Hi my name is Teangi Brown.
I am a Umpila Karntju Kuku Yalangi
Trawlwoolway Bonorong man and also the Tasmanian Aboriginal Learning
Facilitator here at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery or TMAG as you'll
hear me saying. I'm here to give you a brief overview of the ningina tunapri gallery
and to show you how you and your students can get the best out of
your self guided experience. Let's get started.
TMAG has worked with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community to
showcase 40,000 years of Aboriginal culture and heritage in this exhibition.
ningina tunapri means to share knowledge and understanding. This gallery
provides a unique and special opportunity for you and for your students to develop
a deeper appreciation of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture. When you arrive, your
experience will begin before you enter the gallery. Every visitor to TMAG is
welcomed to Aboriginal land - muwinina Country. Listen here with your group.
The language that you will hear is palawa kani, the revived Tasmanian Aboriginal
language. palawa kani is a composite language constructed from several
traditional languages spoken across Tasmania at the time of European contact.
All of the Aboriginal language used in the gallery is palawa kani. An English
translation of this Welcome to Country is here on the wall. We suggest you
frame a visit to ningina tunapri by using the layout and design of the
gallery as your guide. Each display in the gallery is an island, representing the
hundreds of islands that make up lutruwita/Tasmania and our unique island
culture. Each island display speaks to a different facet of Aboriginal culture or
history in lutruwita/Tasmania. The canoe is the first object you see and this
canoe will take you on your journey across the water from island display to
island display.
This canoe was built in 2007 by a group of pakana/Tasmanian Aboriginal men as a way to
revive the skills and knowledge of their ancestors. The bark canoe also
demonstrates the skills used to survive and thrive in lutruwita in traditional times.
For example navigation skills and the use of locally available materials.
These traditional skills were disrupted with the British Invasion of lutruwita.
Reviving these skills has been achieved through community action
and with the help of museum collections. By using this 1840s model canoe from the
TMAG collection, the makers of today were able to learn from their ancestors how
to build this important cultural object.
The traditional ways of life across lutruwita can be explored by engaging with this hut display.
This replica hut shows the type of housing that Aboriginal people on the
West Coast of lutruwita/Tasmania typically lived in for months at a time.
These displays are an opportunity for students to explore the role and purpose
of stone tools, spears, waddies and grinding stones, which helps focus
attention on hunting and gathering practices. For over 40,000 years, pakana
Aboriginal people of lutruwita have used their deep skills and knowledge of
the land to provide everything they needed to thrive. For over 2,000 generations,
knowledge of Country and tool-making skills have been passed down from elders
to children through cultural practices and ceremony.
With the invasion of their homelands, Aboriginal ways of life were forever changed.
British laws and traditions were imposed upon the land and the people of lutruwita.
lntroduced diseases such as tuberculosis and frontier violence
caused many deaths. This proclamation board was an attempt by an early
Governor of Tasmania to communicate British law to Aboriginal people.
It tried to show that harmony could be achieved if British Law was accepted and
that all would be treated equally. The reality was very different
and there was much conflict and death. This conflict - known as the Black War -
reached its peak in the 1820s. A more detailed look into this period of
Tasmania's history can be explored through visiting the "Our Land: parrawa, parrawa!
Go Away!" gallery in the Bond Store. After the Black War the surviving Aboriginal
people were exiled to the Wybalenna Mission on Flinders Island.
This showcase contains objects collected from Wybalenna.
Fanny Cochrane Smith was a descendant of
survivors of the Black War who were exiled from their homelands to the Wybalenna
Mission. Growing up on Flinders Island she was taught her family's
traditional language as well as English. You can hear her singing here in the gallery.
This important audio is the only surviving sound recording of a
traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal language and is of global significance.
They have recently been added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register.
Well-known in her day, Fanny Cochrane Smith had 11 children and now has hundreds of
descendants. This display island records a time when the outside world thought
there were no Aboriginal people in Tasmania. This flag represents how Aboriginal
people on the Bass Strait Islands built community through shared traditions and
through sports like football. During World War One, Aboriginal men from the Bass
Strait Islands fought for the British Empire and lost their lives on the
Western Front at a time when they were not considered equal. Memorial plaques
will given to all families of deceased servicemen and women. This one was given
to the Brown family. You can learn more about the Aboriginal servicemen from the
Bass Strait Islands by visiting this website.
Use this interactive timeline to explore the significant moments in the
story of contact between Tasmanian Aborigines and Europeans. Each shell on
this timeline represents a generation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. There are
over 2,000 shells. This display island showcases some of the
achievements of Tasmania's Aboriginal community since the 1960s through
protest and political action. This petroglyph, removed from its original
location, therefore destroying its story
demonstrates why the protection of Aboriginal heritage through legislation
is vital. The t-shirt highlights the ongoing debate about celebrating
Australia Day on January 26 and the legacy of invasion. This pipe, which
belonged to William Lanne can lead your students to a discussion of how
Aboriginal human remains have been treated. Responding to calls from the
Tasmanian Aboriginal community in 1976, TMAG was the first museum in
Australia to return Aboriginal human remains from collections to the
community for proper burial. TMAG continues to work with Indigenous
communities to return cultural artifacts and human remains from its collection.
This large display area at the far end of the gallery highlights significant cultural
practices in the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. These videos demonstrate
basket weaving, bull kelp water carriers, shell stringing and dance continued
within the community.
One of the most important cultural practices that continues to connect Tasmanian
Aboriginal families is mutton birding. The annual mutton birding season brings
together community members from across the state. The hard work of catching the
birds, harvesting the meat and collecting the mutton bird oil is on display here.
Younger students in particular are enthralled at the thought of collecting the chicks from their
burrows whilst being on the lookout for snakes and lizards!
The museum provides additional resources
to help you and your students get the most out of your visit. Here is the
Teacher's Backpack, free to borrow containing hands-on objects and
information - which you can preview on our website and book before coming on your
self-guided visit. There is also this Teacher's Guide: "Voices of Aboriginal Tasmania"
a PDF available from the TMAG website,
full of additional information and ideas for your self guided visit.
Prior to your visit students can preview some of the objects
on display in the ningina tunapri gallery by visiting TMAG's Shaping
Tasmania website. Look for the Shaping Tasmania logo to find these objects in
the gallery. You can book in now for a self-guided visit for your class through
our online booking form. A well-planned visit to ningina tunapri is a unique
opportunity to enable your students to think about and better understand past
and present Tasmanian Aboriginal culture.
Nothing beats experiencing the real thing! We hope that you and your students enjoy
your visit to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and that we'll see you here soon.
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