AustLit

'Within just a few weeks of the release of a biography of the Tasmanian leader Tongerlongeter, another biography of a remarkable Tasmanian has been published. Tongerlongeter was an Oyster Bay leader born before the arrival of the British and committed to the traditional way of life. His younger countryman, Kikatapula, was equally as astute and talented but torn between cultures. Up to his late teens Kikatapula lived traditionally as a member of the Paytirami people of Oyster Bay nation. As European incursions on Oyster Bay country increased, Kikatapula left to live with “the tame mob” in Hobart where he soon became unwell. Baptised as Tom Birch, he then lived and worked for three formative years for Sarah Birch in Hobart and on her husband's farm, “Duck-Hole”. Living with one of the most prosperous families in Hobart, Kikatapula was taught to read, write and speak English well, an attribute subsequently misrepresented in colonial literature. The highly educated young Aboriginal man lived among a resentful convict workforce. In 1822 when the NSW exile Musquito camped on an adjoining farm, Kikatapula left to join him and other Oyster Bay people to resist the invasion that was destroying their people, culture and country.' (Introduction)

'In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and as the nation ponders the Uluru Statement from the Heart, there is increasing public interest in biographies of Aboriginal subjects. Henry Reynolds and Nick Clements’ Tongerlongeter (2021) and Cassandra Pybus’ Truganini (2020) have provided new understandings of the violent dispossession of the palawa/pakana peoples of lutruwita from Country that colonists named Van Diemen’s Land.'  (Introduction)

'Among the vast number of books on the history of the Black War, there are virtually no biographies of the guerrilla leaders on the other side of the frontier. Instead, historians have relied on convict artist Thomas Bock’s compelling portraits of these men and women, to gain insights into their bravery and humanity. The biographies that do exist of Truganini, Woorraddy and Pevay tend to foreground their experiences as part of G.A. Robinson’s friendly mission on the settler side of the frontier. Apart from a short study of Walyer, the woman guerrilla leader in northern Tasmania, there have been no major studies of the guerrilla leaders who led the resistance at the height of the Black War.' (Introduction)