Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834 – 1905) is claimed to be the last indigenous Tasmanian Aborigine and it is claimed that with her death in 1905, the last speaker of a Tasmanian indigenous language died. “In 1899 and 1903 she recorded songs on wax cylinders: held in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, these are the only recordings ever made of Tasmanian Aboriginal song and speech.” (Clark, 1988) However, there used to be a great amount of languages being spoken on the Tasmanian island. In ‘Tasmanian Aboriginal Language: Old and New Identities’, Crowley explains that there were approximately eight, and possibly more, different languages being spoken by different native groups in Tasmania before the Europeans first arrived. (54) The central question in this essay will be: what does still remain of the Tasmanian languages? This essay will look at the ‘colonial impact’ of the European settlers on Tasmanian languages, the development of the languages under influence by the European settlers and the remains of the languages.
In the beginning of the 19th century a rapidly growing group of Europeans settled in Tasmania. The European settlers relied heavily on Aboriginal sustenance supplies such as kangaroo, used for their meat. As a result, the European settlers became the dominant group, and thereby English the dominant language. “By 1835, after three decades of conflict, the Aboriginal population had declined from about 4,000 to a couple of hundred. Severely reduced birth-rates, poor health as a result of loss of hunting grounds and introduced diseases, and murder were the main reasons for the sharp reduction in numbers. The total number of Europeans killed by Aborigines during the same period of conflict was 183.” (Clark, 1983)
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... greatly; their number declined from thousands upon European arrival, to the last native Tasmanian, Fanny Cochrane Smith, passing away in 1905. One could argue that European settlement was the main reason for the Tasmanian languages to become extinct; not only was European dominance the main reason for the decrement of Tasmanian Aborigines, it also caused the languages to merge into one pidgin that started to be the primary language spoken on Flinders Island by Tasmanian Aborigines. Fanny Smiths recordings of some native songs are the only source of a native Tasmanian language that still remains. However, her recordings are not a trustworthy source since they are not entirely in accordance with each other and because of the condition of the recordings. One could argue that European settlement was the main reason for the Tasmanian languages to become extinct.
The Australian Aborigines society is relatively well known in Western society. They have been portrayed accurately and inaccurately in media and film. Dr. Langton has attempted to disprove common myths about the infamous Australian society, as has her predecessors, the Berndt’s, and National Geographic author, Michael Finkel; I will attempt to do the same.
Ronald, M, Catherine, H, 1988, The World of the First Australians Aboriginal Traditional Life: Past and Present, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra
Then the video moves on to Australia and that this country has lost “95% of their linguistic heritage.” The video brings in Peter K. Austin a professor who has studied the aboriginal language for over 30 years. He says that 12 of the languages that he studies are no longer being spoken by native people. All of this language loss is due to the colonization of Australia. When people from distant lands started coming to Australia they brought sickness that the natives had no immune system against. Not only did sickness kill many
The Aboriginal people of Australia were here thousands of years before European settlement and we forced them to adapt to the changes of environment around them. This change might be for better or worse, but we will never find out. But with the European settlement came the birth of industry, agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, manufacture, electricity, gas and water just to name a few.
There is little said about aboriginal people in early Australian history books. What we do know is that the view of Non-Aboriginal people was very ethnocentric. The opinion was that Aboriginal was that they were savages and little regard was made for the fact that Aboriginal people had to live off this land that was now being used for agriculture. Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal relations during the nineteenth century consisted of violent disputes over the ownership of land, food and water. During this period Aboriginal children were taken from their families and used as a source of labour for European farmers. “The greatest advantage of young Aboriginal servants was that they came cheap and were never paid beyond the provision of variable quantities of food and clothing. As a result any European on or near the frontier, quite regardless of their own circumstances, could acquire and maintain a personal servant” (Arrufat 1930).
