Adel Yousif & Hamish Maxwell Stewart: Colonisation - The Palestinian and Tasmanian Aboriginal Experience Compared

This presentation compares the impact of colonisation on Tasmania and Palestine. It starts by exploring the implications of the latest pre-contact population estimates for Tasmania. While historians have emphasised the role played by direct violence in population decline, these new estimates reveal the extent to which malnutrition and the other consequences of loss of access to land and resources are likely to have been much greater. In the second half of the presentation we expand upon this theme by exploring the long run impacts of colonisation in Palestine on health, inequality and incarceration rates using NGO reports. Many of the differences between Israeli and Palestinian outcomes are similar to those for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. We conclude by arguing that an emphasis on violence can let the coloniser off the hook.

Jointly sponsored by the State Library and Archive Service of Tasmania and the Professional Historians Association Vic & Tas, the Libraries Tasmania Talks are a series of monthly public lectures held at the Hobart Library. They can be attended free at the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts or viewed online via the Webinar.

To register for the event visit the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts website.

You can listen to all previous lectures on their Soundcloud website.