Presented by: Susan Marsden, AM, BA (Hons), PhD, MPHA
1836 culminated in the arrival by ship in South Australia of the first official settlers and the Governor’s first proclamation of government at Holdfast Bay on 28 December 1836. Charles Hill’s celebrated large historical painting, titled, The Proclamation of South Australia 1836, 1857/1876, depicts the people at this first proclamation ceremony. There are dozens of women, men and children; Kaurna and British; official, military and civilian. They are all – both First People and second – at the beginning of becoming South Australian, and making ‘South Australia’. Many of the participants and observers are named in a key by the artist. I’ve completed an illustrated book (in press, Wakefield Press) titled Mr Hill’s History Painting. I’ll speak about my exploration of these first South Australians in the book, framed around Hill’s painting, and now on display at Government House. The painting provides a starting point, narrative and structure for the book, that provides a fresh look at the best-known event in South Australia’s history in its global context of mass migration, colonial settlement and first contact between Aboriginal and European people.
Presented by National Trust of South Australia, History Trust of South Australia, & Ayers House Function Centre