As European domination began, the way in which the European’s chose to deal with the Aborigines was through the policy of segregation. This policy included the establishment of a reserve system. The government reserves were set up to take aboriginals out of their known habitat and culture, while in turn, encouraging them to adapt the European way of life. The Aboriginal Protection Act of 1909 established strict controls for aborigines living on the reserves . In exchange for food, shelter and a little education, aborigines were subjected to the discipline of police and reserve managers. They had to follow the rules of the reserve and tolerate searchers of their homes and themselves. Their children could be taken away at any time and ‘apprenticed” out as cheap labour for Europeans. “The old ways of the Aborigines were attacked by regimented efforts to make them European” . Their identities were threatened by giving them European names and clothes, and by removing them from their tra...
Reynolds, H. (1990). With The White People: The crucial role of Aborigines in the exploration and development of Australia. Australia: Penguin Books
Major settlements occurred after the nineteenth century. The British had quickly out-numbered the Aboriginal community, leaving them powerless to the changes or the invasion. The belief systems of the Europeans overpowered the aboriginal’s way of life, pressuring them to conform to the...
Bourke, E and Edwards, B. 1994. Aboriginal Australia. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
This policy was abandoned as land was taken from the natives without thought. Captain Cook termed the Australian land terra nullius, or owned by no one, when he landed and rediscovered the continent (9:9), and that was to be the rule for centuries. Later, European convict settlements started to bring more white men to Australia. Europeans used the Aborigines to track escaped convicts and told the convicts that the Aborigines were savages and would kill them if they escaped. As a result, Aboriginal peoples started distrusting the settlers, and the settlers started to fear and dislike the Aborigines (6:1-2). The Aboriginal population shrunk from an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people throughout 500 different tribes in 1788, ...
In the late eighteenth century prior to the arrival of the first European settlers, Australia was once believed to be a terra nullius, an uninhabited “nothing land.” The European colonizers of Australia sought to make something of this land they believed they had discovered. Operating under this false notion, colonizers systematically invaded and conquered Australia, imposing their own ways onto the land and its original custodians, the Aboriginal people. The introduction of western settlements disrupted much of Aboriginal life. In a publication titled, Is it in the Blood? Australian Aboriginal Identity, author Myrna Ewart Tonkinson discusses Western imperialism and its implications on Aboriginal identity.
The first Europeans to settle Australia treated the Aboriginals in a brutal, unfair manor. They downgraded Aboriginals to a lower status as human beings. They tried to force the Aboriginals to conform to the western way of life for more than 200 years. It is only fairly recently that the Aboriginals have finally been able to gain back some of their indigenous rights and traditions.
Since the time of federation the Aboriginal people have been fighting for their rights through protests, strikes and the notorious ‘day of mourning’. However, over the last century the Australian federal government has generated policies which manage and restrained that of the Aboriginal people’s rights, citizenships and general protection. The Australian government policy that has had the most significant impact on indigenous Australians is the assimilation policy. The reasons behind this include the influences that the stolen generation has had on the indigenous Australians, their relegated rights and their entitlement to vote and the impact that the policy has had on the indigenous people of Australia.
Wheeler, B., 2013, A Companion to Australian Aboriginal Literature, Google Book, viewed: 1/03/14, URL: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=NX_2y2UD5-IC&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=traditional+language+in+%27box+the+pony%27+Leah+Purcell&source=bl&ots=VLqT-Xa5WV&sig=q6F8Rp1MHhC9TF2Ue3QSLoqECN8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Zd4NU56KL4nEkwXs1ICgAQ&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=traditional%20language%20in%20'box%20the%20pony'%20Leah%20Purcell&f=false
This is an incredible paragraph extracted from Bora Ring. This poem depicts perfectly of the European invasion of Australia. It shows how the traditions and stories are gone, how the hunting and rituals are gone and ‘lost in an alien tale’, the Europeans being the aliens. This poem also describes that it seemed as if the tradition of Aborigines was ‘breathed sleeping and forgot’. These are powerful words Judith Wright used to show how they Aborigines were quickly invaded and ‘forgotten’. This poem is an excellent example of why Australian students should study her poetry.