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Through an Aboriginal lens: Trouwerner challenges "the lies of history", shares power of truth-telling

Callan Morse -

"The lies of history and the power of truth-telling" is at the forefront of a new text co-written by a Tasmania Aboriginal Elder.

Released last week, Trouwerner is a yarn between Aunty Patsy Cameron, journalist Martin Flanagan and Kate Warner, Tasmania's 28th Governor.

The memoir is a story of kinship, respect, realism and optimism, weaving through the history of Aunty Patsy and Tasmania while challenging historical writings that were written from afar.

Aunty Patsy's story moves through the coming-into-being time, Trouwerner's colonisation and the lies of history, to the power of truth-telling and hope for the future.

"I hope the reader will understand how precious and unique my cultural heritage is," Aunty Patsy said.

"To appreciate what we mean by truth-telling and to acknowledge how very important our connections to our ancestors are."

The text shares connections from those in Aunty Patsy's life, including Ms Warner's Mannalargenna Day speech, a poem by the late Tasmanian Aboriginal poet and academic Japanangka Errol West and the recipe for Aunty Alma Stackhouse's Kinship Cake.

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Mr Flanagan said Aunty Patsy has changed the camera angle on Tasmanian history.

"I don't know anyone like her. She has a master's degree, she spends a lot of her time in research but, ultimately, as she says, 'she sees through an Aboriginal lens'," he said.

"The story Patsy embodies is one of perseverance and unconquerable belief. I hope people come away with a larger, richer sense of Tasmania and Tasmanian history."

Magabala Editor Arlie Alizzi said Trouwerner is a loving biography of Aunty Patsy Cameron, calling the senior Tasmanian Aboriginal Elder a studied custodian of Tasmania's complex and troubling history.

"It weaves the present with the past, telling the stories of Patsy's staunch and wise ancestors during the 1800s and providing a privileged insight into contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal politics, which Tasmanians and mainlanders alike will learn something from," Ms Alizzi said.

Spending her former years on Flinders Island, Aunty Patsy traces her heritage through her mother's line to four Ancestral grandmothers; Pleenpereener, Wyerlooberer, Teekoolterme and Pollerelbrener.

At the head of her family is Teekoolterme's father, the revered Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway Clan leader, formidable warrior and seer, Mannalargenna.

The renowned author and historian has a Master of Arts in Tasmanian Aboriginal History and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Tasmania.

She was inducted onto the Tasmanian Women's Honour roll in 2006 and was invested with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2017 for distinguished service to Indigenous communities in Tasmania.

Trouwerner is now available via Magabala Books.

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