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Truganini
The haunting story of the extraordinary Aboriginal woman behind the myth of 'the last Tasmanian Aborigine'.
'At last, a book to give Truganini the proper attention she deserves.' - Gaye Sculthorpe, Curator of Oceania, The British Museum
Cassandra Pybus' ancestors told a story of an old Aboriginal woman who would wander across their farm on Bruny Island, just off the coast of south-east Tasmania, throughout the 1850s and 1860s. As a child, Cassandra didn't know this woman was Truganini, and that she was walking over the country of her clan, the Nuenonne, of whom she was the last.
The name of Truganini is vaguely familiar to most Australians as 'the last of her race'. She has become an international icon for a monumental tragedy: the extinction of the original people of Tasmania within her lifetime. For nearly seven decades she lived through a psychological and cultural shift more extreme than most human imaginations could conjure. She is a hugely significant figure in Australian history and we should know about how she lived, not simply that she died. Her life was much more than a regrettable tragedy. Now Cassandra has examined the original eyewitness accounts to write Truganini's extraordinary story.
A lively, intelligent, sensual young woman, Truganini managed to survive the devastating decade of the 1820s when the clans of south-eastern Tasmania were all but extinguished. Taken away from Bruny Island in 1830, she spent five years on a journey around Tasmania, across rugged highland and through barely penetrable forests, with the self-styled missionary George Augustus Robinson, who was collecting all the surviving people to send them into exile on Flinders Island. She managed to avoid a long incarceration on Flinders Island when Robinson took her to Victoria where she was implicated in the murder of two white men. Acquitted of murder, she was returned to Tasmania where she lived for another thirty-five years. Her story is both inspiring and heart-wrenching, and it is told in full in this book for the first time.
‘For the first time a biographer who treats her with the insight and empathy she deserves. The result is a book of unquestionable national importance.’
—Professor Henry Reynolds, University of Tasmania
'At last, a book to give Truganini the proper attention she deserves.' - Gaye Sculthorpe, Curator of Oceania, The British Museum
Cassandra Pybus' ancestors told a story of an old Aboriginal woman who would wander across their farm on Bruny Island, just off the coast of south-east Tasmania, throughout the 1850s and 1860s. As a child, Cassandra didn't know this woman was Truganini, and that she was walking over the country of her clan, the Nuenonne, of whom she was the last.
The name of Truganini is vaguely familiar to most Australians as 'the last of her race'. She has become an international icon for a monumental tragedy: the extinction of the original people of Tasmania within her lifetime. For nearly seven decades she lived through a psychological and cultural shift more extreme than most human imaginations could conjure. She is a hugely significant figure in Australian history and we should know about how she lived, not simply that she died. Her life was much more than a regrettable tragedy. Now Cassandra has examined the original eyewitness accounts to write Truganini's extraordinary story.
A lively, intelligent, sensual young woman, Truganini managed to survive the devastating decade of the 1820s when the clans of south-eastern Tasmania were all but extinguished. Taken away from Bruny Island in 1830, she spent five years on a journey around Tasmania, across rugged highland and through barely penetrable forests, with the self-styled missionary George Augustus Robinson, who was collecting all the surviving people to send them into exile on Flinders Island. She managed to avoid a long incarceration on Flinders Island when Robinson took her to Victoria where she was implicated in the murder of two white men. Acquitted of murder, she was returned to Tasmania where she lived for another thirty-five years. Her story is both inspiring and heart-wrenching, and it is told in full in this book for the first time.
‘For the first time a biographer who treats her with the insight and empathy she deserves. The result is a book of unquestionable national importance.’
—Professor Henry Reynolds, University of Tasmania
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 3, 2020
167 people are currently reading
1548 people want to read
About the author
Cassandra Pybus
18 books21 followersCassandra Pybus is ARC Professorial Fellow in the School of History and Classics at the University of Tasmania. She is the author of many books including Community of Thieves and The Devil and James McAuley, winner of the 2000 Adelaide Festival Award for non-fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
July 7, 2024
4.5 stars.
‘Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse’ is an educational but difficult read.
I have moved past defaulting to: But we were not taught this in school. We now know about the reprehensible treatment of the original people of lutruwita/Tasmania. There is no hiding from it anymore.
It seems the amount of available information to help us (meaning, us ‘whites’) acknowledge the past injustices and crimes and give the First Nations People a voice, however difficult and shameful it might be, is out there. I am pleased to start with this book.
Through her research Cassandra Pybus has achieved a very detailed chronological and uncensored account of Truganini’s life and of those around her, including leaders and warriors. The information about their different languages, culture and histories is rewarding.
This text is primarily told through the lens and writings of George Augustus Robinson, a confusing figure who played a pivotal role in ultimate fate of these people. As such, the author treads a fine line to transform it all from the words, observations and prejudices of 19th Century paternalistic colonisers like Robinson – not an easy process given the hubris of the time.
For his efforts, Robinson sought a good wage and land grants, together with the notoriety of being a self-proclaimed saviour of these people. They were his ‘guides’. They ‘assisted’ him roundup small bands of those not killed or taken by disease. The years of day-to-day trekking through bush, crossing rivers and battling the seasons to do this, was quite exhausting to read.
Eventually, those who remained were shipped off to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait – an appalling program of protection-come-cruelty that was ultimately abandoned.
Robinson appears, at first, to be philanthropic. A reader can often smell a rat, and he did indeed become that:
‘It was only too apparent to Robinson that his long-term guides were not going to fulfil the roles he had envisaged for them of an elite leadership for his civilisation program. They continued to live the way they wanted to and were stubbornly resistant to his Christian indoctrination. Try as he might – and he tried mightily – he was unable to stamp out their traditional rituals, which he knew persisted out of his sight and hearing.’
He wrote about obvious acts of defiance, acts repeated time and time again by those in history who have been invaded.
And, when Truganini and the others were no longer useful, Robinson wiped his hands of them:
‘…He could breathe a sight of relief that they were no longer his responsibility.’
How do I feel about all this? Educated, but alongside that education still remain shame and disgust.
It is important to note, this beautiful island of lutruwita/Tasmania remains unceded…
----
Cassandra Pybus dedicates this book to Lyndall Ryan, another acclaimed historian. Lyndall Ryan’s own account (Tasmanian Aborgines, A History since 1803) is high on my ‘to-read’ list.
‘Truganini: Journey Through the Apocalypse’ is an educational but difficult read.
