Truganini (c. 1812– 8 May 1876) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian woman of the Nuenonne people who was once widely described as the last surviving Aboriginal Tasmanian. She grew up on Bruny Island and saw the death and displacement of much of Tasmania's Aboriginal population during the Black War. She accompanied George Augustus Robinson as a guide on expeditions that resulted in the exile of Tasmania's remaining Aboriginal population; Truganini herself was exiled to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment after the expeditions in 1835. She spent a period in the Port Phillip District (modern-day Victoria) where she was tried and acquitted for involvement in the murder of two whalers. She was later moved to Oyster Cove, where by 1872 she was the only Aboriginal resident left and was mythologised as the last of her race. The narrative that Truganini was the last Aboriginal Tasmanian is rejected by scholars and by the contemporary Aboriginal Tasmanian community. She has become a symbol of what some have characterised as the genocide of Indigenous Australians. ( Full article... )
May 7 : National Day of Prayer in the United States (2026)
| | Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa (7 May 1836 – 21 January 1874) was a British operatic soprano who established the Carl Rosa Opera Company together with her husband Carl Rosa. Parepa's aristocratic father died soon after her birth, and her mother turned to the stage to support them. Parepa made her operatic debut in 1855, at age 16, and soon earned enthusiastic reviews in the major London opera houses. In 1867, following the death of her first husband, Parepa married the violinist and conductor Carl Rosa in New York, and they founded an opera company with Parepa as the leading lady. They toured successfully in America for several years. After their return to Britain with ambitious plans for their opera company, Parepa fell ill and died in 1874 at only 37 years of age. Photograph credit: Jeremiah Gurney; restored by Adam Cuerden Recently featured: |