Fanny Cochrane Smith

Fanny Cochrane Smith, (ca. 1834 - 1905) [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110661b.htm Smith, Fanny Cochrane (1834 - 1905)] Australian Dictionary of Biography Online ] was a Tasmanian Aborigine, born December 1834 after relocation of Tasmania's indigenous population to Wybalena, Flinders Island.

She went on to have 11 children, and a large percentage of the present Aboriginal community in Tasmania are her descendants. She is well known for her wax-cylinder recordings of Aboriginal songs, made in 1903, which comprise the only audio recordings of an indigenous Tasmanian language. There was some dispute at the time of her death as to whether she or Truganini was the last full-blood Tasmanian Aborigine. [ [http://www.women.tas.gov.au/significantwomen/search/fanny_smith.html Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834 – 1905) Tasmanian Aboriginal] Significant Tasmanian Women Project]

She died of pneumonia and pleurisy at Port Cygnet, 1905-02-24.

The recording of Smith's songs was the subject of a 1998 song by Australian folk singer Bruce Watson, "The Man and the Woman and the Edison Phonograph". [ [http://www.msa.org.au/MSA_Newsletter63.htm Musicological Society of Australia] ] Watson's grandfather, Horace Watson, had been responsible for making the Smith recordings. A photograph of Fanny Cochrane Smith and Horace Watson is displayed in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.

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* [http://images.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/Search/Search.asp?Letter=S&Subject=Smith%2C+Fanny+Cochrane+-+1834%3F-1905 State Library of Tasmania Images] Photos of Smith, Fanny Cochrane