Palawa youth lead Devonport rally demanding land rights and treaty

‘Where the bad was, we can always make it good again:’ The next generation of Tasmanian Aboriginals are still calling for land back as they celebrate in the state’s northwest for NAIDOC week.

Ben Harlow-Charlton, Jazmin Wheatley, Krystelle Jordan, Junior Pakana ranger Holly Brown, 15, and David Lowery at NAIDOC rally 2025. Picture: Elise Kaine

The next generation of Palawa leaders, artists, warriors and healers are making their mark and having their voices heard, leading a rally through the streets of Devonport / Limilinaturi while calling for land rights.

23-year-old Palawa woman and Pakana Ranger Jazmin Wheatley spoke passionately to the young people in the crowd who have not experienced land hand backs in their lifetime.

The last land that was given back to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community by government and not from private donors, was Cape Barron Island in 2005, when Ms Wheatley was just three-years-old.

Jazmine Wheatley's parents fought for land back at Wybalenna and now she is leading the charge for more land returns. Picture: Elise Kaine

To mark the start of NAIDOC week, Ms Wheatley held a flag-raising ceremony at Wybalenna on Flinders Island.

“We chose the spot because my family and our people sat there and rallied to get Wybalenna back in the 90s so we thought it was really important to honour them in that space,” she said.

The Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment was an internment facility built at Flinders Island by the colonial British government of Van Diemen’s Land in 1834.

The massacres that took place there are still in living memory and a plaque on a table in the backyard of the Wybalenna chapel has a poem written by Aboriginal elder Aunty Ida West in 1995 which reads:

“It’s pretty important, you know, the land, it doesn’t matter how small, it’s something … Just a little sacred site, that’s Wybalenna, there was a massacre there, sad thing there, but we try not to go over that. Where the bad was, we can always make it good again.”

Wybalenna Chapel on Flinders Island. Picture: Elise Kaine

107 Tasmanian Aboriginals were killed on Flinders Island between January 1837 and March 1839.

“For our young Palawa and Pakana there hasn’t been any land returned in their lifetime,” Ms Wheatley said.

“It’s extremely important, there is so much land that could be returned to us and it just hasn’t.

“It’s really important to have places where we want to gather.”

Ms Wheatley addressed the crowd on the last day of NAIDOC week at a rally in Devonport on Friday.

The crowd marched loudly through the streets chanting a message demanding land rights.

Devonport Palawa woman Krystelle Jordan said it was important to continue to “speak truth on the streets of the north west”.

Pakana rangers light a fire at Devonport NAIDOC rally 2025. Picture: Elise Kaine

Respected Aboriginal elder Michael Mansell reminded attendees to vote for Aboriginal rights in the upcoming state election.

He said up until 1951 it was illegal for Aboriginal people to get a beer on Cape Barron Island.

When he was a child in Launceston, dark skin Aboriginal people were refused service in pubs because of their race.

“We must remember that as a people, all of those stories make up who we are.”

“It’s our land, not theirs.

“We shouldn’t be told to be inclusive of all of Tasmania when we have an all white parliament in Hobart with not a single Aboriginal there to represent us.

“And they call it representative democracy. When are we going to be represented? When are we going to get land back?

“I don’t care who is in government, I don’t care who is elected, they are able to- if they want to- return land to the real owners.” Mr Mansell told the crowd.

Originally published as Palawa youth lead Devonport rally demanding land rights and treaty