focusses on three people: Aunty Patsy, himself, and the ex-Governor of Tasmania, Kate Warner. They also respectively represent Indigenous, convict and gentry. All three are gifted with, and bond by, curiosity and the need to absorb each other’s stories. Tourwerner’s past is related via two principal characters, Mannalargenna, bungunna (tribal leader) of the Coastal Plains people, and George Augustus Robinson, the preacher damned with good intentions.
The worst of history can’t help repeating itself. Flanagan cites the atrocities in Gaza as a catalyst for the book, being a mirror of the attempted extirpation of Tasmania’s Indigenous peoples. Aunty Patsy remembers and repeats her stories as a ‘warning to the world’. The world would benefit from listening to this quiet, graceful woman.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Aunty Patsy Cameron grew up on Flinders Island and can trace her Aboriginal heritage through her mother’s line to four Ancestral grandmothers; Pleenpereener, Wyerlooberer, Teekoolterme and Pollerelbrener. At the head of her family is Teekoolterme’s father, the revered Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway Clan leader, formidable warrior and seer, Mannalargenna.
Patsy has a Master of Arts in Tasmanian Aboriginal History and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Tasmania. She was inducted onto the Tasmanian Women’s Honour roll in 2006 and was invested with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2017 for distinguished service to Indigenous communities in Tasmania. Her first picture book, with Lisa Kennedy, was Sea Country, also published by Magabala Books.
Martin Flanagan was born in Tasmania in 1955 and graduated with a law degree in 1975. He is the author of 20 books. Among them is a biography of Aboriginal footballer Michael Long (The Short Long Book, Penguin Random House). In 2006, an adaptation of his novel The Call was staged by Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre with Indigenous actors, stage manager and choreographer.
From 1985 to 2017 he wrote for the Melbourne Age. He has written for numerous other publications both in Australia and overseas.
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