TODAY is a very significant day in Tasmania. It is a day when the depth and dimension of the island's histories has reached a new point with the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery(TMAG) in concert with the Royal Society of Tasmania publicly apologising to Aboriginal people.
The hope that underlines the apology is that it will be followed with attitudinal change and continued consultation with Aboriginal Tasmanians is, hopefully, a very significant turning point in Tasmania.
Aboriginal leader Michael Mansell, has said there was a "real trade in the Aboriginal dead being sent to the mainland of Australia and to good old Mother England".(ABC News: Laura Beavis).
Elsewhere, Michael Mansel has said "It was only after that – [receiving some federal funding in the 1970s under Gough Whitlam ] –we could bring the simmering of Aboriginal resentment against white people and what white people had done against us into a political movement."
So, today's apology will no doubt go down the State's historic record as a day of reconciliation that has, up to now, seemed somewhat out of reach. Moreover, it goes beyond the contentious 'theft and appropriation' of the Preminghana petroglyphs.
The City of Launceston's Mayor apologised to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community during NAIDOC Week 2020 and somewhat sadly Council has thus chosen not to endorse the TMAG's and the Royal Society's apology today.
Notably, Launceston's Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) – Australia's largest regional art gallery and museum – has been front and centre in the appropriation and 'theft' of the Preminghana petroglyphs and quite possibly well before the TMAG became involved.
Michael Mansell has not been alone in his advocation for the return of the petroglyphs. Peter C. Sims, an independent Launceston based researcher, now living away from the city, has been a tireless advocate. His recent monograph, "Tasmanian Aboriginal Rock Art PREMINGHANA (Mount Cameron West) 2020" catalogues his research and advocacy.
The University of Tasmania's Prof. Greg Lehman, on the ABC today, has eloquently and poignantly contextualised today's apology.
Launceston in the past prided itself in leading on issues such as this, albeit that like elsewhere in the colonial aftermath, its institutions have erred. In the light of the city's emerging, and ever evolving, 'Cultural Strategy' the city sadly seems to be distancing itself from today's apology and disinclined to endorse to it.
Nonetheless, The Launceston Concerned Citizens Network wholeheartedly endorses today's apology and looks forward to an attitudinal change and continued consultation going forward.
For more information see – https://tasmanianantipodeanelginmarbles.blogspot.com/
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