Henry Ling Roth in Tasmania

Abstract

Familiar now mainly to antiquarian booksellers, the name of Henry Ling Roth (1855-1925) was widely known in his own time, for he was highly regarded by all of the establishment figures of anthropology... My interest in this chapter is in Ling Roth's contribution to late Victorian and early Edwardian British and European understandings of the history and cultures of the Tasmanians, and in how his work is being mobilised in the contemporary history wars over Australia's past. The publication of "The Aborigines of Tasmania" in 1890 and of the revised edition of 1899 were key moments in the translation of the indigenous peoples of Tasmania for European and Australian settler consumption, with lasting but changing implications.