I have moved past defaulting to: But we were not taught this in school. We now know about the reprehensible treatment of the original people of lutruwita/Tasmania. There is no hiding from it anymore.
It seems the amount of available information to help us (meaning, us ‘whites’) acknowledge the past injustices and crimes and give the First Nations People a voice, however difficult and shameful it might be, is out there. I am pleased to start with this book.
Through her research Cassandra Pybus has achieved a very detailed chronological and uncensored account of Truganini’s life and of those around her, including leaders and warriors. The information about their different languages, culture and histories is rewarding.
This text is primarily told through the lens and writings of George Augustus Robinson, a confusing figure who played a pivotal role in ultimate fate of these people. As such, the author treads a fine line to transform it all from the words, observations and prejudices of 19th Century paternalistic colonisers like Robinson – not an easy process given the hubris of the time.
For his efforts, Robinson sought a good wage and land grants, together with the notoriety of being a self-proclaimed saviour of these people. They were his ‘guides’. They ‘assisted’ him roundup small bands of those not killed or taken by disease. The years of day-to-day trekking through bush, crossing rivers and battling the seasons to do this, was quite exhausting to read.
Eventually, those who remained were shipped off to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait – an appalling program of protection-come-cruelty that was ultimately abandoned.
Robinson appears, at first, to be philanthropic. A reader can often smell a rat, and he did indeed become that:
‘It was only too apparent to Robinson that his long-term guides were not going to fulfil the roles he had envisaged for them of an elite leadership for his civilisation program. They continued to live the way they wanted to and were stubbornly resistant to his Christian indoctrination. Try as he might – and he tried mightily – he was unable to stamp out their traditional rituals, which he knew persisted out of his sight and hearing.’
He wrote about obvious acts of defiance, acts repeated time and time again by those in history who have been invaded.
And, when Truganini and the others were no longer useful, Robinson wiped his hands of them:
‘…He could breathe a sight of relief that they were no longer his responsibility.’
How do I feel about all this? Educated, but alongside that education still remain shame and disgust.
It is important to note, this beautiful island of lutruwita/Tasmania remains unceded…
----
Cassandra Pybus dedicates this book to Lyndall Ryan, another acclaimed historian. Lyndall Ryan’s own account (Tasmanian Aborgines, A History since 1803) is high on my ‘to-read’ list.
June 13, 2020
Please note this is a 3.5.
I have a few conflicting feelings regarding this book. On one hand, it’s a story that needs telling and reclaiming, but on the other, it’s a story that we only have colonial eyes to view it through, and that complicates matters. The diary being the sole source of information on Truganini’s life is a difficult thing to stomach, as it’s simply not enough about her so much as it’s about deceptions and genocidal mindsets regarding the First Nations People.
Truganini is a fascinating figure, absolutely wise beyond belief when it comes to her knowledge of the land and her capacity to run her ‘captors’ in circles was wonderful. But in terms of a focus on her, this book lacks a lot of information. We find out so little, realistically only seeing how the bounties on Indigenous people led to the complete destruction of all the Tasmanian groups, and the utter selfishness of the invaders in this equation. I wanted to get more from this, and I was still caught up in what happened, but I just wanted her own voice. Sadly, it’s not something we have any chance of getting, and so this is the next best thing.
I have a few conflicting feelings regarding this book. On one hand, it’s a story that needs telling and reclaiming, but on the other, it’s a story that we only have colonial eyes to view it through, and that complicates matters. The diary being the sole source of information on Truganini’s life is a difficult thing to stomach, as it’s simply not enough about her so much as it’s about deceptions and genocidal mindsets regarding the First Nations People.
Truganini is a fascinating figure, absolutely wise beyond belief when it comes to her knowledge of the land and her capacity to run her ‘captors’ in circles was wonderful. But in terms of a focus on her, this book lacks a lot of information. We find out so little, realistically only seeing how the bounties on Indigenous people led to the complete destruction of all the Tasmanian groups, and the utter selfishness of the invaders in this equation. I wanted to get more from this, and I was still caught up in what happened, but I just wanted her own voice. Sadly, it’s not something we have any chance of getting, and so this is the next best thing.
March 12, 2020
Inspired by her ancestors connection to the woman known as the ‘last Tasmanian Aborigine’, Truganini by Cassandra Pybus, is a stunning historical biography.
Born around 1812 on Bruny Island, Truganini survived the capture, forced relocation, attempted assimilation and sanctioned extermination of the First Nations population of Tasmania, before dying in 1876. Drawing on a number of historical sources, including personal journals, oral histories, government records, and newspaper archives, Pybus pieces together the story of Truganini’s extraordinary life.
Placed under the ‘protection’ of Christian missionary George Robinson as a teenager she was induced to behave as his emissary/guide aiding in his self-appointed task to ‘save’ the indigenous peoples, by leading them Into exile. She was to spend more than a decade with Robinson, accompanying him to ‘New Holland’, before fleeing his patronage, only to be accused of murder and be sent into exile on Flinders Island, and later Oyster Cove. Even in death she was denied self-determination, her wish to be cremated and her ashes spread over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel ignored for over a hundred years.
Honestly I have no words to communicate the deep sorrow I feel for the fate of Truganini and all of the indigenous peoples. This harrowing narrative reveals a spirited and courageous woman who suffered unimaginable losses - the annihilation of her country, her culture, her kin, and her identity. Pybus’s account is rendered with honesty and empathy, shedding light on the shameful history Australia is yet to reconcile.
Profound, poignant, and perceptive, Truganini should be required reading for all Australian’s to aid in our understanding of, and acknowledgement of, our past.
Born around 1812 on Bruny Island, Truganini survived the capture, forced relocation, attempted assimilation and sanctioned extermination of the First Nations population of Tasmania, before dying in 1876. Drawing on a number of historical sources, including personal journals, oral histories, government records, and newspaper archives, Pybus pieces together the story of Truganini’s extraordinary life.
Placed under the ‘protection’ of Christian missionary George Robinson as a teenager she was induced to behave as his emissary/guide aiding in his self-appointed task to ‘save’ the indigenous peoples, by leading them Into exile. She was to spend more than a decade with Robinson, accompanying him to ‘New Holland’, before fleeing his patronage, only to be accused of murder and be sent into exile on Flinders Island, and later Oyster Cove. Even in death she was denied self-determination, her wish to be cremated and her ashes spread over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel ignored for over a hundred years.
