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Yesterday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, was arrested and charged with numerous counts of law-breaking, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, falsifying her tax returns (to the tune of stealing $160,201 from taxpayers), and obstruction of justice. Williamson was employed as Newsom’s chief of staff from January 2023 until November 2024, at which point she stepped down upon notifying the administration that she faced a federal investigation. The charges are quite serious: It is alleged that Williamson directed $225,000 from a campaign fund belonging to Xavier Becerra, the former California attorney general and former U.S. secretary of health and human services, to her friend Sean McCluskie by way of payments to McCluskie’s stay-at-home wife. The payments were made under the pretense that his wife was performing political consulting work. Here’s where that gets especially problematic: At the time, McCluskie was a high-ranking federal official, as he was serving as chief of staff to Becerra, who was then the U.S. secretary of health and human services. That means McCluskie — and, by extension, Becerra — are tainted by what could have been a bribe paid out to McCluskie every single month. Many of these payments were delivered when Williamson was employed as Newsom’s chief of staff. (Upon becoming Newsom’s chief of staff, Williamson brought someone else into the conspiracy to conceal the payments for her, but she remained active in directing the scheme and covering it up, according to the indictment.) There are plenty of ways in which the $225,000 could have influenced McCluskie to treat the Newsom administration preferentially. There are plenty of ways in which the $225,000 could have influenced McCluskie to treat the Newsom administration preferentially. For example, HHS has control over health grant programs as well as the dispersal of Medicaid waivers. In fact, HHS under the Biden administration was highly accommodating of the Newsom administration’s desire to use Medicaid to pay for what could generously be called “nontraditional health care services.” California used waivers received under the Biden administration to direct Medicaid funds toward housing and food for those experiencing poverty. The Trump administration appears to be less accommodating of such permissions. Whether McCluskie made any decisions in Newsom’s favor as a result of getting hundreds of thousands of dollars via his chief of staff is less clear. The indictment does not chronicle any favors McCluskie performed in exchange for the payments he was allegedly given by Williamson and her co-conspirators. One would think, however, that the woman risking her freedom to pay him believed she was getting something out of it. ***** This is where things get very interesting. Williamson’s lawyer, McGregor Scott, says that Williamson was approached last year by federal authorities and asked if she could “help in some sort of investigation they were conducting of the governor,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. That is a serious claim. If true, it suggests that the FBI and Department of Justice were conducting a probe of Gavin Newsom and that they approached Williamson to seek her cooperation — possibly in exchange for lesser charges. Williamson’s lawyer (who was formerly the U.S. attorney in Sacramento) is not the only one alleging that there was a federal probe into Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Los Angeles Times has reported that it has an anonymous source “with knowledge of the case” and who is “not authorized to speak publicly” who has likewise confirmed that federal investigators “tried to pressure Williamson into implicating Newsom.” Of course, Williamson has found herself to be in quite the adverse situation, so she has every incentive to try to spread the blame around. But if it is true that the FBI and DOJ were investigating Newsom, that is quite the bombshell. That is most especially the case because all of this took place under the Biden administration. Williamson was made aware of the federal investigation in 2024, the last year of Biden’s presidency. Suddenly, Newsom’s constant efforts to cozy up to Biden — even when it looked politically suicidal, considering the president’s lack of popularity — look a whole lot different. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Breaks With Biden to Set Up Presidential Run) Notably, however, Williamson’s lawyer says that his client told federal investigators that she had no dirt on Newsom to share with them. “She told them she had no information to provide them, and then we wind up today with these charges,” he told the Los Angeles Times. His implication: Williamson is being punished for not giving the feds (under the Biden administration) the goods they wanted on Newsom. ***** Even if the alleged federal probe of Newsom goes no further, Williamson’s corruption charges do much to cast a shadow over her former boss. This is especially true because of Newsom’s long record of being chummy with lobbyists. His famous COVID dinner at the French Laundry, for instance, had several political lobbyists as guests. It was only after