Dr Adel Yousif and the Impact of Colonialism on Health: Lutriwita and Palestine Compared
This presentation highlights the effect of colonisation on indigenous peoples human rights and access to food, health, shelter and personal safety. We estimate the effect of colonisation on the size of Tasmania’s palawa population in 1800. We detail the ways in which the colonisation of lutruwita impacted upon palawa society and summarise the lessons that can be gleaned from this. We end by illustrating the ongoing effects of colonisation by comparing contemporary health outcomes for First Nation and Palestinian populations living in the state of Israel, Gaza and the occupied west bank of Palestine.
Dr. Adel Yousif is the first in his extended family to have a nationality/passport "Australian" received in 1995. His father was born in Haifa, Palestine. His family were farmers growing their olives and tending their land and livestock as they had done for generations. In April and May 1948, Zionist militia attacked his father’s village “Ayn Gazal” and members of his father’s family were killed and evicted from the area which is now part of Israel. They have been refugees ever since. His father and grandfather both died without a passport or nationality. He is now married, living in Hobart and working as an academic.
Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a professor of heritage and digital humanities at the University of New England and CEO of Digital History Tasmania. He specialises in using big data to explore the impacts of colonisation and forced labour on health and social inequality.
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.
Professor Greg Lehman is an art historian, an award-winning curator and writer, and a well-known public commentator on Indigenous history, identity and place. In 2017, Greg led the development of First Tasmanians, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s first permanent Indigenous gallery. Together with Tim Bonyhady, he also co-curated The National Picture: the Art of Tasmania’s Black War for the National Gallery of Australia, which won the 2019 Museums and Galleries Australia Award for Travelling Exhibitions.
