A CELEBRATION OF THE HISTORY, CULTURE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF RECHERCHE BAY
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Auditorium Hobart, Tasmania
26–28 February 2007
Meeting the Tasmanians
Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney, AO, FAHA, CMG
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John Mulvaney, AO, FAHA, CMG, was foundation professor of Prehistory, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University. Born in 1925, he was awarded the 1988 ANZAAS Medal. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a Fellow of the British Academy. He served terms on the Australian Heritage Commission and on the Executive of the (then) Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (Chair 1982–84). His Prehistory of Australia (1969, 1975; 1999 with J. Kamminga) and Encounters in Place (1989) include Tasmanian Aboriginal themes. He nominated Recherche Bay for the National Heritage register and has written a book concerning its heritage. |
The encounters between Tasmanian Indigenous people and the d’Entrecasteaux expedition at Recherche Bay constitute a significant cross-cultural episode in Australian history. Although Tasmanians were isolated from humankind for more than 10,000 years, these first contacts proved mutually friendly and positive, despite problems of linguistic and cultural understanding. The Tasmanians demonstrated those essential human values of animated conversation, cheerful dance and song, thus refuting later claims that they were sub-human.
While Tasmanians concealed themselves during the entire five weeks of the 1792 visit, they emerged from the forest and initiated close relations during the final week of the 1793 sojourn. French scientists and officers vied to record observations, objectively checking word lists and noting matters of demographic, ethnographic and economic relevance. Vital insights are provided by two drawings by the artist, Jean Piron, even though he depicted people and landscape according to contemporary classical ideals.
The expedition merits credit for its rich harvest of data, and for initiating observational techniques that have been credited to the later Baudin expedition. Recherche Bay merits its National Heritage status from its Indigenous associations, to which are added the expedition’s major scientific achievements.