How a childhood story of elopement hid a dark history of slavery
In short: For years, Tasma Walton believed her ancestor eloped with a merchant seaman. But as an accomplished actress and writer, she uncovered a much more harrowing truth about the 1830s, transforming a family legend into an award-winning historical masterpiece.
Born in 1973 in Geraldton, Western Australia, Tasma Walton’s journey from a small coastal city to the heights of Australian screen and stage is marked by a profound reconnection with her heritage. While she grew up in public housing as the second youngest of four sisters, her later life would be defined by discovering her Boonwurrung descent on her mother's side. This realization of her identity as part of the Aboriginal saltwater people of the Melbourne area deeply informed her creative output.
Walton’s career began with the stage and radio, but she achieved widespread fame through iconic television roles. Viewers recognized her as Rachel Watson in Home and Away starting in 1995, and as Constable Dash McKinley in the police drama Blue Heelers, a role for which she won the 1997 Logie Award for Most Popular New Talent. Her versatility extended to film, including her 1996 debut in Fistful of Flies, which earned her a Best Actress award at the Sochi Film Festival.
However, her most significant impact may lie in her literary work, where she uses fiction to confront historical trauma. Her 202 erm novel, I am Nannertgarrook, serves as a corrective to the family myth that her great-great-great grandmother had simply run away with a seaman. Through deep research, Walton revealed the ancestor had actually been abducted by sealers and sold into slavery during the 1830s. The novel, which won the 2026 ARA Historical Novel Prize alongside Robbie Arnott, has been praised for its emotional landscape and its ability to expose the true, often brutal, history of that era.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Tasma Walton
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