In the 1820s, a girl named Truganini lost her mother to whalers, her uncle to soldiers, and her sister to sealers, all before she'd finished growing up. It was the world the Black War created on the island now called Tasmania, lutruwita, a conflict that killed an estimated sixty percent of the entire Aboriginal population within less than a decade and remains one of the most intense, sustained colonial conflicts in this country's history.

This episode covers how the war escalated from isolated violence to martial law and the Black Line, the largest domestic military operation ever mounted on Australian soil. We follow Truganini's complicated path through it, as negotiator, survivor, and eventually the woman colonial authorities falsely declared the last of an extinct people. We also look at what happened to her remains after death, how the palawa community survived and rebuilt their language against every official prediction, and where the fight for a Treaty in Tasmania stands right now, in 2026.

Content warning: this episode covers an extended period of historical violence, including widespread killing, sexual violence against women, and the deaths of children. It also discusses the exhumation and display of human remains. If anything raises something for you, 13YARN (13 92 76) is a 24/7 crisis line staffed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.