that dinner that Newsom, under immense public pressure, banned his campaign and political consultants from lobbying him or his staff on behalf of clients. Newsom has also been connected to donations that look suspiciously like they were made in exchange for favors. There were the hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to Newsom’s wife’s charity by businesses that were lobbying the Newsom administration. And there was also the $226 million that was donated at Newsom’s behest in 2020, some of which came from companies that went on to receive favorable treatment from the California government. For example, the Los Angeles Times reported that after Google gave $7 million at Newsom’s request, its parent company ultimately received tens of millions in dollars in COVID testing contracts. That’s not to mention the fact that Newsom, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, received copious gifts from oil heir Gordon Getty and failed to report them. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Claims Working-Class Background, Teases Presidential Run) But beyond Newsom’s own actions, simply the presence of Dana Williamson as his chief of staff throws suspicion onto how his administration conducted itself during that roughly two-year period. If even some of the allegations in the indictment are true, after all, Williamson is a person who is brazen in her law-breaking. Writing off a $156,302 birthday trip to Mexico, $12,437 for Chanel earrings plus a shopping bag, and $7,712 for a Gucci bag and wallet as business expenses comes across as the actions of a woman with no regard for the law. It seems hard to believe that all of her conduct in the governor’s office was above board. Moreover, her decision to allegedly create false documents to cover up an investigation into whether her company fraudulently received PPP loans suggests that she is so arrogant in her belief that she is above the law that she will lie and cheat without blinking in order to avoid responsibility. And this is the woman who was Newsom’s top adviser. Her behavior certainly raises the question of what other improprieties she engaged in while she held that position. ***** Newsom should be sweating, because none of this looks good for him as he prepares to launch his presidential bid. In a statement from his spokesman, he appears to be directing the public toward the idea that this case could stem from the fact that President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to prosecute his political enemies. “At a time when the President is openly calling for his Attorney General to investigate his political enemies,” the statement said, “it is especially important to honor the American principle of being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of one’s peers.” The problem with that theory is that this investigation was conducted for several years during the Biden administration. But if any potential federal probe of Newsom goes any further, Newsom will certainly have that excuse to turn to. In statements to the media, a spokesman for Newsom, Izzy Gardon, said that his office was not aware of a federal investigation involving Newsom. Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.

On Nov. 7, 2025, as Europe once again hid behind euphemisms about migration, Donald Trump sat opposite Viktor Orbán and delivered a truth now too indecent for Brussels: “Hungary keeps crime down because it keeps its borders closed.” A simple line, painfully obvious, and therefore unutterable in polite European society. Yet it captured Europe’s new reality: the only EU state still behaving like a state is Hungary. (RELATED: Europe’s Urban Decline Exposed) Hungary’s resistance is not a policy dispute. It is a renaissance — not artistic, but civilizational. A reawakening of the basic instinct that borders matter, identity is inherited, and sovereignty is not a lifestyle accessory. This is Europe before the abstractions, before the bureaucratic hypnosis, before the continent talked itself into believing that asylum is unlimited and culture negotiable. (RELATED: The Business of Borders: The Economy of Virtue) The data — the kind European officials prefer buried — exposes the depth of Hungary’s divergence. In 2024, Hungary registered 29 asylum applications, according to the European Commission’s own reporting. Germany processed over 237,000. Across the EU, asylum claims exceeded one million, roughly 2,200 per million inhabitants. (RELATED: Asylum to Austerity: Germany Leads Europe’s Retreat From Open-Ended Migration) Hungary’s rate per million inhabitants? Functionally zero. Not by luck. By design. Hungary’s asylum system now operates outside its borders. A person seeking protection must file a “declaration of intent” at a Hungarian embassy, typically Belgrade or Kyiv, and await approval. Almost no one is approved, according to the AIDA 2024 country report. Inside Hungary, asylum is not an option. At the southern border, a fortified barrier — steel, razor wire, heat sensors, and armed patrols — forms a perimeter Western European countries abandoned years ago. Under Hungary’s still-active “state of crisis due to mass migration,” police may immediately push back anyone who crosses