The Invisible Moonbirds: Making Meaning from Unexpected Absences in the Archaeology of Wybalenna, a 19th Century Settlement of palawa (Tasmanian First Nations) Exiles

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

A series of cottages on the settlement of Wybalenna on Flinders Island, in Bass Strait, housed Tasmania’s exiled palawa peoples for a ten year period, from 1837, when the cottages were constructed, to 1847 when the palawa community won repatriation to the Tasmanian mainland. Judy Birmingham’s study of materials found on an amateur archaeological dig in the late 1960s, while lacking stratigraphic certainty, nevertheless provided a rich and detailed insight into life on the island, with occupants identifiable by historical records. On glaring omission from the assemblage, however, was traces of the iconic muttonbirds which were processed for export and consumed in large numbers in the 1830s and 40s, and which play a key cultural role for the Wybalenna and subsequent communities. This paper considers the absence and its meaning.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow