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Clip description
This clip is set after Truganini and George Robinson have moved the remaining population of Indigenous Tasmanians to Flinders Island. Professor Lyndall Ryan explains the scientific rationalisation of the high death rate of the Tasmanian Aboriginal People. Rachel Perkins’s narration outlines the science behind it – Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. Professor Henry Reynolds expands on Darwin’s theory and its need to divide society into evolutionary levels.
Curator’s notes
It is absolutely infuriating to think that the Indigenous people in Tasmania were written off and that their destruction and even extinction was seen as ‘unavoidable’. While it seems to be a common occurrence throughout the ages to alleviate blame through religion, research or science, it doesn’t make it any less reprehensible.
A reading of Darwin’s own notes does shed some doubt on the ‘natural’ decline of the population; he admits that it 'may have resulted from the infamous conduct of some of our countrymen’. Despite making this observation it seems that only his scientific explanation is acknowledged by the colonisers.
