Mannalargenna Day
Celebrating and Sharing Our Culture
Our annual Mannalargenna Day Festival is our main community event of the year. Mannalargenna Day celebrates our great Ancestor and formidable warrior/leader Mannalargenna, who was born on Tebrakunna Country in the far northeast and died on 4th December 1835 in exile at Wybalenna.
Mannalargenna Day is also a great opportunity for us to share culture with people.
Mannalargenna
Mannalargenna was the leader of the Pairrebeenne/Trawlwoolway clan of the Coastal Plains Nations at Tebrakunna (north-east Tasmania). Mannalargenna Day honours him for his contribution to the survival of Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples and cultures.
From 1831 to 1835, Mannalargenna worked with British colonial officers, attempting to resolve the conflict between their peoples in a diplomatic way. Ultimately 200 Aboriginal survivors of the war were removed to Flinders Island. Mannalargenna had been falsely promised they would one day be able to return.
All but 47 of them died, including Mannalargenna, who died of pneumonia after he, too, was exiled. Before he died, Mannalargenna had negotiated unions for his sister and four daughters with British seamen. Many Aboriginal Tasmanian people trace their lineage through these unions.
‘At the same time, he also represents a willingness to try and negotiate a diplomatic solution. He stands for resistance and cultural strength, but also a pragmatic desire to try and work out a way to live together. I think that resonates right through to today, 200 years later, with the ongoing need for reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people’, says Aunty Patsy Cameron AO.
Celebrating a Hero
Mannalargenna Day is celebrated every year at Little Musselroe Bay on the first Saturday of December. The bay was the final sight of their country by Mannalargenna and other Aboriginal Tasmanians as they departed the coast for Flinders Island.
MTWAC wanted to create a safe and inclusive space for reconnection to country and culture after a difficult history of dislocation and removal and challenges around contested identity.
The first Mannalargenna Day was held in 2015 with about 60 participants, most of whom were MTWAC members and family. It quickly grew to several hundred because the MTWAC made a conscious decision to make the day as inclusive as possible. This was so that the broader community could learn too. In 2024, over a thousand people attended for the 10th anniversary of Mannalargenna Day.
Culture, Country and Community
From the very first gathering, interested visitors were welcomed to participate fully in all aspects of the day and return year after year to advance their learning journey. ‘We allow people to wear our ochre. It’s about tangibly having part of Country on you and understanding that. They see our dance; they see our smoking ceremony”.
‘They get so much out of it each year that they want to come back and connect again… we invite people to continue their learning” Jo Cameron (Director).
Entry is free and the events of the day include cultural performances, food, walks, tours, storytelling, artistic and language workshops, Art Exhibition and artist markets displaying art from Tasmanian Artists.
Participants are encouraged to ask questions and to engage in conversation. It is about learning through the sharing of information but also through the direct experience of culture and of being on Country.
The day is a generous offering of Aboriginal experiences inviting non-Aboriginal people to see the area and history through an Aboriginal lens.