illegally. In 2024, they executed 5,713 pushbacks. Total pushbacks since 2016 exceed 380,000, according to border-monitoring documentation. This is not xenophobia. It is competence. And competence is now the most subversive trait in Europe. Brussels responded as expected: outrage, litigation, and punishment. The European Court of Justice imposed a €200 million fine, plus €1 million per day, demanding that Hungary reopen its borders. Orbán refused. The fines stack up; the fence stands. Brussels may have legal authority, but Hungary has political will — and in moments of civilizational stress, willpower always outperforms paperwork. Behind Hungary’s renaissance is the truth Western Europe still treats as radioactive: most of Europe’s asylum system is now a magnet for fraudulent claims. During the Belarus-engineered migrant surge of 2022–2024, the Polish Border Guard recorded that the overwhelming majority of intercepted migrants admitted economic motives — validating Warsaw’s suspicion that humanitarian language has been hijacked by economic migration. (RELATED: Is Poland the Next Victim of Mass Migration?) A state that cannot determine who enters will eventually lose the ability to determine anything else. In Slovakia, nearly 40,000 migrants entered unlawfully in 2023, an eleven-fold spike, after cutting through or circumventing Hungary’s fence — forcing Bratislava to reintroduce border controls and concede that unvetted flows pose an existential, not administrative, risk. Czech authorities similarly documented migrants arriving with multiple or smuggler-bought identities. Hungary didn’t need convincing. It reached the one conclusion Europe once believed in and then forgot: a state that cannot determine who enters will eventually lose the ability to determine anything else. This is why Central Europe is no longer dismissing Hungary — it is following it. Poland built a 186-km wall, prevented 22,600 illegal crossings in 2024, and carried out 11,600 pushbacks. Czechia reinstated border checks with Slovakia after migrant flows transited from Hungary. Slovakia now warns of cultural and demographic instability using language once condemned as “Orbánist.” Hungary was ridiculed for a decade. Now it is being quietly replicated. And the results speak louder than the ideology. Hungary has no jihadist attacks, no “zones of limited governance,” no mass-assimilation failures, no migrant-driven crime waves. Western Europe, meanwhile, cycles through street riots, knife attacks, parallel societies, and police no-go districts disguised under euphemisms like “areas of special focus.” Hungary witnessed the experiment, declined participation, and prospered. This is the renaissance Brussels fears most: not one of art, but of adulthood. A nation remembering that the first duty of the state is not emotional theatre but preservation. That sovereignty is not a costume. That identity is not infinitely negotiable. That borders exist so nations don’t dissolve themselves by accident. Across Europe, a new map is emerging — drawn not by treaties, but outcomes. There are countries that resisted and countries that yielded. Countries that remained legible to themselves and countries that outsourced their future to whatever arrived next. Hungary stands at the centre of the first group. Its neighbours increasingly join it. And the truth Western Europe dislikes most is the truth Hungary embodies most clearly: the point isn’t that Budapest, Warsaw, and Prague are Europe’s “new Riviera.” The point is that they didn’t fall. They held the line while others congratulated themselves into disorder. Their stability now stands as the continent’s most inconvenient truth. READ MORE from Kevin Cohen: Asylum to Austerity: Germany Leads Europe’s Retreat From Open-Ended Migration Ireland Just Sealed Its Fate on Mass Migration The Terrorists’ New Weapon — Doxxing LEOs

While New York City’s new Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s political worldview was formed by his radical parents long before he arrived at Bowdoin College, his evolution underscores how college curricula shape more than minds. Colleges like Bowdoin mold convictions, identities, and life trajectories — and help to create the radical left-wing change agent New York City has elected to lead its City. Long before college, Zohran Mamdani was steeped in socialism by his father, Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani, a renowned scholar of postcolonial politics, who exposed his young son to Marxist theory and postcolonial resistance. Grounding his convictions in a transnational rejection of neoliberalism and American exceptionalism, the elder Mamdani has devoted his life to criticizing colonialism, state violence, and Western interventionism. A recent article in the Times of India suggested that Zohran Mamdani’s father “provided him with the intellectual tools to interrogate power.” (RELATED: The Faulty Idealism of the Anti-Wealth Brigade) The family had to know that Bowdoin was a place … where he would be given the tools he would need to destroy capitalism and American exceptionalism once and for all. Given this ideological foundation of anti-Americanism, it’s likely that the family viewed Bowdoin as a kind of “finishing school” for