1. Truganini lived through the devastation of invasion and the Black War in which most of her relatives died, avoiding death herself by being assigned as a guide in expeditions organised to capture and forcibly exile all the remaining Indigenous Tasmanians.
Truganini was later taken to the Port Phillip District where she engaged in armed resistance against the colonists.
Truganini herself was then exiled, first to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island and then to Oyster Cove in southern Tasmania.
Truganini died at Hobart in 1876, her skeleton later being placed on public display at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery until 1948.
Truganini's remains were finally cremated and laid to rest in 1976.
In being mythologised as "the last of her people", Truganini became the tragic and triumphal symbol of the conquest of British colonists over an "inferior race".
In modern times, Truganini's life has become representative of both the dispossession and destruction that was exacted upon Indigenous Australians and their determination to survive the colonial genocidal policies that were enforced against them.
Truganini was widely known by the nickname Lalla Rookh, and called Lydgugee.
Truganini was born around 1812 at Recherche Bay in southern Tasmania.
Truganini's father was Manganerer, a senior figure of the Nuenonne people whose country extended from Recherche Bay across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island.
Truganini's mother was probably a Ninine woman from the area around Port Davey.
Around 1816, a group of British sailors raided the camp of Truganini's family, stabbing her mother to death.
Truganini was an exceptional swimmer and provided further food for her people by diving for abalone and other shellfish.
Truganini even took Truganini and her cousin Dray to Hobart dressed in fine European dresses to display them to the Lieutenant-Governor as being examples of his ability to "civilise the natives".
The mission left Bruny Island in early 1830 with Truganini playing a very important role not only as an linguistic interpreter on local Aboriginal language and culture, but by providing much of the seafood for the group.
None of the men in the expedition could swim, so Truganini did most of the work pushing the other group members on small rafts across the various rivers they encountered.
On meeting Truganini, the kidnapped women cried with joy as Robinson negotiated their release.
Truganini duplicitously used a Pairelehoinner youth named Tunnerminnerwait to gather some of the local people, who he shipped to Launceston to claim the bounty.
Joseph Fossey, the superintendent for the Van Diemen's Land Company, meanwhile took an interest in Truganini and wanted her as an "evening companion".
Truganini's reward, in contrast, was a set of cotton dresses.
Truganini was able to escape this disaster though as Robinson took her, Woureddy, Kikatapula, Pagerly, Mannalargenna, Woretemoeteryenner, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner as guides to capture the remaining Aboriginal Tasmanians in the settled districts.
Truganini again avoided exile to the Bass Strait Islands by being a guide for Robinson's expedition to capture the remaining Indigenous people of the west coast of Tasmania.
In September 1832, Truganini saved Robinson by swimming him across the Arthur River away from a group of Tarkiner people who intended to kill him.
In late 1832 and early 1833, Truganini assisted in several mostly unsuccessful expeditions in the west and south-west led by the colonist Anthony Cottrell, whom Robinson had delegated authority to while he was away.
Truganini was employed by Robinson to push the rafts carrying people across the rivers.
The water in winter was very cold and Truganini performed this arduous task almost daily for weeks.
Truganini had a seizure after a particularly demanding day of ferrying captives.
However, crossing the Arthur River on the return journey, Truganini again saved Robinson's life by swimming out to his raft and towing it to the bank after it was carried away by the swift current.
Truganini changed their names, made them wear European clothes and attempted to prohibit their practising of Aboriginal culture and language.
Truganini gained income from selling her traditional woven baskets and by offering her company to townsmen and shepherds.
In 1841, Truganini abandoned her husband Woureddy, and ran off with Maulboyheenner, a young Tasmanian Aboriginal man who had come from Wybalenna.
At the trial in Melbourne, the three women including Truganini were exonerated, but Maulboyheenner and Tunnerminnerwait were found guilty.
At Wybalenna, Truganini refused to be bound by the rules and often ran away with the local sealers.
Truganini often used a boat to travel across to Bruny Island to dive for crayfish, hunt for swan eggs or collect small shells to make her distinctive necklaces.
Truganini continued to survive and in the 1860s became involved in a relationship with a younger Tasmanian Aboriginal man, William Lanne who died in March 1869.
The government subsequently sold off the land and buildings, with Truganini being moved to Hobart to live in the family home of the last superintendent of the Oyster Cove facility.
Truganini died in May 1876 and was buried at the former Female Factory at Cascades, a suburb of Hobart.
Truganini feared that her body would be mutilated for perverse scientific purposes as William Lanne's had been.
Only in April 1976, approaching the centenary of her death, were Truganini's remains finally cremated and scattered according to her wishes.
Truganini is often incorrectly referred to as the last speaker of a Tasmanian language.
Artist Edmund Joel Dicks created a plaster bust of Truganini, which is in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.