Into the Heart of Tasmania
Title: Into the Heart of Tasmania (2017)
Author: Rebe Taylor
Genre: non-fiction; history
Trivia: (TAS) #AusReadingMonth @Brona’s Books
Trivia: #WorldFromMyArmchair Challenge (Tasmania)
Trivia: #NonFicNov
Trivia: #AWW @AustralianWomenWriters
- Trivia: Dr. Rebe Taylor is an Australian historian.
- Her book Into the Heart of Tasmania: A Search for Human Antiquity
- won the University of Southern Queensland History Book Award 2017.
Introduction:
- Into the Heart of Tasmania is a new history of Aboriginal Tasmania
- …the eccentric Englishman Ernest Westlake (geologist)
- ….and his hunt for man’s origins.
Who was Ernest Westlake? (1855-1922)
- English amateur scientist Ernest Westlake from about 1870 to 1920.
- The man who loved stones and the history they revealed!
- Westlake was officially a geologist… unofficially a self taught anthropologist
- The story of Ernest Westlake his collections is brought to life this book.
- I was most interested in what I could learn about Tasmania by reading Rebe Talylor’s book.
What did Westlake do?
- In 1908 E. Westlake packed a tent, a bicycle and forty tins of food and
- sailed from Liverpool to Port Melbourne Australia.
- He believed he found on the island of Tasmania the remnants (stone tools)
- …of an extinct race the Tasmanian Aboriginals.
- In the remotest corners of the island
- …Westlake did encounter via interviews
- ….the living indigenous communities.
Why were the Tasmanians so important for anthropology?
- The Tasmanians are believed to have been the most isolated race on earth.
- Their importance is their status as a cultural beginning.
- Because of their isolation and slow transformation
- …the Tasmanians ‘may have gone on little changed from early ages’ (pg 100)
What evidence do we have that the Tasmanian Aboriginals first human beings?
- Edward B. Tylor, ‘the father of anthropology’ after viewing an aboriginal stones
- …’the Taunton Scraper’ declared the Tasmanian Aboriginals as the ‘dawn of humanity.’
What was Westlake’s goal?
- Westlake wanted to rewrite history.
- In the process he finds and documents a living culture
- ...that had been declared extinct, Tasmanian Aboriginals.
Conclusion:
- I knew NOTHING about the Aboriginals or Tasmania!
- Strong point: Westlake lets the frontier violence done to the Aborigines
- seep through his anthropological journey.
- …(Risdon Cove Massacre, The Black War in Tasmania)
- I have never read about the injustice done to this race. #Shameful
- All in all did discover Tasmania….following Westlake’s journey on a digital map.
- Warning: Be prepared to ‘push’ through the first 50% of the book.
- I had to…. at times Westlake’s life back in England
- …was not so interesting after his return from Tasmania.
Structure:
- 1-8% – introduction to the man Ernest Westlake and his family and education
- 9-32% – described Westlake’s 1,5 year trip to Tasmania
- …Flinder Island and Cape Barren Island.
- 42-45% – Westlake’s return to England and his studies…and his death in 1922.
- 46-48% – Westlake’s Tasmanian stone collection and notes were now open to
- …Rhys Jones, University of Sydney earning his PhD in Tasmanian archeology (1966).
- 49- 57% The book gathers steam with the very interesting
- …escavations by R. Jones and his team (1965)
- Finally Dr. Rebe Taylor shines as she pulls all the diverse theories
- …together of past explorers into a ‘page turning’ last few pages!
- 57-100% – notes and other resource
Last thoughts:
- Rhys Jones the ‘cowboy archeologist’ once said:
- “Australian archaeological treasure is not gold or silver
- …it is time itself.”
- I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite a ‘few slow pages’.
- Dr. Rebe Taylor deserves
- …University of Southern Queensland History Book Award 2017
- Tasmania, the heart-shaped island, takes on a new meaning for me!
Dr. Rebe Taylor:
BTW:
I visited new museum websites:
I want to read this! I’ve always been fascinated by Tasmania. We even had a deal me in participant one year from Hobart. (I used to say “We’ve had participants from Great Britain to Ghana and from Tucson to Tasmania!) 🙂
I’ve marked this one as to-read on my goodreads.com account. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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Rebe Taylor impressed me with her sharp and interesting analysis.
I did struggle with Westlake’s life story in England (….he was not a man with ‘flair’…)
but his dedication to his science was incredible.
Thanks for you comment…and I hope you enjoy the book!
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I’ve been very curious about this book Nancy. As you know, a lot of my recent non-fiction reading has been about the Aboriginal history of Australia and the terrible deeds done by the early English settlers that have had flow-through effects to this day.
The colonising English have a lot to answer to when it comes to the native peoples of the countries they colonised. Every single country concerned is still grappling with the issues – across Northern America, Africa, India and the Asia-Pacific basin They left behind a legacy of disadvantage, prejudice and a habit of sweeping it all under the carpet.
One of my non-Aust non-fiction books at the moment is about this thing exactly from the Indian perspective – Inglorious Empire.
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If I can mange it….during the busy reading month of November…I have another ‘Aboriginal’ suprise for you…!
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Spotted this review from a Tasmanian today about another Tassie book you might enjoy – https://tasmanianbibliophileatlarge.wordpress.com/2017/12/04/in-sunshine-or-in-shadow-by-martin-flanagan/
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Wonderful! I will investigate book AND bookblog! I saw on the news that is snowed in Tasmania….OMG!
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It turned a bit chilly this weekend & very wet. We had 95ml of rain on Saturday in Holbrook.
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Thanks for that Brona. I have been searching for blogs about Tasmania and that one does not come up. It looks great.
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Very interesting stuff! Imo, there’s not enough paper dedicated to Tasmania. It’s such an underrepresented area of our world today.
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