Honestly I have no words to communicate the deep sorrow I feel for the fate of Truganini and all of the indigenous peoples. This harrowing narrative reveals a spirited and courageous woman who suffered unimaginable losses - the annihilation of her country, her culture, her kin, and her identity. Pybus’s account is rendered with honesty and empathy, shedding light on the shameful history Australia is yet to reconcile.
Profound, poignant, and perceptive, Truganini should be required reading for all Australian’s to aid in our understanding of, and acknowledgement of, our past.
April 15, 2020
4 Stars
To Ms Pybus,
Wow oh wow!!!!
For me, the name 'Truganini' was something I had heard in passing but knew nothing about the person behind the name, until I read your book. Unfortunately Australian history is still very limited in the voices and perspectives on offer, slowly more and more are becoming available to reach and more importantly educate.
What I loved about this book was how you told a story with the facts, and not just give us the facts in a dry manner like so many non-fiction texts...it's why I normally struggle with the non-fiction texts.. Which in itself is a little funny seeing I am at uni studying history as one of my specialisations for my degree...lol all those texts are extremely dry...
While I have known some of the struggles and impacts of our First Nations People has from white colonies, Truganini's story was at so many times brutal and at times I wished there was just one normal white person who would show common sense and a heart - of course I had put it through the filter of what I know today and where humanity has developed from then to today... my heart sank many times throughout your text.
The biggest heartache was learning that they were organisations who would steal deceased Indigenous bodies for 'research', including digging up Truganini from a secret location and putting her on display for years and years... I was horrified and couldn't believe it to be...yet I remember seeing Tutankhamun's body in a Museum when I was in primary school and that was only like 15 years ago... so should I really be surprised?! I was elated to read that after years on display she was cremated and her ashes laid out at her 'country'.. that provided joy.
And thank you Allen & Unwin for a reviewer's copy in exchange for an honest review... And Thank you, Ms Pybus for unraveling another voice for all of us to hear, listen and be educated from...
I am keen to see what other voices you can uncover for us...
From a history nerd in the making,
Natty
To Ms Pybus,
Wow oh wow!!!!
For me, the name 'Truganini' was something I had heard in passing but knew nothing about the person behind the name, until I read your book. Unfortunately Australian history is still very limited in the voices and perspectives on offer, slowly more and more are becoming available to reach and more importantly educate.
What I loved about this book was how you told a story with the facts, and not just give us the facts in a dry manner like so many non-fiction texts...it's why I normally struggle with the non-fiction texts.. Which in itself is a little funny seeing I am at uni studying history as one of my specialisations for my degree...lol all those texts are extremely dry...
While I have known some of the struggles and impacts of our First Nations People has from white colonies, Truganini's story was at so many times brutal and at times I wished there was just one normal white person who would show common sense and a heart - of course I had put it through the filter of what I know today and where humanity has developed from then to today... my heart sank many times throughout your text.
The biggest heartache was learning that they were organisations who would steal deceased Indigenous bodies for 'research', including digging up Truganini from a secret location and putting her on display for years and years... I was horrified and couldn't believe it to be...yet I remember seeing Tutankhamun's body in a Museum when I was in primary school and that was only like 15 years ago... so should I really be surprised?! I was elated to read that after years on display she was cremated and her ashes laid out at her 'country'.. that provided joy.
And thank you Allen & Unwin for a reviewer's copy in exchange for an honest review... And Thank you, Ms Pybus for unraveling another voice for all of us to hear, listen and be educated from...
I am keen to see what other voices you can uncover for us...
From a history nerd in the making,
Natty
January 21, 2024
Hard to do justice to this book and the material because it can be quite confronting and with the Covid-19 concerns while I was reading it, I was not in the right frame of mind to read it and had to pause part way through.
Well worth the read, Truganini lived during a huge period of violence and upheaval, she really seemed to survive under her own terms and adjusted as best she could to those things where she had no influence. I had no idea that she had spent time in Victoria nor gone back to Tasmania from Flinders Island. Really a fascinating account with research references.
Well worth the read, Truganini lived during a huge period of violence and upheaval, she really seemed to survive under her own terms and adjusted as best she could to those things where she had no influence. I had no idea that she had spent time in Victoria nor gone back to Tasmania from Flinders Island. Really a fascinating account with research references.
April 3, 2020
‘The life of this woman, Truganini, frames the story of the dispossession and destruction of the original people of Tasmania.’
When I was a child, growing up in Tasmania, I was told that Truganini had been the last Tasmanian Aborigine. There was no discussion, then, about ‘how’ or ‘why’. Simply an assertion, presented as fact. I made it to adulthood before questioning this.
Cassandra Pybus’s family had a connection to Truganini: their land grants on Bruny Island were country that once belonged to Truganini’s Nuenonne clan. This connection has provided Ms Pybus with a source of inspiration for this book.
Truganini was born around 1812 (as we measure time) on Bruny Island. She died in 1876. And in between? How did she live? Truganini was born as part of a traditional community, which was then displaced, dispossessed and frequently diseased by British colonisers. How did Truganini survive?
In 1830, Truganini was taken from Bruny Island and then spent five years journeying around Tasmania with George Augustus Robinson, as he collected Aboriginal people for their tragic exile to Flinders Island. Robinson then took Truganini to Port Phillip, where she and four others were implicated in the murder of two white men. In 1842 acquitted of the charges, she was returned to Flinders Island. In 1847, Truganini (and forty-six others) were sent to a new settlement at Oyster Bay.
In this book, Ms Pybus draws on original eye-witness accounts, including George Robinson’s journal, to provide more detail of Truganini’s life. Imagine: a young woman, suffering from venereal disease (which had probably rendered her infertile) being used by Europeans to try to trap her own people into exile. Imagine: a young woman, losing every connection she had to people and place, being confined and required to adopt (at least some) European habits. And when she died, it took nearly one hundred years for her remains to be cremated and scattered according to her wishes.
This is a confronting read, especially for those of us descended from nineteenth century European settlers. We cannot change the past, but we can acknowledge it.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
When I was a child, growing up in Tasmania, I was told that Truganini had been the last Tasmanian Aborigine. There was no discussion, then, about ‘how’ or ‘why’. Simply an assertion, presented as fact. I made it to adulthood before questioning this.
Cassandra Pybus’s family had a connection to Truganini: their land grants on Bruny Island were country that once belonged to Truganini’s Nuenonne clan. This connection has provided Ms Pybus with a source of inspiration for this book.
