A proclamation to Indigenous Australians, 1829

• This asset indicates the seriousness of the violence between Indigenous people and the growing white population of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) - martial law was decreed in the 'settled areas' in 1828, which gave soldiers the right to shoot or arrest any Indigenous person found in the British areas; a government reward of £5 was offered for every Indigenous adult captured without injury and £2 for every child; finally, a military cordon was set up across the island to force the Indigenous people into Tasman's Peninsula.
• It shows a proclamation board used in Van Diemen's land in an attempt to teach Indigenous people about the English-style rule of law, promising equality of treatment - the implied equality did not exist and the Indigenous population dwindled from about 4,000 in 1803 to a few hundred in 1835.
• It is a print produced for the Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia in Melbourne in 1886 - the print was based on the original 1830 versions that were painted in oils on durable huon pine panels and hung on trees in Tasmania where they could be seen by Indigenous people.
• It shows an attempt to communicate with Indigenous people by using pictures - very few if any Indigenous people could read English; the message is based on a number of assumptions, such as that European-style pictures would be understood by Indigenous people and that it would be clear that the 'story' the pictures tell is to be read from bottom to top.
• It shows text written in a form of pidgin English at the bottom of the 'proclamation' - such language can be seen as reflecting a patronising attitude; although the suggestion is that it has been included as part of the message to be communicated to Indigenous people, even an Indigenous person who could read would not have understood the attempt at phonetic spelling.
• It is an example of the mislabelling of a historical artefact - the prints, made more than 30 years after the original timber panels, attribute the 'proclamation' to Governor Thomas Davey (1760-1823) in 1816, when in fact they were commissioned in 1829 by Governor George Arthur.
• It is an example of a hand-coloured lithograph - a lithograph is created by drawing or transferring an image onto a smooth stone using a grease crayon or greasy ink; the stone is washed with water (which is repelled by the crayon) and then with ink (which is absorbed by the crayon); the image is printed onto the paper from the stone, which can be re-inked many times without wear.

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