their son’s socialism. The family had to know that Bowdoin was a place where academic rigor and leftist thought could refine a burgeoning radical sensibility — a place where he would be given the tools he would need to destroy capitalism and American exceptionalism once and for all. (RELATED: Mayor Mamdani: A Victory for Champagne Socialism) The family was correct. In a revelatory essay published last week in Literary Hub, former Bowdoin Professor Peter Coviello, who chaired the university’s Gay and Lesbian Studies Program, as well as its’ Africana Studies Program during the years Mamdani attended, appeared to affirm that Mamdani’s intellectual formation at Bowdoin exemplifies how a curriculum can catalyze a radical reimagining of the world. In a broadside attack on capitalism and the American founding, Coviello wrote: For some time I’ve been saying that the storied choice between socialism and barbarism was made exquisitely clear a good many years ago in the United States, and both major parties chose barbarism. They are obviously and consequentially different barbarisms — one had reproductive freedom, vaccines, and trans health care in it, at least for a while — and I can tell you why I have sincerely preferred one to the other. But we oughtn’t to kid ourselves. From the perspective of a world of increasingly unimaginable maldistribution of resources, cascading ecological collapse, a genocide cheered on by a putatively liberal order, both are barbarians. While at Bowdoin, Zohran Mamdani founded a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and led a campaign to persuade Bowdoin to join an academic boycott of “Israel’s oppressive occupation and racist policies.” With obvious support for his pro-Palestinian activism on campus from like-minded faculty members, Mamdani’s anti-Israel stance appears to have been forged during his years there. (RELATED: Radical Academics Seed the Ground for Violence) In a New York Times article about Bowdoin’s influence on Mamdani’s politics, entitled “How a Small Elite College in Maine Influenced Zohran Mamdani’s Worldview,” Times reporter Jeremy Peters wrote that Mr. Mamdani also contributed articles to the student newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient, and a few reflect the confluence between his studies and his politics. He discussed theoretical concepts he would have picked up in an Africana studies class. In one column, for instance, he implored the Bowdoin community to “break the stranglehold of whiteness, wherever it may be.” Drawing upon the anti-whiteness theories of scholar, Peggy McIntosh, whose work is widely read as part of DEI programs on elite campuses like Bowdoin, Mamdani introduced his readers to the need to check the power dynamics of “white privilege.” Mamdani’s rhetoric on whiteness was less about race than about dismantling the idea of American exceptionalism. His critique of whiteness at Bowdoin served as a proxy for a deeper rejection of American exceptionalism and its global legacy. This rejection naturally extended to his view of Israel — not as an ally upholding democratic ideals — but rather as a colonial outpost that is complicit with the United States in its system of oppression. (RELATED: Oberlin Students Revive Criminal Anti-Israel Protests, Police Respond) This hatred for Israel appears to have become even stronger in recent years at Bowdoin. Less than a decade after Mamdani graduated in 2014, Bowdoin hired Professor Nasser Abourahme in 2022 — a professor in the Middle Eastern and North African Studies Program who actually praised the Hamas terrorists who perpetrated the deadly violence in Israel during the October 7 attack. The rampage resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 Israelis, including civilians and military personnel, along with at least 46 Americans. An additional 251 individuals were taken hostage in the dark tunnels of Gaza, many of whom endured brutal treatment and starvation in the months that followed. Yet, Professor Abourahme told a commentator for Radio Zamaneh in a Nov. 11, 2023 2023 interview  that he was “not shy about the fact that people engaged in armed struggle against this invasion are heroic.” According to a transcript of the interview, Abourahme elaborated proudly on his moral and intellectual support for the terrorists who raped, murdered, and kidnapped civilians living in Israel. Mamdani’s intellectual trajectory is a reminder that college is not merely a place of academic instruction.  It is a powerful site of moral and philosophical formation, a catalyst for reshaping values and convictions. Conservative parents understand this intuitively, which is why they choose institutions that align with their deepest convictions. They know that curriculum is never neutral: it shapes how students see the dignity of the human person, respect for life, justice, and a genuine commitment to uplift the poor and vulnerable by helping them help themselves. In an age when elite colleges often promote ideological frameworks hostile to faith, family, and tradition, vigilance in college selection is not just prudent — it’s essential. That’s why many conservative families turn to institutions like Hillsdale or Grove City College, neither of which accept federal funds and are under no obligation to provide transgender bathrooms or DEI classes. Many of these families turn to faithful religious universities like my own academic home, Franciscan University of Steubenville, or Ave Maria University, because they know that these are schools that integrate rigorous academics with conservative principles. These colleges don’t just educate; they form students to think clearly, live virtuously, and lead courageously in a culture that often rejects those very ideals. READ MORE from Anne Hendershott: ‘Death’ by Deception on Halloween in Illinois Electing the Image: Mamdani and the Mimetic Turn in Democracy From the Top Down: The Erosion of Faith at Georgetown University

