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Imagined futures and forgotten pasts: Tasmania’s Asian connections
Citation
Ross, K, Imagined futures and forgotten pasts: Tasmania's Asian connections, Journal of Australian Studies, 41, (3) pp. 296-311. ISSN 1444-3058 (2017) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2017 International Australian Studies Association
DOI: doi:10.1080/14443058.2017.1347102
Abstract
A largely forgotten history exists of extensive connections between Asia and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although it was a harsh and deadly place for Indigenous people and incarcerated convicts, Van Diemen’s Land offered opportunity for a growing society of merchants, farmers, bureaucrats, governors, judges, retired military men and their families. Asia was a lived presence in everyday life through the purchase and consumption of foodstuffs, clothing and furnishings from India and China. Cashed-up Vandemonians in the 1820s and 1830s could buy rice, silk, bamboo furniture and at least five different types of tea. Many colonial administrators had experience in Asia and brought Indian servants with them. Due to its climate, the island was touted as the perfect retirement destination for British military families retiring from India and other Asian postings. Asian ship crews were an everyday sight in port. Today, however, these past connections have been forgotten. Tasmania’s current turn to Asia as a key strategy for the state’s future economic prosperity appears to be something new. This article argues that revealing the heterogeneous past challenges contemporary views of historical Tasmania as isolated and monocultural and is essential in reshaping Tasmania’s imagined Asian future.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Asia, Tasmania, Tea, British empire, colonial trade |
Research Division: | History, Heritage and Archaeology |
Research Group: | Historical studies |
Research Field: | Australian history |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Understanding past societies |
Objective Field: | Understanding Australia's past |
UTAS Author: | Ross, K (Dr Kaz Ross) |
ID Code: | 121963 |
Year Published: | 2017 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 1 |
Deposited By: | Office of the School of Humanities |
Deposited On: | 2017-10-23 |
Last Modified: | 2018-05-08 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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