Joel Birnie: My People’s Songs: How an Indigenous Family Survived Colonial Tasmania

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joel Stephen Birnie chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while crafting My People’s Songs: How an Indigenous Family Survived Colonial Tasmania, his historical biography of his earliest known ancestral grandmother and her two surviving daughters. These three extraordinary matriarchs fought for the Indigenous communities they founded in Tasmania, sparking a tradition of social justice that continues in Joel’s family today.

 Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• You’ll meet Tarenootairer, Joel’s earliest known ancestral grandmother, and her two surviving daughters, Mary Ann Arthur and Fanny Cochrane Smith.
• Why Joel felt compelled to write My People’s Songs and his goal in writing the book. 
• Why Joel chose to structure My People’s Songs around three self-contained biographies of Tarenootairer, Mary Ann and Fanny and why he shared their stories from their perspective and in their voices. 
• How Mary Ann’s fight for autonomy laid the foundation for contemporary Indigenous politics.
• How he chose to portray Mary Ann’s role as a voice of self-empowerment for Tasmania’s Indigenous people. 
• Fanny’s skilled and tenacious political advocacy despite intense opposition from Tasmanian politicians and some sections of the media. 
• Fanny’s challenge to the false declaration of Indigenous Tasmanian extinction and why this was, and still is, crucial. 
• Joel’s research strategy given that few archival records exist of Indigenous peoples’ lives in 19th century Tasmania and those that are available lack an Indigenous perspective. They are also tainted by colonial half-truths, interpretations and propaganda. 

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