Truganini was born around 1812 (as we measure time) on Bruny Island. She died in 1876. And in between? How did she live? Truganini was born as part of a traditional community, which was then displaced, dispossessed and frequently diseased by British colonisers. How did Truganini survive?
In 1830, Truganini was taken from Bruny Island and then spent five years journeying around Tasmania with George Augustus Robinson, as he collected Aboriginal people for their tragic exile to Flinders Island. Robinson then took Truganini to Port Phillip, where she and four others were implicated in the murder of two white men. In 1842 acquitted of the charges, she was returned to Flinders Island. In 1847, Truganini (and forty-six others) were sent to a new settlement at Oyster Bay.
In this book, Ms Pybus draws on original eye-witness accounts, including George Robinson’s journal, to provide more detail of Truganini’s life. Imagine: a young woman, suffering from venereal disease (which had probably rendered her infertile) being used by Europeans to try to trap her own people into exile. Imagine: a young woman, losing every connection she had to people and place, being confined and required to adopt (at least some) European habits. And when she died, it took nearly one hundred years for her remains to be cremated and scattered according to her wishes.
This is a confronting read, especially for those of us descended from nineteenth century European settlers. We cannot change the past, but we can acknowledge it.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
December 30, 2021
A fantastic book, so interesting to read. It had the little I knew about Truganini, as most Australians would, but then there was so much more, of a surprising nature. If you’re ready for the worst- invasion, suffering, rape and kidnapping, you’ll get that but I’ll leave you to find out the other side of her story. Apologies if that stops too short for you but the history reads like an unfolding revelation, I don’t want to spoil it .
The author draws on historical records of government, including lengthy and detailed accounts found in the diaries of the Aboriginal Protector, George Augustus Robinson. Pybus’s links to the area trace back to the first white people living on Truganini’s land, north Bruny Island, bringing its own complexity to her introduction and afterword.
One aspect worth getting your head around is people’s names. Aboriginal names, they are very long to my ears, and take a bit of sounding out. I’m not talking King Billy etc. They had their own lesson for me - why hadn’t I heard any of them before, why are Truganini, Pemulwuy, Bennelong among the tiny familiar few. This history is full of names, they really bring home the reality of individuals’ existence.
It’s a richly rewarding read, acknowledging our past.
The author draws on historical records of government, including lengthy and detailed accounts found in the diaries of the Aboriginal Protector, George Augustus Robinson. Pybus’s links to the area trace back to the first white people living on Truganini’s land, north Bruny Island, bringing its own complexity to her introduction and afterword.
One aspect worth getting your head around is people’s names. Aboriginal names, they are very long to my ears, and take a bit of sounding out. I’m not talking King Billy etc. They had their own lesson for me - why hadn’t I heard any of them before, why are Truganini, Pemulwuy, Bennelong among the tiny familiar few. This history is full of names, they really bring home the reality of individuals’ existence.
It’s a richly rewarding read, acknowledging our past.
July 18, 2022
A wonderfully researched and heartbreaking story of unfulfilled trust and opportunism, ‘Truganini’ is as much an imagined biography as a real one. Five stars to Cassandra Pybus for giving a voice to the the original Tasmanian people and for her balanced and sympathetic analysis of their history.
February 29, 2020
A very very sad and necessary journey to read. I love that this book attempts to tell the story of Truganini by piecing together the stories told about the men Robinson spent more time writing about. The factual narrative of the sexual exploitation of the women and the murder and destruction of the traditional owners of Tasmania somehow emphasises and makes the terror even more poignant. Pybus emphasises Truganini being a complete warrior woman who had to survive and tried to make her own decisions where she could, while still being caught in a virtual apocalypse of her known world.
Definitely a must read.
Definitely a must read.
June 28, 2020
Firstly, this book was a devestating read. As a 5th generation Tasmanian, a descendent of settlers and convicts, I grew up with a vague knowledge of Robinson and an even more vague knowledge that atrocities had occurred to the first nations peoples of Tasmania. For the 27 years I lived in Tasmania I neither knew nor saught to understand. By the time I reached the final pages of this book I was heaving with sobs for my ignorance, for the cost paid by the Tasmanian aboriginal peoples for my white privilege, for the unspoken dark histories of that island. Pybus has researched her material well, and the stories are presented methodically, convincingly, engagingly. She sticks to her sources and doesnt take liberties in the story telling that aren't hers to take. I have been greatly impacted by this book, it's turned my sense of place upside down, and I am deeply grateful that Cassandra has written it. This story needs to be heard, this book needed to be written.
However, this is NOT Truganini's story. Its a series of events, involving Truganini, and viewed through the eyes of white male settlers, and gathered into this book by a white woman not unlike me. We can imagine elements of Truganini's character, her resliiance , her strength, her generosity, but we still don't know her or her story, and I believe this is very important to ackcnowledge. All of our school taught history is written through this extremely limited viewpoint, and this has to be acknowledged if we are going to even begin to deconstruct white supremacy.
Without minimising the value of this book, i feel that use of the term 'Truganini's story', which is used in the blurb and in many book sellers reviews, is misleading and disrespectful. Will Truginini's story ever be told? Its not my place to answer this question, but the tragedy of this Island's history, the interruption and destruction of the ancient local culture, the complete disrespect for their complex, sophisticated, and wonderous way of life, means we don't already know and celebrate her and her people's way of life.
Lastly, I want to acknowledge that I am still ignorant, still learning, still unknowing. If anything I've written is offensive to the First Nations People of Tasmania, I am here, open to be corrected.
I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone who is not familar with the untold history of Tasmanian and Victorian white settlement, the details we weren't taught in school, and to those who like me, boasted of their ancestors feats without thought for the complete loss and destruction they caused.
However, this is NOT Truganini's story. Its a series of events, involving Truganini, and viewed through the eyes of white male settlers, and gathered into this book by a white woman not unlike me. We can imagine elements of Truganini's character, her resliiance , her strength, her generosity, but we still don't know her or her story, and I believe this is very important to ackcnowledge. All of our school taught history is written through this extremely limited viewpoint, and this has to be acknowledged if we are going to even begin to deconstruct white supremacy.
Without minimising the value of this book, i feel that use of the term 'Truganini's story', which is used in the blurb and in many book sellers reviews, is misleading and disrespectful. Will Truginini's story ever be told? Its not my place to answer this question, but the tragedy of this Island's history, the interruption and destruction of the ancient local culture, the complete disrespect for their complex, sophisticated, and wonderous way of life, means we don't already know and celebrate her and her people's way of life.