from MintPress News: Sudan isn’t collapsing on its own — it’s being taken apart. And behind every headline about “civil war” is a story of US empire, greed, and betrayal. While headlines point to the UAE as the culprit behind Sudan’s humanitarian disaster, the truth runs far deeper and more sinister. For over two decades, […]

by Mac Slavo, SHTF Plan: As Ukraine continues to face major hurdles in the war, like conscripting enough people to fight the war, new policies are suggested. Now, the Kiev mayor, Vitaly Klitschko, has suggested that lowering the draft age from 25 to 18 could be a solution to no one wanting to fight in […]

  Famous and wealthy friends of Pauline Bonaparte and her husband, Camillo Borghese, gathered at their residence to admire the shocking sculpture of their hostess. The marble Pauline reclined half-naked on a couch, sensually posed as Venus Victrix—the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and victory.   “Did you really pose completely naked?” one of the guests finally dared to ask.   “Of course,” Pauline replied. “The studio was warm.” The roar of indignation, admiration, and astonishment swept through the hall. The guests were shocked, while Pauline was pleased by the commotion she had caused.   The Scandalous Rise of Pauline Bonaparte Pauline Bonaparte, by Robert Lefèvre, 1806. Source: Palace of Versailles   Paula Maria Bonaparte Leclerc Borghese was the sixth child of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Maria Bonaparte. Her ambitious father served as Corsica’s representative to the court of King Louis XVI of France until his death. After his passing, the family fell into poverty. Letizia could no longer afford to educate the younger daughters, so Pauline received little formal schooling. But that was never a problem—since childhood, she possessed extraordinary beauty, which would become her greatest asset. Clemens von Metternich wrote about her: “Pauline was as handsome as it is possible to be; she was in love with herself, and her only occupation was pleasure.”   Napoleon didn’t know his younger sister for a long time, as he had left for his studies before she was born. When the young Lieutenant Bonaparte returned home on leave, Pauline was already nine years old. Brother and sister immediately took a liking to each other, although it was already clear that Pauline was far from the modest and virtuous ideal of a well-brought-up young lady.   Napoleon quickly realized that he needed to marry off his sister before her scandalous reputation ruined her future. After considering several candidates, he settled on General Charles Leclerc, whom he had known since the Siege of Toulon.   Villa Borghese in Rome, now home to the Galleria Borghese. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Napoleon sent Leclerc and Pauline to the colony of Saint-Domingue, where Pauline reveled in her near-royal status. She hosted grand balls, lavish receptions, and her famously exclusive “private gatherings.” Rumors swirled about her scandalous behavior, including alleged affairs with low-ranking officers and soldiers. When Leclerc succumbed to yellow fever in November 1802, Pauline mourned him in dramatic fashion—her grief as theatrical as her lifestyle. But by the time she returned to France, her mourning had faded, replaced once again by indulgence and spectacle.   But at that point, her brother had to find her a new husband, and he did—Camillo Borghese, one of the richest men in Italy. He owned a vast art collection in his Villa Borghese in Rome, which inspired him to commission a semi-nude sculpture of his wife from Antonio Canova.   The Naked Princess Napoleon as Mars the Peacekeeper, by Antonio Canova, 1806. Source: The Wellington Collection, Apsley House   Pauline enjoyed Rome and her almost “Queen of Rome” status. However, she did not enjoy her husband and let everyone know he was impotent. She began to follow her desires again by having affairs.   Her husband still wanted to please her and commissioned a sculpture from Canova, although it was more her idea than his. Canova initially proposed to depict her as Diana, likely to pair it with another semi-nude sculpture of Napoleon himself as Mars the Peacemaker. But Pauline knew who she truly was—the goddess of love and pleasure. So, she chose to be depicted as another Roman goddess. Of course, it was Venus.   