Mathinna (Tasmanian)
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Mathinna (1835 – 1856) was an indigenous Australian girl, who was adopted and later abandoned by the Governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin.
Mathinna was born as Mary on Flinders Island, Tasmania to the Chief of the Lowreenne tribe, Towgerer, and his wife Wongerneep but the tribe was captured by Robinson in 1833. Mary was renamed Mathinna when adopted by Governor Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer, and his wife, Lady Jane Franklin, and was raised with Sir John's daughter Eleanor.
When Sir and Lady Franklin returned to England, they left Mathinna at Queen’s Orphan School in Hobart in 1843. Only eight years old, she found it difficult to adjust to her new surroundings. She was sent back to Flinders Island in 1844, at the age of nine, and then sent back to Queen's Orphan School.
Mathinna thereafter had problems with alcohol. Most aboriginals of the time did, and failed to recover. She had become unpopular with the aboriginals because of her liking for the white-skinned culture, and her desperate need for more wealth. As her drinking continued, she drowned in a puddle while drunk in 1856 as she left a white settler's cottage. She was only 21 years old.
The town of Mathinna is named after her.