Lastly, I want to acknowledge that I am still ignorant, still learning, still unknowing. If anything I've written is offensive to the First Nations People of Tasmania, I am here, open to be corrected.
I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone who is not familar with the untold history of Tasmanian and Victorian white settlement, the details we weren't taught in school, and to those who like me, boasted of their ancestors feats without thought for the complete loss and destruction they caused.
May 16, 2021
"These are people whose lives were extinguished to make way for mine." And so it is for most Australians, which is why remembering and reckoning with histories such as this is an essential act.
However, as Pybus herself writes, there is no way we can imagine what Truganini truly thought or felt as she lived through a psychological and cultural shift more extreme than most human imaginations can conjure. That her voice is absent, even in this book, is a painful reflection of how callous and complete the silencing of the original people of Tasmania was.
However, as Pybus herself writes, there is no way we can imagine what Truganini truly thought or felt as she lived through a psychological and cultural shift more extreme than most human imaginations can conjure. That her voice is absent, even in this book, is a painful reflection of how callous and complete the silencing of the original people of Tasmania was.
March 21, 2021
A massive achievement, from a contemporary perspective, based largely on the records made by George Robinson. So much more than a biography, a compelling record of the destruction of a society - literally a “Journey through the apocalypse”. Very readable, well written and encompassing a pithy and clear description of the brutal reality of white Tasmania’s true foundation story.
June 17, 2020
Like many other reviewers, I too grew up with the myth of Truganini. So I was pretty excited to run across Cassandra Pybus' book at the bookshop.
Unlike many reviewers, here, however, I didn't enjoy the book. Like the one other reviewer here to give the book a low star rating, I felt uneasy about the historical scholarship in this book. This, to a certain extent, has to do with authorial voice. I understand that the needs of the general readership may have required the author to adopt an looser narrative form for this history. The problem in adopting this form is that at times its hard to differentiate between how the various characters, particularly Robinson, think of themselves, and what the author's views are. So, does Robinson think of himself as 'decent' man, or does the author? Does Robinson think of himself as 'well-intentioned' or does the author?
If it's the author who thinks of Robinson as overall decent and well-intentioned, then we have a bigger problem of how a colonizer whose ultimate, undeniable goal was his own social uplift and financial security, can be referred to in those terms? Does a man who, despite brief moments of self-reflexivity, forced Indigenous people at gunpoint to relocate, separated Indigenous children from their parents, failed to shelter them from the doom that he promised to shelter them from, and then returned to England without glance backwards, deserve any effort at rehabilitation.
I was also disappointed with the author's reversion to modern psychology to diagnose and understand the behaviour of Indigenous Australians at that time. For example, Pybus diagnoses Truganini with Stockholm syndrome (24). The problems of retrospectively applying modern terms to historical actors should be familiar to a historian. Because the fact is that we don't know why Truganini made the choices she did but even if we were to venture a guess, surely the idea that these relationships were "mutually exploitative" (that Indigenous women sold their bodies for food and other necessities) makes more sense than a modern, highly disputed psychological condition like Stockholm Syndrome; a diagnosis moreover, that eliminates Truganini's own agency. The author might benefit from watching Indigenous artist Tracey Moffat's "Nice Coloured girls."
Unlike many reviewers, here, however, I didn't enjoy the book. Like the one other reviewer here to give the book a low star rating, I felt uneasy about the historical scholarship in this book. This, to a certain extent, has to do with authorial voice. I understand that the needs of the general readership may have required the author to adopt an looser narrative form for this history. The problem in adopting this form is that at times its hard to differentiate between how the various characters, particularly Robinson, think of themselves, and what the author's views are. So, does Robinson think of himself as 'decent' man, or does the author? Does Robinson think of himself as 'well-intentioned' or does the author?
If it's the author who thinks of Robinson as overall decent and well-intentioned, then we have a bigger problem of how a colonizer whose ultimate, undeniable goal was his own social uplift and financial security, can be referred to in those terms? Does a man who, despite brief moments of self-reflexivity, forced Indigenous people at gunpoint to relocate, separated Indigenous children from their parents, failed to shelter them from the doom that he promised to shelter them from, and then returned to England without glance backwards, deserve any effort at rehabilitation.
I was also disappointed with the author's reversion to modern psychology to diagnose and understand the behaviour of Indigenous Australians at that time. For example, Pybus diagnoses Truganini with Stockholm syndrome (24). The problems of retrospectively applying modern terms to historical actors should be familiar to a historian. Because the fact is that we don't know why Truganini made the choices she did but even if we were to venture a guess, surely the idea that these relationships were "mutually exploitative" (that Indigenous women sold their bodies for food and other necessities) makes more sense than a modern, highly disputed psychological condition like Stockholm Syndrome; a diagnosis moreover, that eliminates Truganini's own agency. The author might benefit from watching Indigenous artist Tracey Moffat's "Nice Coloured girls."
March 14, 2020
I found this book exhausting to read and frequently put it down, only to pick it up again. It is heart breaking, shocking, tragic and inspiring.
Cassandtra Pybus has used eye witness accounts to put together the story of Truganini, who was the last of her race, dying in 1876. Truganini managed to survive the 1820s, when the clans of south-eastern Tasmania were all but wiped out. For five years she traveled with George Augustus Robson, who was collecting all the surviving people to send them into exile on Flinders Island.
The book well written giving you a good appreciation of what Truganini's life was like and where she lived and how she interacted with friends, family and her country. It is a deeply disturbing book, that will not be forgotten. A must read for Australians.
Cassandtra Pybus has used eye witness accounts to put together the story of Truganini, who was the last of her race, dying in 1876. Truganini managed to survive the 1820s, when the clans of south-eastern Tasmania were all but wiped out. For five years she traveled with George Augustus Robson, who was collecting all the surviving people to send them into exile on Flinders Island.
The book well written giving you a good appreciation of what Truganini's life was like and where she lived and how she interacted with friends, family and her country. It is a deeply disturbing book, that will not be forgotten. A must read for Australians.
March 24, 2020
This book is described as “heart wrenching “ on the cover and it truly is a difficult book to read but it should be read. So much to take in, for example: The arguments over the skeletons of aborigines by the Royal Society and college of surgeons in London and the lengths they would go to obtain them is outrageous.