While Pauline did not fear for her reputation, even as people began to call her the “Messalina of the Empire,” referring to Messalina, the young wife of Emperor Claudius, who was rumored to have an insatiable sexual appetite and followed her desires without restraint. Canova worried about his own. To depict a semi-nude woman of such status might harm his reputation, so he decided to focus more on mythology to help downplay the political aspect of the statue.   Pauline Bonaparte princess Borghese, by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, 1808. Source: Palace of Fontainebleau   Antonio Canova faced a difficult task: to depict 25-year-old Pauline as soft, sensual, sexual, and goddess-like. To make it lifelike, Canova used live casting, essentially creating a mold of Pauline Borghese’s body. Afterward, he cast a plaster model from this clay version. Rumors circulated that she posed completely naked, and true to her character, Pauline reveled in these whispers, which sparked a scandal even before the statue was completed.   Canova carved Venus Victrix at the height of the neoclassical craze. In the wake of the excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum, Europe became enthralled with the art and ideals of ancient Greece and Rome. Everyone aspired to be depicted in this fashion—classical, poised, and subtly sensual—and the aesthetic quickly seeped into fashion, architecture, and the decorative arts. Pauline Bonaparte, a recognized trend-setter, was no exception: she favored sheer, flowing gowns and coiffed her hair like a Greco-Roman goddess. Canova’s marble immortalizes precisely that image.   Carved in Eternity Paolina Bonaparte Borghese as Venus Victrix, by Antonio Canova, 1805-08, The Borghese Gallery, Rome. Source: La Civilta Cattolica   The guests gathered around the heavy curtains, behind which the infamous statue of Princess Pauline bathed in candlelight. Her husband drew them open, revealing a marble goddess reclining on a couch.   Her marble skin glowed because it was rubbed with beeswax, her body shamelessly turning around, since the whole sculpture was placed on a rotating stand so everyone could admire her. Pauline hoped to impress, shock, and make people talk about her, and she easily achieved her objective.   It was a private showing—only selected viewers had the chance to see Canova’s masterpiece. And there was truly something to see.   Pauline is depicted as Venus triumphant in the Judgment of Paris, holding the apple awarded to “the fairest of them all.” All her body parts are slim, elongated, and sensual—neck, fingers, torso, even toes. She raises her head in a kind of surprise, as interpreted by some. Her hair is gathered into Psyche knot, revealing her long, slender neck and adding a touch of sensuality to the sculpture. The cloak delicately covered her hips, hiding enough but not all, allowing the viewer to use their imagination. She is reclining on a catafalque with rich drapery, evoking a sense of immortality—like the statues often seen on sarcophagus lids of Etruscans.   Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, 150-140 BCE. Source: British Museum, London   For a closer look, Canova’s Venus evokes the Venus of Urbino by Titian. This oil painting, completed in 1538 by the Venetian Renaissance master, is considered one of the classic masterpieces. It is probable that Canova was inspired by Titian. He aimed to create a timeless masterpiece and sought to have his name associated with the great Renaissance masters.   Both Venuses are portrayed reclining in an erotic pose, exuding an unashamed confidence in their bodies. While Pauline holds an apple, the Venus of Urbino cradles flowers. Both figures gaze forward, inviting viewers to appreciate their forms. Interestingly, it is believed that this painting was commissioned by Guidobaldo, possibly to celebrate his marriage in 1534 to Giulia Varano. Canova positioned his model on the couch in a manner reminiscent of the Venus of Urbino, allowing the viewer to experience a duality: on one hand, she embodies the goddess, and on the other, she is a real woman made of flesh and blood.   Venus of Urbino by Titian, 1576. Source: Uffizi Gallery, Florence   Pauline Bonaparte got what she wanted—her daring statue became the talk of Europe. For a few years in a row, people gathered just to see the shimmering, moving statue barely illuminated behind the curtains.   But soon, their lives would change dramatically, as well as the life of the statue, which would switch locations several times before finally settling in.   Pauline’s health had been in steady decline since the death of her only son in 1804, prompting her to travel to various spas in search of relief. In 1814, Napoleon’s downfall led to his exile in Elba, marking the collapse of her life as an imperial princess. Pauline sold her assets and moved to Elba to join her brother until his opportunistic escape and return to France in February 1815. Meanwhile, her husband revealed a longstanding affair and chose to live separately from her. After ten long years, the couple were briefly united for three months before Pauline passed away from cancer in 1825.   As for Venus Victrix, she was transferred to Camillo’s residence in Turin, then later moved to Genoa. She returned to Rome in 1838, where she can still be admired by visitors in the halls of the Galleria Borghese.

