Our Impact

Since our beginnings, MTWAC has worked to create lasting, positive change for Country, community and Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

What began with a strong connection to our ancestral Country and a determination to protect and share our culture has grown into practical work across land management, cultural heritage, education, employment and training, language, community and cultural renewal.

Our impact can be seen in healthier Country, stronger connections to culture, opportunities for Aboriginal people to work and learn on Country, growing partnerships and the passing of knowledge between generations. Most importantly, it is about building a strong future in which our people continue to care for Country, tell our own stories and keep culture strong.

An idea evolved to establish a visitor and education centre at the wind farm, that could house information about local Aboriginal history and living culture alongside information about the wind farm. Aunty Patsy met with the CEO of Hydro Tasmania and put it to him: “you have the lease of our ancestral lands for the next 25 or so years, we want you to do something to honour our ancestors and our people who care for Country today … we want people to know about the Aboriginal stories of this land, we want to control our story and our culture”. He asked what she wanted and she said, “an education and information centre” and he said “done!”

A site was selected to overlook the historically significant coastline of Little Musselroe Bay and Swan Island, where the Pairrebeener people and their famed leader Mannalargenna were first exiled in 1830 as a result of colonisation. Plans for the Tebrakunna Visitors Centre were developed in partnership, which now boasts a wonderful view of both the turbines and the commanding landscape. The building represents the shape of a traditional stone structure that is recorded as being 12 metres long and housing up to 40 people in a half a moon shape, which Aunty Patsy provided to the architect as a concept.

Aunty Patsy curated the telling of Pairrebeener stories, photos and artefacts, which now sit in a prominent spot in the visitors’ centre. The construction costs of the centre were covered by the wind farm as part of the capital costs of the construction. It is open almost every day of the year, attracting thousands of visitors a year, and the operation costs are paid by the wind farm.

The two organisations also worked together to do cultural plantings around the centre. Aunty Patsy describes “of course the wombats have taken over now! And it’s a bit wild. But that is part of it being a cultural site”.

The centre has given MTWAC a place to bring people to share culture, tell truth and run education activities. “It's given us a space to convene, to bring people, to explain our history and to host events. It gave us a physical space to be on Country. "Just to be on our ancestral homeland is so significant”, explains Aunty Patsy. In this way, it has been a central enabler for performing and sharing living culture and was the site for the first Mannalargenna Day celebration. MTWAC also run cultural sensitivity training at the centre, which they feel is essential for truth-telling and reconciliation