Cassandra Pybus says it all in the afterword:
“the deeper truth is every Australian who is not a member of the First Nations is a beneficiary of stolen country, brutal dispossession, institutionalised racial discrimination and callous indifference. The expropriation of the territory of a generous people, and the devastating frontier war and dispersal that followed, is Australia’s true foundation story, not the voyage of Captain Cook or the arrival of the First Fleet.”
Cassandra Pybus says it all in the afterword:
“the deeper truth is every Australian who is not a member of the First Nations is a beneficiary of stolen country, brutal dispossession, institutionalised racial discrimination and callous indifference. The expropriation of the territory of a generous people, and the devastating frontier war and dispersal that followed, is Australia’s true foundation story, not the voyage of Captain Cook or the arrival of the First Fleet.”
March 20, 2021
This might have escaped my notice had it not been our March online discussion book. I was also able to hear Cassandra Pybus at Adelaide Writers Week. She was in conversation with Ian Anderson, an academic and public servant of Indigenous Tasmanian heritage. There is a sense that in writing this book, the historian Pybus is making reparation for her own family’s past as it was her forebears who were given the largest land grant on Tasmania’s Bruny Island, Truganini’s traditional country.
When I was at school in the 1950s I knew Truganini as ‘the last Tasmanian Aborigine’ and I even saw the cast of her skeleton in the Melbourne Museum, something that would be unthinkable now. However, it is only in the last year that the Museum of Tasmania and its Royal Society have made a formal apology for the way that exhibits from their Aboriginal past were once displayed.
Reading Truganini reminds us of the atrocities that took place in the early days of colonisation, when it was thought that it was possible to exterminate a race or at least move its remnants (decimated by dispossession of their land, rape and capture of women by whalers and by European disease) to a place remote from the new settlers - in this case, Flinders Island. Truganini, her husband and some other members of her clan were saved from this fate by being put under the protection of George Augustus Robinson. It is through Robinson’s extensive journals (1820-1840) that we know most of what we do about Truganini and her clan. Although Robinson was more humane than many of his time, he was a paternalistic missionary who believed that the culture of the Indigenous peoples had to be extirpated in order for them to become ‘civilised’ and their souls saved through Christianity.
As with all non-fiction, I sometimes became bogged down in the factual detail, but I’m glad that I persevered. I learned a great deal and felt once again the enormity of the loss suffered by Australia’s Indigenous peoples. I was amazed at the extent of the travels Robinson and his local guides undertook into Tasmania’s wilderness and surprised to learn that he also took Truganini and others to the mainland, to the fledgling settlement that later became Melbourne. It was there that Robinson showed that his own interests and advancement were always more important than any consideration for the people under his care.
Pybus has said that she wanted to challenge the view that Truganini was a tragic victim. Instead she shows Truganini as a resilient woman, negotiating and surviving apocalyptic change. When she was around 30, Truganini again lived within sight of her beloved Bruny Island. She was able to cross there and in the area where there was no white settlement, take off her long sack dress, walk about naked and wade into the water to harvest shellfish as her ancestors had done for millennia. This is a joyful moment to set against the overwhelming loss, pain and grief that permeates so much of this corrective history. Truganini survived into her 70s, a remarkable woman - and certainly not ‘the last Tasmanian Aborigine’.
When I was at school in the 1950s I knew Truganini as ‘the last Tasmanian Aborigine’ and I even saw the cast of her skeleton in the Melbourne Museum, something that would be unthinkable now. However, it is only in the last year that the Museum of Tasmania and its Royal Society have made a formal apology for the way that exhibits from their Aboriginal past were once displayed.
Reading Truganini reminds us of the atrocities that took place in the early days of colonisation, when it was thought that it was possible to exterminate a race or at least move its remnants (decimated by dispossession of their land, rape and capture of women by whalers and by European disease) to a place remote from the new settlers - in this case, Flinders Island. Truganini, her husband and some other members of her clan were saved from this fate by being put under the protection of George Augustus Robinson. It is through Robinson’s extensive journals (1820-1840) that we know most of what we do about Truganini and her clan. Although Robinson was more humane than many of his time, he was a paternalistic missionary who believed that the culture of the Indigenous peoples had to be extirpated in order for them to become ‘civilised’ and their souls saved through Christianity.
As with all non-fiction, I sometimes became bogged down in the factual detail, but I’m glad that I persevered. I learned a great deal and felt once again the enormity of the loss suffered by Australia’s Indigenous peoples. I was amazed at the extent of the travels Robinson and his local guides undertook into Tasmania’s wilderness and surprised to learn that he also took Truganini and others to the mainland, to the fledgling settlement that later became Melbourne. It was there that Robinson showed that his own interests and advancement were always more important than any consideration for the people under his care.
Pybus has said that she wanted to challenge the view that Truganini was a tragic victim. Instead she shows Truganini as a resilient woman, negotiating and surviving apocalyptic change. When she was around 30, Truganini again lived within sight of her beloved Bruny Island. She was able to cross there and in the area where there was no white settlement, take off her long sack dress, walk about naked and wade into the water to harvest shellfish as her ancestors had done for millennia. This is a joyful moment to set against the overwhelming loss, pain and grief that permeates so much of this corrective history. Truganini survived into her 70s, a remarkable woman - and certainly not ‘the last Tasmanian Aborigine’.
September 29, 2020
The story of Truganini and other Aborigines of Tasmania is a very moving one. It is always sobering to read about what occurred in those times, when the first settlers arrived and proceeded to take from and almost completely eradicate the very first Australians. I did find the writing a bit too clinical and stilted and at times repetitive. More like a list of events rather than a telling of a story and experience. This may have been due to the fact that I was reading an arc and I may have been slightly distracted or put off by some of the errors in the writing. Perhaps something the final, edited version will rectify. Also missing from this copy were the maps and photographs that would have made it a more well rounded read. Nevertheless the main story has now been told and we can see Truganini's and her people's struggles and treatment. The author certainly was very thorough in her research into the lives of all the main players in this devastating time in our history.
June 4, 2025
I read this book straight after finishing Jock Serong's The Settlement, endeavouring to uncover any fact from fiction in his account of this period in Tasmania's history. I was surprised to discover that some of what I thought were untruths were described by Pybus to be true. This included Robinson's salvaging and sending bones to England for Scientific purposes and rumours of his affair with the storekeeper's wife, contradicting his religious and pious beliefs.
Pybus blends history with storytelling. She helps us to see Truganini as a real, feeling person, not just a victim or symbol. In doing so she emulates the manner in which Aboriginal people recount history. The lack of footnotes may frustrate some, but the references listed at the back of the book and her scholarly reputation reassure the reader that her work is grounded in careful research.
