Mathinna (Tasmanian)

Mathinna (1835–1852) was an indigenous Australian girl, who was adopted and later abandoned by the Governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin.

Mathinna - watercolour by Thomas Bock in 1842 when she was about 7 years old

Mathinna was born as Mary on Flinders Island, Tasmania to the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, Towgerer, and his wife Wongerneep but the tribe was captured by Robinson, the Chief Protector of Aborigines, in 1833. Mary was renamed Mathinna when she was about six years old[1] and adopted by Governor Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer, and his wife, Lady Jane Franklin; Mathinna was raised with Sir John's daughter Eleanor.[2]

Just one fragment of a letter written by Mathinna reveals what the transition from living with her family at Flinders Island to living at Government House must have been like:[1]

I am good little girl, I have pen and ink cause I am a good little girl . . . . I have a got a red frock like my father. Come here to see my father. I have got sore feet and shoes and stockings and I am very glad.

When Sir John Franklin was recalled to England (McGoogan, 212), they left Mathinna at Queen’s Orphan School in Hobart in 1843. Only eight years old, she found it difficult to adjust to her new surroundings. She was sent back to Flinders Island in 1844, at the age of nine, and then sent back to Queen's Orphan School. In 1851, when she was about 16, she returned to the aboriginal settlement at Oyster Cove, west of Hobart (McGoogan, 213).

She drowned—according to one account—in a puddle while drunk on 1 September 1852. She was 17 or 18 years old.[3]

Mathinna is believed to have been buried in the Oyster Cove Aboriginal cemetery, and is likely to have been among the remains exhumed by William Crowther in 1907 and taken to the University of Melbourne. After a campaign by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, all remains from Oyster Cove were returned and cremated in a four-day ceremony in 1985.[3]

The town of Mathinna is named after her, as is the mushroom Entoloma mathinnae.

Cultural depictions of Mathinna

Mathinna's life has inspired or been mentioned in several literary and dramatic works. These include:

References
  1. McGoogan, Ken. Lady Franklin's Revenge. HarperCollins, 2005, pp. 211-213.
  2. Raabus, Carol: The hidden story of Mathinna: spirited, gifted, utterly destroyed, 936 ABC Hobart, 16 February 2011.
  3. Perkins, Rachel, ed. (2010). First Australians. Langton, Marcia. Miegunyah Press. pp. 68–69. ISBN 978-0522857269.
  4. Pybus, Cassandra (10 May 2008). "A savage lesson in 'civility'". Arts reviews. The Age. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
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