Tasmania

Tasmania is an island south of mainland Australia, with its own Aboriginal communities and histories. Surviving portraits show body decoration that includes scarification rather than only tattoos.

Raised marks changed the skin's texture, creating designs that could be seen and felt. Ornaments and other details of appearance offered further ways to express identity.

Abel Tasman's expedition reached the island in 1642 and called it Van Diemen's Land after his patron. The name later became closely associated with Britain's penal colony. In 1856 it was officially replaced with Tasmania.

Colonial violence, displacement and disease devastated Aboriginal communities. Older claims that their people vanished overlook continuing families and culture. The faces in these portraits belong to that longer history, rather than to a population that simply disappeared.