How I Got Here

The fall of 2006 I began my senior year at University of Maine Farmington, as a history major. The previous year I had happened upon the memoirs of a few American men transported by the British to Tasmania as criminals for participating in the Canadian Rebellion in 1838. I chose that as the topic of my capstone project. My advisor, Dr. Ken Orosz, himself a Fulbright alum, suggested I consider applying for a Fulbright Scholarship to Australia.

The Fulbright program, through the U.S. Department of State, provides the opportunity for Americans to travel to other countries and citizens of those other countries to travel to the U.S. It allows for professional and academic research and cultural exchange. For more information, go to http://us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html.

I discovered that the Archives Office of Tasmania holds the convict records, and that Dr. Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, co-author of a book on these men, teaches at the University of Tasmania. Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, was clearly the place I wanted to be. After Dr. Maxwell-Stewart agreed to work with me should I be granted a scholarship, I began the long application process. By October I had mailed the application and tried not to spend too much time wondering about it.

In March of 2007 I was informed that I had been selected as an alternate Fulbright Scholar. I didn’t hear further news, so started my graduate studies at the University of Maine in September. It was the same month when I found out that I would be able to go because more funding was available, and my flurry of preparations began.

I landed in Hobart the afternoon of February 21, and will be in Australia until November 17. This is the Australian academic year. The University of Tasmania is generously letting me audit a course each semester; this semester I’m enjoying Historical Indigenous Australia. Most of my time will be spent in Hobart, but I’ll also be travelling around Tasmania and making two or three trips to mainland Australia. (Anyone unfamiliar with Australian geography can look at http://www.aus-emaps.com/ to familiarize themselves.)

There are days, and moments, when this all seems a bit surreal. For instance, I sat down on a bench in Franklin Square and looked at the statue of Sir John Franklin. Best known for his polar expeditions, Franklin spent a few years as the lieutenant governor of Van Diemen’s Land (the former name of Tasmania). The American men who I am here to study arrived when Franklin was in charge, and in their memoirs vilified him. Franklin’s statue has graceful water fountains around it that cascade inwards, drawing the eyes of passers-by to his aristocratic pose. The statue clearly indicates that Franklin was a man worthy of respect. Then, starting on the top of his head and dripping down his forehead, are trails of bird poop. I found it amusing, and like to think that the American convicts would also have appreciated the irony.

When I started that application process a year and a half ago in Farmington, I never could have imagined this. It really is a dream come true.