Natives at a corrobory … c.1835

John Glover

Corroboree

This painting was commissioned by George Augustus Robinson, Protector of Tasmanian Aborigines, as a frontispiece for a book he hoped to write, but never did, about the conciliation of the Aboriginal population. Glover wrote to Robinson saying he would ‘shew the Natives at a Corrobary, under the wild woods of the country—to give an idea of the manner they enjoyed themselves before being disturbed by the White People’. The location is the River Jordan, near Brighton, southern Tasmania.

It is a poignant painting indeed, as by the time it had been executed, practically all of the Aboriginal population had been removed to Flinders Island in Bass Strait. The colonists’ view of conciliation was out of sight, out of mind.
Display item Natives at a corrobory … c.1835

 

< Previous Exhibit | Back to The Exhibits page | Next Exhibit >