http://www.utas.edu.au/telling-places-in-country/historical-context/historical-biographies/mannalargenna
The Tasmanian seal fur trade was a major industry for about 20 yearsin the early days of European settlement.
This industry was exploitative of more than just the native seals; italso saw many Aboriginal women and children captured and used as workers in the trade.
'The main relationship was actually between Tasmanian Aboriginal womenand seals,' says Greg Lehman.
European sealers soon realised that Tasmanian Aboriginal women knew a lot about how to track, catch and kill seals, so they decided to usetheir knowledge to their own advantage.
'There was a division of labour [In Aboriginal society], or a control of resources, that was split between men and women and by and large women had responsibility and there for control of all the resources that came from the sea,' says Greg.
For many of the sealers, this was a perfect match; they wanted women who could work for them in the seal fur trade as well as to use for sex. Consequently, many Aboriginal women were kidnapped by sealers, some when they were little more than babies.
One of the sealer women was Woretemoeteyenner, the daughter ofManalargenna.
It seems Woretemoeteyenner may have been given to the sealer George Briggs by her father, perhaps as an attempt by Manalargenna of makinga peaceful connection between Aboriginal people and white men.
Woretemoeteyenner went to live with George Briggs in 1810 and the pair had five children. However, Briggs didn't stay with Woretemoeteyenner, instead he sold her to John Thomas, another sealer, and kidnapped another Aboriginal woman for himself in 1820.
The sealers spent most of their time on Tasmania's remote islands, where the seals where, but they killed so many seals, it wasn't long before the numbers in Tasmania made the trade unviable in Tasmania, so many set sail for other seal colonies around the world, taking theirAboriginal women with them.
'The interesting thing about Woretemoeteyenner, and something that most people when they think about Tasmanian Aborigines would never imagine, was that she was a world traveller,' says Greg.
Woretemoeteyenner was part of a sealing party on a long-range trip, starting in Western Australia before setting sail for St Paul's Island in 1825.
The ship hit some bad weather and they were unable to land. The captain claimed he was running low on food and decided to drop of fWoretemoeteyenner, the other Aboriginal women and one sealer known asTaylor, on the Island of Rodrigues.
Woretemoeteyenner waited for about seven months for the ship to return before making her way, with the other women, to Mauritius.
Woretemoeteyenner lived on Mauritius until the Mauritian administrators petitioned the Governor of NSW in 1827 to pay for the return of the remaining Aboriginal women to Australia.
Three women and one child made it back to Sydney more than three years after they first set sail.
Woretemoeteyenner managed to find her way back to Tasmania and was taken to Wybalenna by George Augustus Robinson in 1830. At the time it was noted that Woretemoeteyenner had flat oval stones marked in red and black to remember lost friends and that she could speak some French.
In 1841 Woretemoeteyenner's daughter Dolly petitioned to have her mother released into her care, meaning Woretemoeteyenner could finally live out her days with her grandchildren, no longer the possession of any man