    By the end of the Black War in 1832, Aboriginal men, women, and children in the Settled Districts had either been killed, imprisoned, or captured. The authorities were faced with a crucial question: what should be done with the survivors? They ultimately decided to deport them to Flinders Island, a large island in the Bass Strait, northeast of Tasmania, to a designated place called the Wybalenna Aboriginal Settlement. Wybalenna was eventually abandoned due to its poor health standards and the survivors were relocated to Oyster Cove, the second death trap in the history of Tasmanian “friendly” missions.   The Wybalenna Aboriginal Settlement Aboriginal people on Flinders Island, painting by John Skinner Prout, 19th century. Source: National Museum of Australia The Aboriginal men, women, and children captured during the Black Line and those who had “surrendered” to G.A. Robinson were dispatched to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Settlement on Flinders Island. In October 1835, Robinson himself took up the position of superintendent. Wybalenna represented the basis for assimilation programs across Australia.   As the settlement’s superintendent, Robinson had boys and girls removed from their parents and sent to the Orphan School in Hobart, where they were trained to lead a proper Christian life. Many resented Robinson for this, even with his staunch refusal to use physical violence in the settlement’s administration. Despite Robinson’s promises that Aboriginal people at Wybalenna would see their customs respected, adults were treated like children.   St Joseph’s Catholic School in Strathalbyn, South Australia, 1884. Source: National Museum of Australia   Every morning, they had to await inspection and women were expected to attend sewing classes in the afternoon. Every day, someone ensured that their houses were clean, their mattresses were regularly aired, and their clothes were washed. Wybalenna remains a unique experiment. Despite the settlement’s many flaws, Aboriginal people were “looked after” by an unprecedented number of officials and convicts. Sir George Arthur, the Governor of Van Diemen’s Land (as Tasmania was known back then) appointed a surgeon, a catechist, a gardener, as well as four soldiers and a corporal to ensure law and order. Their families followed.   Arthur also appointed six male convicts to build huts and the most basic infrastructures, take care of the veggie gardens and tend the cattle and sheep. Aboriginal people also enjoyed a certain amount of freedom, within the confines of a white-oriented society.   These Shell worked Slippers commemorate the Aboriginal children of the Stolen Generations, by Esme Timbery, 2008. Source: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia   Some Aboriginal families were even allowed to move to the bush outside the main settlement, where they built their huts, performed ceremonies, painted their bodies ochre, and hunted kangaroos and wallabies like their ancestors had done for centuries. However, the situation quickly deteriorated; 29 people died in 1837 alone of gastroenteritis and pneumonia. Among them, there were feared guerrilla leader Tongerlongter (1790-1837), the widow of another warrior, Montpelliata (1790-1836), and Kartiteyer, the son of Mannalargenna (1770-1835), the older leader in the group. These deaths were directly caused by the poor living conditions at Wybalenna, possibly by Escherichia coli bacteria. As people kept falling sick around them, many fled to the bush.   Who Were the Aboriginal Men and Women at Wybalenna? Truganini, by Alfred Winter, 1869. Source: Wikimedia Commons   123 people were initially stationed at Wybalenna. They were divided into three distinct groups led by seven chiefs and came from different clans and nations. The largest group was made of almost 50 people from the North West and South West nations. Truganini (1812-1876), perhaps the most well-known Aboriginal woman from Tasmania, was one of them. The second group comprised more than 30 men and women from the North East, North Midlands, and Ben Lomond nations. The third and smallest encompassed at least 20 members of the Big River and Oyster Bay nations.   