Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land 1838

John Glover created "Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land" amidst the backdrop of British colonization in what is now Tasmania, Australia. Glover, an English artist who emigrated to Van Diemen's Land in 1831, aimed to capture the essence of the Australian landscape. Here, we see an attempt to depict Aboriginal people within their native environment. However, consider how Glover's artistic choices might reflect the colonial gaze of the time. Are the Indigenous figures romanticized, their presence serving to legitimize European settlement? Does the landscape become a stage upon which the drama of colonization plays out? Glover himself expressed a desire to represent the "real" Tasmania, yet his perspective was inevitably shaped by his own cultural background. The painting invites us to reflect on the complexities of representation, identity, and the ways in which art can both reveal and conceal the historical realities of colonial encounters.