STORYLINES
STORIES OF PLACE AND PEOPLE
Storylines
Storylines are the threads of life through which we connect, share, and build meaning. Storylines help to communicate our values and what is important to us, individually and collectively. Through the practice of storytelling, we can build a shared sense of place and connect the threads that run between the past and the future. This project was named after the Islander Way - a way of being, doing and understanding place.
The story of nature-human relationships
The story of the Islander Way Regenerative Living Lab
The story of the Aboriginal people of lutruwita
The story of place - Brand Tasmania
The stories of our people and communities
THE STORY OF HUMAN-NATURE RELATIONS
If we can revise our attitude toward the land under our feet; if we can accept the role of steward and depart from the role of conquerer; if we can accept the view that man and nature are inseparable parts of the unified whole, then Tasmania can be a shining beacon in a dull, uniform, and largely artificial world.
This vanishing world is beautiful beyond our dreams and contains in itself rewards and gratifications never found in artificial landscapes or man made objects so often regarded as exciting evidence of a new world in the making.
Olegas Truchanas
Tasmanian photographer and environmental activist 1923-1972
THE STORY OF THE PALAWA PEOPLE
lutruwita
My people know the Furneaux archipelago by its first name, tayaritja.
These islands have long harboured the traditions, histories, language and culture of the Aboriginal people of lutruwita. Where this remoteness was once considered a convenient means of exile by colonial invaders, this archipelago has offered a communal way of life that has protected and nourished Aboriginal cultural identity for generations. Long-held traditions have flourished here, and these islands have always offered harbour for communal togetherness, economic independence, and sheltered language and lore.
These islands also remind the world of unkept promises made to the palawa pakana community over nearly two-hundred years. This is a place to say something profound. The world is interested in our story. The world wants to experience it. It is a story that only this community can offer. The right to tell it belongs entirely to us. Perhaps more than any other place, Wybalenna is a place for Truth.
There are opportunities on the horizon, which the Aboriginal community is ready to engage. These opportunities are about Truth-telling, self-determining an economic future, and continuing and strengthening our important cultural practices and traditions on Country.
The initiatives of The Islander Way acknowledge the opportunity to engage in something that our community has always known. For Country to regenerate, it must renew, undiminished, across generations. Whatever is taken must be returned in equal measure and more, for the future.
Rebecca Digney
Manager, Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania
Complex places have complex stories, they produce complex people, and they require complex actions.
Sarah Lebski, Designing Tourism
THE STORY OF THE PROJECT
THE ISLANDER WAY
Numbers are useful in describing places: Flinders Island lies on the 40th parallel south. There are 933 people on Flinders Island of which 15% are Aboriginal people. There are 463 people in the workforce, but only 233 work full-time. The average age of the population is 58 years. The Island's economy is dominated by agriculture, which produces approximately 15% of Tasmania's beef and 9% of its sheep production. Annually, the Island receives approximately 7,500 visitors who spend 38,500 nights on the Island.
A STORY IS MORE THAN NUMBERS
But numbers can't describe anxiety and frustration. Despite being a relatively small number of visitors, in 2019 it was the perception of overtourism, and a rejection of the way tourism was being 'done' to the Island, that triggered the community's questioning of tourism's social license. As a result, the idea of a regenerative tourism living lab was born.
COMPLEX PLACES REQUIRE COMPLEX ACTIONS
Complex places have complex stories. In the case of Tasmania, Aboriginal dispossession, a cruel penal history, a succession of settlement processes from sealers to soldier settlers, all set within extraordinary landscapes and ecologies, have created a complex tapestry of relationships.
In the Furneaux Group of Islands, of which Flinders Island is the largest, these complex stories give rise to complicated relationships. It's a population of full-time and part-time residents, extended families with intergenerational connections, and new arrivals who have found their forever home, and they all have stories to tell.
The people of Flinders Island have an intimate relationship with the past, and a strong sense of belonging and environmental stewardship. Isolation builds the hardiness, ingenuity and innovation necessary to solve local challenges. Shiny new template solutions or 'people from away' telling the Islanders what to do is sure to be met with resistance.
WHAT IS THE ISLANDER WAY REGENERATIVE LIVING LAB?
The "Islander Way"was a two year project that sought to get to the root cause of the community's challenges. It asked questions like "What is it that really concerns you?" and "How might the visitor economy contribute to the economic, social and environmental resilience of the Island and its communities?" The project aimed to undertake a deep community engagement exercise and to co-design projects that would address these issues. The aspiration was that tourism could be the economic driver for the sustainable funding of these community initiatives.
The Islander Way project was an opportunity to redesign tourism with and through the Islanders. It started with deep listening, community engagement and envisioning a flourishing future. Six community-led co-designed projects and 40+ actions emerged aimed at activating the local economy, environmental stewardship, and building social capital. The local chamber of commerce did not support the project, despite widespread community support. As a result, a new generation of leaders and activators has emerged to create the Furneaux Collective. The Collective will act as the voice of community, and to take the co-designed projects on the next phase of the journey.
Listening to the stories of the Island and its people, and discovering how these stories are woven together in a love of place, provides a solid foundation for The Islander Way journey ahead.
THE STORY OF PLACE
THE ISLANDER WAY
The first thing you will notice, on Flinders and the Furneaux group of islands, is the breathtaking scenery. In every direction, what you see is like nothing else in the world. It’s deeper than quiet beaches and coastlines, mountains and mist. These islands have a rich and dark history, and an intensely passionate community that wants to reckon with its past and build the right future together. No-one is here because it is the easiest place to live. Everyone is here because it is different. When something works on these islands it tends to be small and special. As the rest of the world chases growth, we chase meaning. The core of our culture is to be true to who we are, to try to live on what can we find or grow on our rich land and in our waters, to support each other. When a crisis strikes one of us, it strikes all of us. Many of our family businesses have been here for generations, evolving yet never abandoning the spirit of this place. Artists and artisans are here to create and connect. We have a complex relationship with change because we understand what it can bring. It’s different here and we make different invitations to visitors: for an unforgettable time on Flinders Island, learn to be one of us for a few days, a week, or the rest of your life. Slow down, get lost, co-contribute, connect. Don’t try to change this place. Let this place change you. The Furneaux Festival celebrates our Aboriginal history, our ancient and modern cultural traditions, our art, even our complications. Our Council and Community launched it as a gently provocative and intensely alternative to Australia Day – the first in the country. Quiet is a word you will hear often on Flinders Island. The Tasmanian story is the quiet pursuit of the extraordinary, and on Flinders it is aged and distilled: quieter, harder, yet more rewarding, more mysterious, more connected, more complicated, more extraordinary.
BRAND TASMANIA
THE STORIES OF PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
