Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginals)

The Palawa (Pakana) are Tasmania's Aboriginal people, isolated for 8,000 years when rising seas drowned Bass Strait around 6000 BCE, after tens of thousands of years on the island. Before 1803, clan families held distinct territories and seasonal rounds, speaking many languages across the island of 3,000 to 15,000 souls. The Black War of the early 19th century, disease, bounty hunting and the 1830 to 1835 removals to the Bass Strait islands, devastated them; Truganini's death in 1876 was long mourned as an extinction that never happened. Palawa today number thousands, reviving palawa kani language from the old word-lists, weaving kelp water-carriers, diving for abalone as mothers did, and winning handbacks of mountains and islands year by year. Bass Strait islands still hold Palawa fishing camps. Three to fifteen thousand souls lived here before 1803. Family clans still connect to particular territories. Palawa kani words name the island anew each year.