On several occasions Truganina was directly responsible for saving Robinson’s life. When the remnant of her people were interred on Flinders Island Truganina and her husband,Woureddy, remained with Robertson to accompany him on his next mission, the pacification of the Aborigines of Victoria.

In this mission Robertson was unsuccessful and he soon abandoned Truganina and the four other Tasmanian Aborigines who were part of Robinson’s party. After leaving Robinson the band armed themselves with guns and took to raiding and robbing settlers. In October 1841 the two men of the group murdered two whalers who they, mistakenly, thought had sexually assaulted the two women. They were all captured, the two Tasmanian men were hung and the the women sent to Flinders Island.

On Flinders Island Truganina watched as the remnants of her race dwindled away until only 44 remained. In 1848 these few were returned to Tasmania, to Oyster Cove on the D`entrecasteaux Channel, almost directly opposite the place on Bruny Island where Robinson had set up his first “mission” 20 years earlier.

In the squalid camp at Oyster Cove Truganina remained as the last of her race died around her. Eventually only she and the much younger William Laney remained. Laney died in a Hobart hotel room in 1869. When the Oyster Cove camp was eventually closed in 1874 Truganina was taken in by the Dendridge family and lived in relative comfort in Hobart for two more years until her death in May 1876.

Whilst she lived her last years in physical comfort Truganina’s mind was troubled by the approach of her death and her fear of what would become of her body for she had seen what had happened to William Laney and so many of the remnants of her race, whose bodies were dissected and preserved as specimens and sent to museums around the world.

Traditionally the Nuenonne, with most of the other Tasmanian tribes, had cremated their dead. Truganina begged of her pastor Rev. H.D. Atkinson that her body be cremated and the ashes thrown into the deepest part of the D`entrecasteaux Channel, which Atkinson promised to do however he was away on that fateful day .

On the day she died her last request was “Please don’t let them cut me up.” She was buried in the grounds of the women’s penitentiary in Degraves Street where a two feet thick concrete slab was poured over her grave to deter grave robbers however two years later the government gave permission for her grave to be opened. The Tasmanian Museum acquired her skeleton and placed it in a display case in a public area of the Museum where it remained until 1942. From then until 1976 Truganina’s skeleton was used for “scientific purposes” then in 1976 one hundred years after her death her remains were cremated and scattered in the D`entrecasteaux Channel as she had originally wished. 

Truggernana

(An Image of the Young Truganini)

by Thomas Bock circa: 1832

When searching for images of the youngTrucanini that give some feel of the woman she was before the crushing experiences of Flinders Island and the Oyster Cove camp; that give a feeling of the woman Truganini was when she was free to choose her own destiny: I find these two images of Trucanini the most powerful; both being created as a result of live sittings of the young Trucanini with the artists who created them.

The two sculptures above, of Truganini and Woureddy, were made by the Tasmanian sculptor Benjamin Law, who knew Truganina and her husband Woureddy personally. They were made in in the early 1930's, not later than 1836 when Truganini and Woureddy both went to Victoria with G.A. Robinson on his failed "mission" to pacify the Victorian Aborigines .

The painting (left) of a youngTruganini was created byThomas Bock a little earlier than the sculptures and is generally considered to be the most accurate portrayal of Truganini however I would suggest that Law's sculptures capture the spirit of Truganini more arruately than the painting by Bock. Why? Because Bock was commissioned to do a series of portraits of Tasmanian Aborigines by Lady Jane Franklin the Governor's wife. Bock also painted a portrait of Woureddy at the same time. To Bock they were simply Tasmanian Aborigines he was paid to paint whereas Law knew Truganini and Woureddy personally.

Image of the young Truganini and Woureddy: Early Tasmanian sculptures by Benjamin Law circa: 1832-34. Truganini was aged about 20.

Truganini / Trucanini

It is said Truganini had five husbands but no children. She was described as being vivacious and intelligent, sagacious in council and courageous in difficulty. A lady of Hobart who knew her in 1832 described her then as being “… exquisitely formed, with small and beautifully rounded breasts. The little dress she wore was loosely thrown around her person, but always with grace and a coquettish love of display.” 