One challenge I found was that much of the book appeared focused on George Augustus Robinson. This is understandable as much of the recorded information about this time comes from his journals. For Pybus to invent Truganini's voice more deeply, it would take away the authenticity of the story.
Importantly, Pybus did not overly sentimentalise Truganini and other First Nations People. She portrays them truthfully including their flaws. Similarly, she shows some new settlers in a nuanced light. Robinson, for instance, is depicted grieving after a massacre and at times showing genuine care, even as he later broke promises and abandoned those he once called "his family." Pybus mentions the Chief Justice of the time opposed the Flinders Island idea, saying that the people would 'pine away and die' and that he would prefer a protected area on the main island. How right he was!
So much was stolen from the Aboriginal Tasmanians - not only their land, but their freedom, language, culture and lives. For instance, when in Hobart, Truganini was not allowed to swim in the river, a practice once central to her life. Many people died without burial or ceremony. Native names were taken from many and replaced with Christian ones, such as 'King William.' Many were kidnapped by sealers, massacred by settlers and suffered to the fate of diseases they had limited immunity to.
It's a harrowing read, but one that must be read by all Tasmanians - and Australians more broadly. We must never forget this history and must continue to listen and support the Tasmanian Aboriginal people in practising their culture and telling their own stories.
August 22, 2020
The true history of Australia is not as peaceful as we once learnt about in school. The first peoples of Australia were taken from their lands, abused, deceived and often murdered at the hands of European settlers. As a white Australian, I benefit from this horrific legacy and I believe it is my duty to, at the very least, educate myself on the truth of what occurred. This book attempts to pick apart the colonial mindset of the European journal writers (of those who had direct and regular contact with the Aboriginal people of Tasmania) in order to find the kernels of truth about the life of Truganini and her contemporaries. It is truly an eye-opening read.
Cassandra Pybus, the author, is descended from one of the European settlers who was granted some of the lands of Truganini. She grew up unknowingly playing in the areas where Truganini walked, and her growing understanding of her family's place in Tasmania's dark history seems to have compelled her forward in her quest to discover the true Truganini in the pages of history. She has written a readable account that does not gloss over the horrific events or shortcomings of the colonial settlers (though it must be acknowledged that her treatment of her own ancestors in the pages of this book has a decidedly more rosy feel than her treatment of other Europeans). Recommended reading.
Cassandra Pybus, the author, is descended from one of the European settlers who was granted some of the lands of Truganini. She grew up unknowingly playing in the areas where Truganini walked, and her growing understanding of her family's place in Tasmania's dark history seems to have compelled her forward in her quest to discover the true Truganini in the pages of history. She has written a readable account that does not gloss over the horrific events or shortcomings of the colonial settlers (though it must be acknowledged that her treatment of her own ancestors in the pages of this book has a decidedly more rosy feel than her treatment of other Europeans). Recommended reading.
May 14, 2020
This is an important book for Australians to read. It brings to life the appalling slaughter of indigenous people in Tasmania in the early days of colonisation, shining a light in the very dark corners of our history.
Aspects of the writing frustrated me - but it provided the basis for a strong bookclub discussion.
Aspects of the writing frustrated me - but it provided the basis for a strong bookclub discussion.
June 4, 2020
Truganini: Journey through the apocalypse is an extraordinary read.
Cassandra Pybus has compiled a thorough and very personal history of Truganini's life and times. I say personal, because what gives this book that little extra something special is Pybus' relationship to Truganini. As she says in her Preface, the 'rapid dispossession (of the original people of Tasmania), and its terrible aftermath, is the foundation narrative of my family.'
This book has been a 30 year labour of love for Pybus, as she has searched for the right way to tell this story. Feeling very conscious about not speaking for someone who left behind no letters, diaries or direct speech of her own, Pybus chose to only use documents that contained first hand accounts from people who had actually met Truganini, 'people who saw and heard her with their own eyes and ears, then - ideally - made a contemporaneous record of it.'
Pybus was also conscious that most of these first hand accounts about Truganini, were written by men, 'pompous, blinkered, acquisitive, self-aggrandising men who controlled and directed the context of what they described.' She was determined to find the 'woman behind the myth.'
One of those pompous, blinkered, acquisitive, self-aggrandising men was George Augustus Robinson (1791-1866). His Australian Dictionary of Biography claims that he was a protector of Aborigines, however his diaries reveal a man far more self-interested and self-serving than this generous sounding title would imply.
Richard Pybus and his wife (Cassandra's ancestors) arrived in Australia in 1829 and were given a 'massive swathe of North Bruny Island, an unencumbered free land grant, even while Truganini and her family were still living there.' Their other (white) neighbour on this island, Nuenonne land, was George Robinson.
This is where we first meet a young Truganini - in the journals, letters and notes made by the Harrison - at home on Bruny Island with her family.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like for people of Truganini's generation. To have been born into one world - a safe, familiar, world where you knew you belonged - but then to grow up in another - with alien rules and expectations, even while still living on your own country. To have the certainty of your birth right taken from you, subjected to judgement and harsh treatment and to be denied the solace of your own way of life A way of life now seen as inferior, if not completely denigrated and despised.
Robinson's diaries document this rapidly changing world for Truganini and her family. Whalers stealing the young girls and women, having to barter for goods (often with their bodies), the life-long effects of syphilis and other venereal diseases, dressing up in European clothes to impress governors, Christian leaders and journalists only to run off naked back to their home land, what was left of it...that is, until the influenza virus of 1829.
After the flu virus had ravaged the island, Robinson in his diary said,
only fourteen Nuenonne remained to receive the benefit of his proselytising. These traumatisied survivors were slashing their faces and bodies in grief, in no state to heed his Christian platitudes.
Naturally, Truganini's story is bound up with Robinson's story. He seemed to have taken on a fatherly role in her life. She also seemed to realise that by sticking by him, she was guaranteed a safer passage through this fast-changing world. So when Robinson left Bruny Island to take on a missionary role tracking remote clans on the west coast of Tasmania so he could bring them 'under his protection'. Truganini joined him, little realising that she would never live on Bruny Island, her home country, again.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/...
Cassandra Pybus has compiled a thorough and very personal history of Truganini's life and times. I say personal, because what gives this book that little extra something special is Pybus' relationship to Truganini. As she says in her Preface, the 'rapid dispossession (of the original people of Tasmania), and its terrible aftermath, is the foundation narrative of my family.'
