Fanny, Trucanini, Lootawinni – Lunawanna Alonnah (Fanny, Trucanini & the kids – Bruny Island)

Uncle Rodney Dillon once told me that Grandmother Smith and Trucanini were great friends during their lifetime and that Truc would take Fanny’s eleven kids over to Bruny Island to teach them cultural ways. As Fanny was the only survivor of Oyster Cove to leave descendants, her children were the hope for the future.

Fanny and Trucanini’s baskets were exhibited at TMAG as part of “taypani milaythina-tu: Return to Country” in 2022, on loan from Museums Victoria. My painting not only returns Fanny and Truc’s baskets to Nuenonne country, but reunites Fanny and Truc with each other, the kids and their country, reimagining as John Glover once did in his paintings, a happier time for this Tasmanian Aboriginal family.