Whilst much was written about her almost everything about Truganini and her life raises questions. When was she born? Dates range from 1803 to 1812. How was her name actually pronounced? There are probably more than a dozen spellings. Why did she so loyally and bravely assist Robinson gather up her kin? Had Robinson convinced her of the benifits that would flow to her people or did she enjoy the powerful position that association with him gave to her? These questions and more surround Truganina’s life and most will never be answered, however it is a life well worth remembering for, being born in the twighlight of her rance and living long enough to be the last, Truganini’s life is profoundly interwoven with the fate of the Tasmanian Aborigines.

What's in a name?

You  may have noticed I have used multiple spellings of Trucanini's name in the text above. There is a reason for this, the Tasmanian languages, or Palawa languages, were the languages indigenous to the island of Tasmania. Truganina's name has been rendered in many different spellings which include Truganini, Truganina, Trugernanna, Trugernanner, Trucanini, Trucaminni, and Trucaninny. There is probably no way of knowing for absolutely certain the correct pronunciation of her name however for this website I have chosen to go with the spelling "Trucanini" for this reason:

A good friend of Trucanini's was John Woodcock Graves, a noted Hobart lawyer, writer and poet. Graves reguarly met with Trucanini and, after her death went to considerable effort to ensure that her name was spelled correctly. To support his claim of knowing the correct spelling he tells;

"When dining at my house only a few months before she died, I importuned her so much about the proper pronounciation of her name that she at last grew impatient, rolled and flashed her eye and called me, right out, a fool! I dare say she was not far wrong in her estimate, but she had already replied half a dozen times, distinctly "Trucanini".

It appears that the present popular spelling of her name, that is "Truganini" is from George Augustus Robinson's manuscripts. Robinson was a bricklayer and not well educated, although he was literate he was well known for his frequent errors in spelling and grammar. Likewise Calder in his book "The Native Tribes of Tasmania" used Robinson's spelling thus perpetuating the error. On this website I use both spellings purely for the benifit of the search engines that are looking for the incorrect spelling!

According to John Graves Trucanini was named after a sea side bush that grew on Bruny Island, commonly known as salt bush (Atriplex cinerea)

Bruny Island Days

Truganina was born on Bruny Island, the place where Europeans first made contact Tasmania’s Aborigines. British and French ships regularly stopped at Adventure Bay from the early 1770's until the time of settlement in 1803. There was always some form of intercourse between the Europeans and the Nuenonne people that included exchanges of gifts, trade and general socializing. As such Truganina's people understood better than any other Aboriginal group in Tasmania the functioning of European culture and what the technologies within that culture were capable of. At the time of Truganina's birth the Nuenonne people had been interfacing with Europeans for more than a generation and were familiar with their languages and customs but still retained the integrity of their own traditions and customs. This being the case Truganina grew to adulthood between two worlds, she was fully aware of and initiated into the traditions and customs of her own people but was also well aware of the expanding European presense in her traditional tribal territory. Turganina was therefore involved in almost every aspect of the developing relationship between her people and the new comers. In fact she played a pivotal role.

Truganina’s exact year of birth is not known; some put her birth year at 1812 while others say she was born in 1803, the same year of the beginning of British settlement of Tasmania. We know for certain that her father was Mangana, one of the chiefs of the Nuenonne tribe whose territory extended from the south banks of the Derwent River down the D`entrecasteaux Channel to Port Davey. When she was only a child Truganina’s mother was stabbed to death by a European sailor, her uncle shot by a British soldier and her sister carried off as a sex slave by sealers.

In her teens she and her intended husband, Paraweena, and another tribesman were at Birches Bay where the three accepted a ride back to Bruny Island in a boat with two loggers. Half way across the D`entrecasteaux Channel the loggers attacked the two Aboriginal men and threw them overboard, when they grabbed the boat’s gunwales to try to climb back in the loggers chopped off their hands with hatchets and left them to drown, leaving Truganina at their mercy.

