wukalina guide FEATURES on Brand Tasmania website AND GIVES WELCOME TO COUNTRY

Carleeta Rose Helen Thomas is a proud pakana woman of North East lutruwita/Tasmania who was born on Cape Barren Island. She has been a guide on wukalina Walk since it launched in 2018. Carleeta shares her story with Brand Tasmania about her Ancestors, her traditional homeland, shell stringing and finding her path.

"A lot of our community comes from women who were taken by sealers to Cape Barren Island. They obviously went through some very hard times.

Mannalargenna, the chief warrior of the North East Nation, had a really hard choice, seeing women and children being taken. He gave up four of his daughters to the sealers. These strong-willed women and their children, who went through such hard times not being allowed to practice their culture, continued little bits of tradition, kept it alive, and brought it all the way to today.

The first time I came to wukalina was the first time I came to my actual homeland. This is the exact spot where the trawlwulwuy clan of the North East Nation lived. We link back to Mannalargenna. I felt a sense of connection the way I feel when I am home over on Cape Barren, very much in the presence of my Ancestors.

I came into this job when I was very young. I was only 18. It gave me an opportunity to go out with Aunties, to collect shells, them teaching me how to string and to weave. My nan passed when I was very young so I didn’t get to learn from her. This is the revival of our culture: the weaving, the necklaces, the language… I am learning so much.

Our women, traditionally, were the sea gatherers and men were the land hunters. We would go out and gather all the shellfish and all the kelp, do the weaving, catch all the seals. Being able to grow up on Cape Barren and to go on the beach, to collect shells, and now to work with Aunties, even to share techniques, is so special for me.

Being able to come out here, as a job, and to make our guests feel that same sense of connection to our country and our ancestors, a part of our community, to tell the story, is such an amazing feeling.

My family have been mutton birding for generations. The way I learned the process was through my mum, my uncles, and my dad. The first time I was probably four or five. I helped catch and then I would go sit with my mum and aunties, to learn the process. It’s very hard work but that atmosphere, that togetherness, is like no other. We haven’t changed any aspect of the process since our old fellas were out doing it.

When I started I didn’t have any background in speaking to groups. I had none of that confidence in high school. You just need that couple of people who see that thing in you, that potential, to build you up over time. I would like to do that with a younger female who is struggling, trying to find her path. A lot of our younger ones lack that connection. I never thought I would be doing anything like this. Four years ago I couldn’t have imagined it.”

Carleeta Thomas is one of 18 people who call lutruwita/Tasmania home to be featured in this short Brand Tasmania film. Her scene was filmed at wukalina Walk’s standing camp, krakani lumi, on Trawlwoolway Country in Tasmania’s North East.

When Carleeta was invited by Brand Tasmania to give the Welcome to Country at Brand Tasmania events in nipaluna/Hobart and Launceston on July 20 and 21, which Premier Peter Gutwein attended, this proud palawa woman spoke her truth:

My name is Carleeta Thomas, I am a palawa woman from truwana / Cape Barren Island. Today I am here to welcome you on to this country, to acknowledge my people, the traditional owners of the land on which we stand. I pay my respects to Elders past and present. 

I am here today thanks to nine strong Aboriginal women, who despite being taken from their family and country - survived. 

I feel the strength of those nine women in the way I live my life everyday, they help me express myself on my cultural homeland where I am a guide at the wukalina Walk – a journey where guests walk alongside us while learning of natural food and medicines, of our history and of our future, while enjoying the world class accommodation we offer.  

palawa are the original story tellers of lutruwita, in oral traditions such as ours, telling stories is how we pass on the history and teachings of our ancestors. 

In this way Brand Tasmania has adopted a process we have perfected over 60 000 years. 

Through the use of storytelling, Brand Tasmania have not only learned of the ways Tasmanians perceive lutruwita, but also of how Tasmania is home to one of the most ancient civilisations in the world and of how my community has valued and cared for this land. 

Clearly, a Tasmanian Brand is one that embraces Aboriginal culture and people and I wish them every success as they seek to further embrace this concept as they reach out to audiences across the globe to tell our story and that of all Tasmanians.

In the meantime, I urge you to listen to our voices. I urge you to recognise our contribution and cultural knowledge. I urge you to recognise the role we can play in helping to heal the spirit of this country. 

I urge you to show up and stand with our community as allies. I urge you to call out comments or behaviours which reinforce stereotypes about our community and I urge you to be proud we are still here, standing strong – we are, and always will be, the original Tasmanian Brand – without us Tasmania would not be the place it is today.

Finally, I urge you to lean into the ancientness and original culture of lutruwita. By doing so you will indeed epitomise the very essence of the Tasmanian Brand.