Tasmanian Aboriginal woman Nunami Sculthorpe-Green leads a group of 30 headset-wearing people through the CBD streets of Hobart/nipaluna.
She talks calmly into her microphone, telling the stories of the atrocities committed against her people since white people landed in the area.
The group is on the opening night of Takara nipaluna (palawa kani for Walking Hobart).
They are following the 1832 route of a group of 40 members of the Aboriginal resistance as protesters walked to old Government House to negotiate an end to the Black War.
Tasmania's Black War ran from around 1823 to 1832.
It included the infamous Black Line, where colonists would form a line stretching across lutruwita/Tasmania's settled districts and move south trying to round up the Indigenous population, which had already suffered a devastating toll wrought by disease, dispossession and violence.
The walking tour aims to expose the history and stories hidden under the asphalt and behind the sandstone facades of Hobart.
"What I'm trying to do in the tours is give people a new way to look at the city and a way to immerse themselves in Aboriginal history and the true history of this place," Ms Sculthorpe-Green said.
"Specifically, stories about people, covering from pre-invasion, the landscape changes today and covering some pretty dark stuff, like the Black War, bone collecting."
The idea for the tours was sparked seven years ago and, after 12 months of development, it was first run in March 2021 as part of the 10 Days on the Island festival.
Ms Sculthorpe-Green said the audience reception was encouraging.
"A lot of people say they'd heard some of the story but had never had it pieced together in one continuous story before,. It really helps them wrap their mind around a huge period and the huge journey our people have been on," she said.
Ms Sculthorpe-Green said the tours helped people realise they lived in a colonial city.
"I think when you live in a colony you wouldn't really realise what that means and the true history of the place," she said.
"I think people would never think about Aboriginal dispossessions as being the foundation of the country and a 30-year attempted genocide of our people as to why these cities stand."
The tour also looks forward.
"Spanning to our activism today is really important. I didn't want to leave our story in the past, I didn't want it to be far away from where people are," Ms Sculthorpe-Green said.
"I wanted people to realise that our stories are here in the city, right here with us all the time, and they connect to us today."
History at home
While most walking tours are pitched at visitors keen to explore the nooks and crannies of a new city, Takara nipaluna is also aimed at getting locals to better understand their home.
Dramaturge Sarah Hamilton worked with Ms Sculthorpe-Green on the tour's development.
"I think it's fundamental that we have that context and we understand what makes this place we live in," Ms Hamilton said.
Ms Hamilton said it was a privilege to work with Ms Sculthorpe-Green.
"I think she has the wisdom of, like, a 100-year-old person with her knowledge of history and culture," she said.
"But also I think it's an incredibly generous act that she's doing this, because she's had to process a lot of very sad history as well."
Treading the streets
Despite being set in the streets of Hobart, rather than on the stage, Takara nipaluna is part of the 2022 Theatre Royal season and will run regularly throughout the year.
The theatre is Australia's oldest, continually in use playhouse. It began its operations in 1837, just six years after the Black War ended.
Chief executive Simon Wellington said that, when he grew up in Tasmania, he was taught nothing about the Black War.
Mr Wellington said he wanted the theatre to tell stories relevant to the local community and its sense of identity.
"For me, it's about being able to diversify the range of stories that are told by the Theatre Royal, and the experiences that we can offer that are outside of sitting in a theatre," he said.