Shortly after seeing her betrothed killed Truganina married another Nuenonne man named Woureddy, who was an important story teller and chief in her tribe. Despite the encroachment of British settlement Woureddy, with his two wives, continued to live his traditional lifestyle on Bruny Island.

However the British government had no interest in seeing tribal people continue their traditional life styles in immediate proximity to the expanding Hobart settlement so in March 1829 the Lt. Governor advertised in the Hobart Gazette for a man  “… who will take an interest in effecting an intercourse with this unfortunate race, to reside on Bruni Island, taking charge of the provisions supplied for the use of the Natives of that place.”

The man appointed to this position, and who was to have a most profound effect on Truganina, was George Robinson, later known as the Conciliator. Robinson set up his “Mission” on Bruny Island and there tried to gather up those of the Nuenonne who he cold convince to live on handouts of free food, sugar and tea. Sedentary living and British food did not agree with the Nuenonne and soon sickness and disease took the lives of some whilst others, including Truganina, preferred the food and alcohol on offer from the whaling camps only a few kilometres up the D`entrecasteaux Channel.  The mission was shut down; however in the process a strange and lasting bond had formed between Truganina and Robinson.

After the failure of his Bruny Island Mission Robertson, who was being paid about twice what he would earn at his trade as a bricklayer, moved his operation to gather up the last of the Tasmanian Aborigines to the west and north coast by persuading  “… them that the Europeans wished only to better their conditions, …” In this persuading he relied most heavily on Truganina and her husband.

For the next six years Truganina accompanied Robertson on his mission to bring in the remnants of the Tasmanian tribes. During that time she performed many services for Robertson. She became proficient in a number of Tasmanian languages so she could act as his translator. Decked out in ribbons and bows Truganina often acted as Robinson’s “honey trap” going out in front of the main party with a couple of other native women to lure in the Aboriginal men to a place where Robinson could communicate with them.

George Augustus Robinson the Conciliator

George Augustus Robinson: The Conciliator

George Robinson was born in 1788 and learned his father's trade as a bricklayer and builder. He was largely uneducated but through his life read widely in an attempt to remedy this deficiency.

Robinson arrived in Hobart in January 1824 where he began work as a bricklayer. He soon purchased several blocks of land on Warrick St between Elizabeth and Murray Streets where he built house, one for his family and three others which he rented out. He was married with a wife and seven children.

George Robinson was a thick set man of 5 feet 7 inches height with a florid complexion and gray blues eyes. He was a religious and serious man known not to have much of a sense of humour.

J.E. Calder, Tasmania's Surveyor-general, knew Robinson well; he considered George Robinson uncommonly well-endowed with energy and perseverance, strong on common sense, but pompous and vain:

"He was more patronizing than courteous and somewhat offensively polite rather than civil." (Calder in  Ellis p.15)

The painting below is entitled "Native Hut  or Wigwam) of Adventure Bay" It was painted by Lt. George Tobin in 1792. Tobin was a member of Captain Bigh's crew aboard the Providence. It is one of very few accurate representations of the bark huts built by Bruny Island's Nuenonne people and shows the great skill with which the Nuenonne were able to use building with bark. The bark was that of the stringy bark tree Eucalyptus obliqua which is common on Bruny Island. It would have been in such a bark hut that Trucanini was born and in which the young Truganini lived with her people.

The painting of a youngTruganini, below, was  done by Benjamin Duterrau, a friend of Robinson's who painted numerous Tasmanian Aboriginal scenes, generally of a naive and technically inferior nature when compared to the work of Thomas Bock. This painting of Truganini was probably made in the late 1820's  when Truganini was quite young, about 16 to 18 years old. As you can see Duterrau was not anywhere near as accomplished an artist as Brock as the painting of Truganini is quite crude.

Another painting by Benjamin Duterrau, showing his friend Augustus Robinson in his role as the "Conciliator". Truganini is reputed to be the woman pointing towards Robinsin while bringing a "wild" native to meet him

Truganini with William Laney