‘SPEAK THE TRUTH’ ON WRONGS OF THE PAST
A TASMANIAN Aboriginal leader is calling for change amid the anniversary of a horrific hanging almost 200 yearsago.
Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania chairman Michael Mansell said September marked the anniversary of the hanging of two Aboriginal men.
“When the Black War was on in the 1820s, an Aboriginal group were camped over at Bellerive and they were not part of the war ,” he said.
“The Governor at the time was under pressure to teach Aboriginal people a lesson, so he ordered the guards to go over and grab the two nearest Aborigines because a shepherd had been killed up near Scamander, Swansea.
“They grabbed a traditional Aboriginal lawman and a younger Aboriginal man and brought them over here to Murray Street in Hobart, put them through a kangaroo court, and hung them .”
Mr Mansell said the two men couldn’t speak English, had no idea what was happening, and were innocent of killing anyone. Now, he is calling for the government to make the truth about Tasmania’ s history public.
“If we don’t understand exactly what happened, we run the risk of making similar mistakes in the future,” he said.
“We urge the government to start beginning talks about finding out how to speak the truth about history and how to make al and settlement for the Aboriginal people.” In June, Mr Man sell met Premier Peter Gut we into discuss a range of issues.
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Roger Jaensch said they came into government in 2014 with a commitment to re-set the relationship with Aboriginal communities.
“We are reviewing the model for returning land, with the intent of returning more land to Aboriginal communities, as part of our journey to reconciliation ,” he said.