The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania has launched a crowd-funding campaign to enable capital works for truth-telling and interpretation on one of the most sacred and significant sites for the state’s Aboriginal community.
Established in 1834, Wybalenna on Flinders Island was a colonial settlement where 134 forcibly relocated Indigenous people were imprisoned.
The people imprisoned there were prohibited from practising their cultures and subjected to abuse, neglect and introduced diseases.
When Wybalenna closed in 1847, 47 of those people were forcibly removed to putalina/Oyster Cove in nipaluna/Hobart. The houses they were forced to live in have since disintegrated into underground ruins. In total, 105 people died in exile and were buried in unmarked graves.
The 1995 Aboriginal Lands Act enabled the return of Aboriginal land and established the Aboriginal Lands Council of Tasmania. In 1999, the Act was amended to include Wybalenna.
“Wybalenna has many stories to tell the world, about our history and the dispossession perpetrated against the Aboriginal community to this day,” said the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania.
The land council seeks funding to establish a purpose-designed and -built place for the site’s repatriated cultural artefacts; conserve and adapt existing structures; truth-tell; and interpret the history of Wybalenna and tayaritja/the Furneaux Islands.
Architecture firm Taylor and Hinds and The Tourism Colab are the project consultants.
The project would create a space for community gatherings, ceremonial events, regenerative tourism, and caretakers’ accommodation.
The crowdfunding campaign is seeking $300,000 to undertake economic modelling, a feasibility study, and a site analysis.
To contribute to the campaign, click here.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
