Wybalenna is one of the most historically significant places in Tasmania and the Flinders Island Aboriginal Association is calling for the land title to be handed over to them.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That's despite the fact that the Wybalenna title was given to the Aboriginal Land Council (ALC) 20 years ago.
During Tasmania's Black War, the site on the west coast of Flinders Island was established as an "Aboriginal settlement" in 1833.
IN OTHER NEWS:
More than 100 Aborigines were taken to Wybalenna from mainland Tasmania, for the purpose of "civilising" them. By 1847, just 47 remained, and were taken to the former convict station at Oyster Cove, south of Hobart.
Three years after the signing of the treaty of Whitemark in 1996 - to which the signatories were Flinders Council and the Flinders Island Aboriginal Association (FIAA) - the state government gave the title for Wybalenna to the ALC.
FIAA chief executive Maxine Roughley said she didn't think "a body in Launceston" could adequately manage a site on a remote island.
"Title or total control should be put back in the hands of the Aboriginal people in this area," she said.
"It's our land and who better to manage it than the local group?"
FIAA wants to hold school camps at Wybalenna and rebuild some of the structures that are no longer there.
ALC chairman Michael Mansell denied that the long-running dispute between the ALC and FIAA over the ownership and ongoing management of the site had hindered progress around its revitalisation.
"It's there for the taking if [FIAA] wants [to manage] it," he said.
"They can get things done."
Mr Mansell conceded that the ALC hadn't managed the site as well as it could have since 1999.
It's our land and who better to manage it than the local group?
- Maxine Roughley, Flinders Island Aboriginal Association chief executive
"We're going to do it better [now]," he said.
He said the historical significance of Wybalenna was on a par with that of the Port Arthur Historic Site.
"In the make-up of Tasmanian society, if genocide was committed, where is the greatest evidence of genocide being carried out?" he said. "Wybalenna."
"Was that a significant turning point in Tasmania's history? My word it was."
Today at Wybalenna, only the old chapel, homestead and graveyard remain.
Mr Mansell said the ALC was planning to cover the interior walls of the chapel with a "timeline of photographs" showing Wybalenna's history.
He said there were also plans to place a sign by the graveyard which would name the Aboriginal people who were buried there in unmarked graves.
Furthermore, the ALC aims to install interpretive signage utilising artists' depictions of the people who once populated the site.