This book presents a philosophical history of Tasmania’s past and
present with a particular focus on the double stories of genocide and
modernity. On the one hand, proponents of modernisation have sought to
close the past off from the present, concealing the demographic disaster
behind less demanding historical narratives and politicised
preoccupations such as convictism and environmentalism. The second
story, meanwhile, is told by anyone, aboriginal or European, who has
gone to the archive and found the genocidal horrors hidden there. This
volume blends both stories. It describes the dual logics of genocide and
modernity in Tasmania and suggests that Tasmanians will not become more
realistic about the future until they can admit a full recognition of
the colonial genocide that destroyed an entire civilisation, not much
more than 200 years ago.