This book has been a 30 year labour of love for Pybus, as she has searched for the right way to tell this story. Feeling very conscious about not speaking for someone who left behind no letters, diaries or direct speech of her own, Pybus chose to only use documents that contained first hand accounts from people who had actually met Truganini, 'people who saw and heard her with their own eyes and ears, then - ideally - made a contemporaneous record of it.'
Pybus was also conscious that most of these first hand accounts about Truganini, were written by men, 'pompous, blinkered, acquisitive, self-aggrandising men who controlled and directed the context of what they described.' She was determined to find the 'woman behind the myth.'
One of those pompous, blinkered, acquisitive, self-aggrandising men was George Augustus Robinson (1791-1866). His Australian Dictionary of Biography claims that he was a protector of Aborigines, however his diaries reveal a man far more self-interested and self-serving than this generous sounding title would imply.
Richard Pybus and his wife (Cassandra's ancestors) arrived in Australia in 1829 and were given a 'massive swathe of North Bruny Island, an unencumbered free land grant, even while Truganini and her family were still living there.' Their other (white) neighbour on this island, Nuenonne land, was George Robinson.
This is where we first meet a young Truganini - in the journals, letters and notes made by the Harrison - at home on Bruny Island with her family.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like for people of Truganini's generation. To have been born into one world - a safe, familiar, world where you knew you belonged - but then to grow up in another - with alien rules and expectations, even while still living on your own country. To have the certainty of your birth right taken from you, subjected to judgement and harsh treatment and to be denied the solace of your own way of life A way of life now seen as inferior, if not completely denigrated and despised.
Robinson's diaries document this rapidly changing world for Truganini and her family. Whalers stealing the young girls and women, having to barter for goods (often with their bodies), the life-long effects of syphilis and other venereal diseases, dressing up in European clothes to impress governors, Christian leaders and journalists only to run off naked back to their home land, what was left of it...that is, until the influenza virus of 1829.
After the flu virus had ravaged the island, Robinson in his diary said,
only fourteen Nuenonne remained to receive the benefit of his proselytising. These traumatisied survivors were slashing their faces and bodies in grief, in no state to heed his Christian platitudes.
Naturally, Truganini's story is bound up with Robinson's story. He seemed to have taken on a fatherly role in her life. She also seemed to realise that by sticking by him, she was guaranteed a safer passage through this fast-changing world. So when Robinson left Bruny Island to take on a missionary role tracking remote clans on the west coast of Tasmania so he could bring them 'under his protection'. Truganini joined him, little realising that she would never live on Bruny Island, her home country, again.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/...
June 20, 2020
Gosh, absolutely heart breaking, but such an important book to read. Picturing the geography of as I know it more than a hundred years after these events have taken place, has changed the way see these places. Such an incredible story of resilience that brought me to tears more than once. Equally fascinating and heavy on the heart.
April 29, 2020
Truganini was an occasional subject in my education in Tasmania. I grew up at Oyster Cove and went to school in Hobart but also at Woodbridge and Snug, all places which would have been familiar to Truganini, and yet we were only ever taught that she was the last of her race. This book is an absolute revelation exposing the story of this rather remarkable woman. Her skills went beyond bush craft and her story is worth your attention. It's mostly a rattling good read and the story is compelling. I had never realised that the names and tribal connections were so complex and there are occasional passages which read a little like the 'begats' in the Bible. But it is an informative and entertaining book. And if you had the dubious advantage of being educated along with me, it'll also be an education.
April 28, 2020
Growing up I'd heard of Truganini but knew nothing about her, other than her sad designation as the last of the original Tasmanians... As a First Nations Australian I was very interested to learn the real story, and this book did an excellent job of telling the story behind the name, and conveying the tragic details of the lives of her and her companions. It should be mandatory reading in all Australian schools!
January 13, 2023
4.5/5
For a historical non-fiction book with many facts, locations, and characters, I thought it was very well written and easy to follow.
I appreciated the fact that it was through the carefully researched account of Truganini’s life that I learned the history behind the “extinction” of the original people of Tasmania - it felt like a story rather than a history book.
The book also gave a vivid picture of Tasmania’s geography/geology/fauna/flora at the time, which is exactly what I was looking for.
For a historical non-fiction book with many facts, locations, and characters, I thought it was very well written and easy to follow.
I appreciated the fact that it was through the carefully researched account of Truganini’s life that I learned the history behind the “extinction” of the original people of Tasmania - it felt like a story rather than a history book.
The book also gave a vivid picture of Tasmania’s geography/geology/fauna/flora at the time, which is exactly what I was looking for.
March 5, 2024
This book was tough to read, rife with violence and devastation. Colonial history is often heavily censored so it’s important that we’re confronted with the reality of what was done to our First Nations people.
Truganini was hard to digest in other ways too. At times it felt like a regurgitation of colonial journals which lacked flow, depth and reflection. Pybus obviously used this book to help grapple with her ancestral history and I believe that her intentions were unselfish but it somehow fell flat and left me feeling conflicted about her profiting from Truganini’s story.
Truganini was hard to digest in other ways too. At times it felt like a regurgitation of colonial journals which lacked flow, depth and reflection. Pybus obviously used this book to help grapple with her ancestral history and I believe that her intentions were unselfish but it somehow fell flat and left me feeling conflicted about her profiting from Truganini’s story.
August 16, 2023
This is a powerful and disturbing book. Because it traces the life of Truganini and several other first nations people of Tasmania, it presents the history of the destruction of the original people in a very personal manner. It is impossible for the reader to just assign what happened to ancient history. In the afterward, Pybus refers to the Uluru Statement from the Heart saying "The First Nations of this country want their unique relationship acknowledged and respected; they want to hold their heads high in their own country. That is not too much to ask."
I wholeheartedly concur.
I wholeheartedly concur.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2020
Review to come
July 28, 2021
A gripping account of colonial Australian history told with compassion and respect. I am ashamed of how little of this story I already knew and have been inspired by reading this book to better educate myself about this (shameful) chapter of our history. Cassandra Pybus describes herself as an historian rather than a biographer and, while that might be true, she has drawn a fine and nuanced portrait of a intelligent, powerful, able and admirable woman living through extraordinary hardship and change. I loved Truganni. A first class book.
September 30, 2021
I’m so glad that Cassandra Pybus wrote this book and that I read it! A beautifully written, incredibly sad story of Truganini an extremely strong, resilient Aboriginal woman.
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