Truth-telling at Wybalenna

Wybalenna is a desolate place borne of a confronting past, pushed into the shadows of Australia’s national memory. Through meaningful truth-telling, Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal people) are protecting and healing the sacred site as a spiritual offering – enabled through a crowdfunding effort that is gaining momentum.

Above Lutruwita Tasmania’s mainland is an archipelago, the largest island of which is Flinders Island. This is a place of national reserves and conservation, interspersed by farmland, and populated by a tight-knit community, largely disconnected from the world beyond. It is a remote place, reliant on barges and small aircraft for access and essential needs. In this beautiful context is a site of unparalleled cultural and spiritual significance, particularly for Tasmanian Aboriginal people. It is this location that bears the name Wybalenna – or ‘Black Men’s Houses’ – an historic site of grief and anguish, witness to deceit and abhorrent injustice.

While the tangible aims are an evolving conversation with Palawa, the overall objective is clear: to honour the place and offer heartfelt acknowledgement, replacing forgetting with truth, and conflict with healing.

“We are an independent people and we do not ask for help lightly.”

Wybalenna holds great significance for the darkest reasons; however, its story is not well known. In simple terms, it is recognised as a place of genocide, where the colonial British rule of the 1830s was imposed upon Tasmania’s Aboriginal people, who were taken under a false promise of Treaty and whose rights and cultural contexts were forcibly removed. On behalf of the Aboriginal community, Rebecca Digney (Palawa), manager of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, and Mat Hinds and Poppy Taylor of Taylor and Hinds Architects are working in earnest to share this important story. Their ambitions are steadfast: to right historic wrongs in respect for the First People of the island now known as Tasmania. “Some take the story for granted – it isn’t widely known,” says Hinds. “Everybody identified that something needed to be done, but out of the enormity of the task, nobody had a solid idea of how that might be realised.”

While the tangible aims are an evolving conversation with Palawa, the overall objective is clear: to honour the place and offer heartfelt acknowledgement, replacing forgetting with truth, and conflict with healing. “It’s not like a chapter of history – it happened and it’s happening – you can go there and feel it,” notes Digney of the injustice and sense of pervasive isolation. Through a crowdfunding effort, the goal is to establish a meaningful cultural and truth-telling presence, laying the foundations for the sanctity of the site to be protected and cultural material returned. Wybalenna is a locale steeped in isolation, devoid of services, where the landscape itself takes on a numinous presence. To provide a hospitable place of truth-telling, these fundamentals must be given priority, for which the community seeks widespread financial support. In the words of the former chair of the Aboriginal Land Council, Michael Mansell, “we are an independent people and we do not ask for help lightly.”

A poignant addition to the historical site, a humble pavilion of oxidising steel is emerging as a place for visitor amenity and ablutions.

Described at best as a rural hinterland, the current site is vast and sprawling. Arriving on a narrow dirt road, it is difficult not to feel the power of this little-known place. Low-lying hills of boulders and coastal vegetation flank the encampment. Glimpses of the ocean are fleeting, shielded by the rolling terrain of an arid valley landscape. At the bend of the main approach, the setting is heralded by the Wybalenna chapel – a reconstructed building of clay brick and long-run iron, against a backdrop of barrack ruins and Limuna Casuarina trees, planted as a memorial to the late esteemed elder, Aunty Ida West. In the middle of the vast expanse lies the resting place of 107 Aboriginal souls, where undulations trace the burials, loosely bound by a timber farm fence – the largest known mass burial place of Aboriginal men, women and children. A homestead resides in the place of the original missionary accommodation, in dire need of remediation. “Experiencing it in person, you soon come to realise the consequences of out of sight, out of mind,” says Hinds.

Comprising three key components, a roadmap has emerged in an effort towards the preservation of this revered place. This work is based on early Healthy Country initiatives that have been further developed through the Land Council’s Care for Country programs. First, the repatriation and long-term protection of cultural belongings seeks to restore and strengthen the lifeforce of Palawa. “Treasured artefacts show that even while incarcerated, dispossessed and isolated, our ancestors still found ways to continue their cultural practices. Thousands of belongings have been removed from Wybalenna, and they need to be returned,” says Digney. Second, the conservation and adaptation of the dilapidated homestead serves to provide shelter and communal facilities to gather and engage in ceremony, of which some basic work has commenced. The third component is to imbue the site in sanctuary for the Old People and the Aboriginal community today. Reminiscent of Aunty Ida West’s vision for an enveloping verdant garden, this proposal seeks to re-establish a vast protective Limuna Casuarina grove, encircling the gentle spirits and sacred memory of those who rest here.

“We’ve spoken to audiences around the world who are highly engaged, and our goal is for this early funding to ignite a far-reaching generosity that will lead to bigger things.”

A poignant addition to the historical site, a humble pavilion of oxidising steel is emerging as a place for visitor amenity and ablutions. “This weathered pavilion represents the ceremonial colour of ochre, which was used by people who were confined at Wybalenna,” says Hinds. “Deprived of this sacred mineral, the Old People improvised with rusty deposits from farming tools in valiant acts of ceremony and ritual,” adds Digney. Prefabricated by Crisp Bros. & Haywards, the structure will be assembled in situ by Tasmanian master builder, Rory Wright. BlueScope has generously donated the entirety of the material required to realise this small but meaningful addition. Limited imagery has been released, first allowing the Aboriginal community privileged engagement with the architecture.

To support the broader remedial efforts, the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania has established a crowdfunding effort through the online platform, Chuffed. This initiative seeks to seed fund essential preliminary work as an instigator for further consultation and on-site interventions. For Wybalenna to thrive, it must be self-sustaining and resoundingly authentic. Funds are directly facilitating infrastructure, remedial and memorial efforts. “We’ve spoken to audiences around the world who are highly engaged, and our goal is for this early funding to ignite a far-reaching generosity that will lead to bigger things,” says Digney.

This remarkable effort seeks to lay to rest a painful past in favour of preservation and spiritual healing.

Wybalenna is a site of international significance, and its memory is sacred for the Aboriginal community. This remarkable effort seeks to lay to rest a painful past in favour of preservation and spiritual healing. For the first time ever, Palawa have a chance to fully realise truth-telling, deepening the sense of sanctuary within this poignant place.

Representation and consultation by Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania. Architecture by Taylor and Hinds Architects. Pavillion build by Rory Wright. Pavilion fabrication donated by Crisp Bros. & Haywards. Pavillion materials donated by BlueScope Lysaght. Donations to the crowdfunding effort can be made here.