Tarenorerer

Tarenorerer, also known as Walyer, Waloa or Walloa (1800 – 5 June 1831), was a rebel leader of the Indigenous Australians in Tasmania. Between 1828 and 1830, she led a guerrilla band of indigenous people of both sexes against the British colonists in Tasmania during the Black War.

Tarenorerer was born in circa 1800 near Emu Bay, Van Diemen's Land as a member of the Tommeginne people. As a teenager, she was taken captive by Indigenous kidnappers and sold as a slave to white colonists. During her captivity, she learned to speak English and how to use firearms. Two of her brothers and two of her sisters joined her with the sealers.

In 1828, she was able to return to Tasmania, where she gathered a guerrilla band of indigenous warriors of both sexes and lead them against the colonists. As she was able to train them in using firearms, they were successful. George Augustus Robinson referred to her as an Amazon and was very concerned about her ability to incite a revolution. Tarenorerer escaped to Port Sorell with her brothers Linnetower and Line-ne-like-kayver and two sisters but was captured by sealers and taken to the Hunter Islands. They were then taken to Bird Island to catch seals and mutton birds.

Eventually, she was taken captive. She was imprisoned at the Gun Carriage (Vansittart) Island, where she fell sick and died of influenza in prison.