Island Story: Tasmania in Object and Text
Ralph Crane and Danielle Wood
A handsome full-colour book pairing unique items from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery with selections of original writing about the southern island.
Indigenous dispossession, a cruel penal history, gay-rights battles; exceptional landscapes, unusual wildlife, environmental activism; colonial architecture, arts and crafts, a thriving creative scene—all are part of the story of Tasmania. And they find their expression in the unparalleled collection of Hobart’s TMAG.
In Island Story, Ralph Crane and Danielle Wood select almost sixty representative TMAG objects: from shell necklaces to a convict cowl, colonial scrimshaw to a thylacine pincushion, contemporary photography to a film star’s travelling case. Each is matched to texts old and new, by writers as diverse as Anthony Trollope, Marie Bjelke-Petersen, Helene Chung, Jim Everett, Heather Rose and Ben Walter.
This is the perfect gift for anyone interested in the island everyone is talking about.
Island Story was launched by Professor Rufus Black, vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania; you can read a transcript of his excellent speech here.
INTERVIEWS and REVIEWS
ABC Hobart: Your Afternoon (05:30)
ABC Radio National: Late Night Live
AU Review
The Conversation
Daily Telegraph ($)
andIsland Story
‘While the twenty-four stories in this beautiful anthology range from colonial to contemporary times, they have a common theme—a pervading sense of the landscape.’
‘The collection is strong…The editors pull no punches.’
‘Offers readers a glimpse into the imagery and symbolism that has come to shape how outsiders perceive the island.’
‘Island Story is a tribute to everything visitors and locals alike love about Tasmania, as well as an exploration of the darker corners of the islands past.’
‘[Island Story] is like a carefully curated exhibition, designed to stimulate and provoke…There is so much of interest here…A satisfying feast of Tasmaniana.’
