Joel Stephen Birnie is an academic, visual artist and filmmaker. Raised predominantly by his Indigenous Tasmanian family, he proudly embraces a multi-ethnic heritage from across the globe. Joel's creative work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals across Australia, including in Darwin, Sydney, Adelaide and at the Koori Heritage Trust in Melbourne. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies and a Master of Fine Arts, and in 2019 completed a PhD at Monash, which focused on deconstructing and reconstructing the 150 years of European colonisation in Tasmania from a familial (Indigenous) perspective.
Over a hundred years, Joel Stephen Birnie’s ancestors Tarenootairer, and her daughters Mary Ann and Fanny Cochrane, endured abduction, rape, enslavement, destitution, despair and disease, while their family and their world died before their eyes. But they were not broken, and Fanny Cochrane’s voice comes to us still to declare their truth. A brilliant and harrowing recreation of lives once treated so cheaply. -- Janet McCalman A brilliant and harrowing recreation of lives once treated so cheaply. -- Janet McCalman In this bold and original book the author shows how one of Tasmania’s best known Indigenous families survived colonial policies of extermination and extinction. A tour de force. -- Lyndall Ryan A tour de force. -- Lyndall Ryan