Truganini

Common card · No. 213378

Truganini ( TROO-gə-NIN-ee; c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman who was widely, though incorrectly, described as the last surviving Aboriginal Tasmanian. A member of the Nuenonne people, she grew up on Bruny Island in what is now south-eastern Tasmania. During her teenage years, she saw the death and displacement of much of Tasmania's Aboriginal population as a result of British colonisation during the Black War. She became a guide to the colonial official George Augustus Robinson and accompanied him on a series of expeditions that resulted in the exile of Tasmania's remaining Aboriginal population. Truganini was exiled to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island at the conclusion of the expeditions in 1835. She later spent time in the Port Phillip District (modern-day Victoria), where she became a fugitive and was tried alongside four others for the murder of a pair of whalers. After being acquitted of the crime, she was returned to Wybalenna and was...

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