New Single Shane Howard
L-R Bart Willoughby, David Bridie, Shane Howard
Shane Howard’s New Single
Featuring Bart Willoughby and David Bridie
‘Mannalargenna’
Companion to the book ‘Trouwerner’, by Aunty Patsy Cameron and Martin Flanagan
Aunty Patsy Cameron is an Aboriginal Elder of Northeast Tasmania. The writer, Martin Flanagan and Aunty Patsy wrote trouwerner, a book full of remarkable stories of Tasmania’s and this continent’s early colonial history. Flanagan introduced Aunty Patsy to Howard in 2023 and the result was a request for Howard to write a song for Mannalargenna.
“She told extraordinary tales of ‘grandfather’ Mannalargenna, the apical ancestor of so many Tasmanian Aboriginal people, a bungunna, a clever man of law and a highly regarded and respected leader of his people in the Northeast of Tasmania, who tried desperately to make a peaceful settlement, a ‘Treaty’, with these new invaders.” – Shane Howard
Mannalargenna’s story is epic. It’s also one of heartbreaking betrayal. But the survival and endurance of his four daughters and their ongoing descendants, is inspirational. The clapsticks that begin the song and continue through it were made by Aunty Patsy’s son Matt and generously given to Howard at Mannalargenna Day 2024, when he performed the new song for the first time to an audience of Mannalargenna’s descendants. “It was possibly the most nervous I’ve ever been before a performance. I wanted to honour them and their towering ancestor. The song was warmly and generously received.” – Howard
Adds Howard: “Aunty Patsy made the history come alive. She told stories of her Aboriginal ancestors and the rich lives they led until the desperate times of invasion and colonisation by squatters and the red coats of the British army. She spoke of pirates and bushrangers, escaped convicts and ticket of leave men who roamed that country and that island coastline in the early 1800s, as well as the Straitsmen and Aboriginal women eeking out a living on the Furneaux Islands. But the stories Aunty Patsy tells are not just about tragedy. They’re about a thriving and dynamic community before the colonisers came. Martin forwarded me a copy of the draft of the book, Trouwerner and I soon found myself adrift on an ocean of history that was inspiring, revealing, compelling, awakening, heartbreaking, anger-inducing and filled with the truth we all need to hear.”
trouwenner by Aunty Patsy Cameron and Martin Flangan is available through Magabala Books.
ADVERTISE WITH LISTENING THROUGH THE LENS
More Music Adventures Await!
New Single Shane Howard
***