Some of them, like Montpelliatta, Tongerlongter, and Mannalargenna, were feared guerrilla leaders who had led a staunch resistance in the Settled Districts beginning in the 1820s. Others maintained friendly but complex relations with Robinson.   Aboriginal People Hunting Emus, painting by Joseph Lyncett, 1820. Source: National Library of Australia   Eumarrah (1798-1832), for instance, was reportedly one of Robinson’s most trusted confidants. It has been reported that Eumarrah repeatedly pressured Robinson to promise some guarantee that at Wybalenna his people could finally be independent. However, most of them eventually died on Flinders Island, homesick and depressed, after being given (sometimes willingly) an English name. Tongerlongter, for instance, was assigned the name of King William (he would, ironically, die on the same day as the monarch he was named after, William IV, Queen Victoria’s uncle, on June 20, 1837).   Australian historian Lyndall Ryan notes in her Tasmanian Aborigines that “by renaming some of the chiefs as kings and the young warriors after heroes in recent as well as ancient history, Robinson wanted the Aborigines to believe that their own authority structure was similar to that of the British.”   The River Nile from Mr. Glover’s farm on the ancestral lands of the Ben Lomond Nation, painting by John Glover, 1837. Source: National Gallery of Victoria   Their new, British names represented the first step in their much-hoped-for transition from Aboriginal to British culture. The truth is that Aboriginal men and women on Flinders Island were determined to retain their culture and their ancestral practices. They even developed a lingua franca, so that people from different clans could communicate among themselves and with the catechist assigned to Flinders Island, Robert Clark.  In 1839, another outbreak—influenza this time—killed eight people, in addition to the 29 who had died in 1837. Robinson left Wybalenna in April of that same year. Of the 123 Aboriginal men, women, and children on Flinders Island in October 1834, 59 of them had died.   From Wybalenna to Oyster Cove This kelp water container was collected by Joseph Milligan at Oyster Cove, 1850-51. Source: National Museum Australia   The situation at Wybalenna continued to deteriorate after Robinson’s departure and the appointment of Scottish medical officer Dr Henry Jeanneret. In 1846, along with seven other men, Walter Arthur (1821-1861), son of Rolepa of the Ben Lomond Tribe from north-eastern Tasmania, drew up a petition to Queen Victoria to complain about Jeanneret’s brutal methods. The petition was received.   James Stephens, the under-secretary of state for the colonies, recommended that the Flinders Island Aboriginal people should be transferred to a new site, preferably in Van Diemen’s Land. Wybalenna was abandoned in 1847 and the survivors were promptly transferred to Oyster Cove. Many believed they were finally going home. The night of their arrival on October 18, 1847, they celebrated with dancing and ceremonies. What they didn’t know was that Oyster Cove was a former convict settlement that had been abandoned because the health conditions were too poor, even for convicts.   Oyster Cove was a death trap, even more so than Flinders Island. Interestingly, while the settlement on Flinders Island was known by the Aboriginal name of Wybalenna (which translates as “Black Man’s House”), the new establishment had only one name, the British one. It was located 35 miles south of Hobart and about 12 miles southwest of Kingston, on the ancestral lands of the Oyster Bay Nation, now entirely belonging to colonists.   The arrivals consisted of 14 men, 23 women, and 10 children. The group was initially satisfied with the station as they could row across to Bruny Island, the ancestral country of the Nuenonne Clan of the South East Nation, to collect shells and mutton-bird eggs, and they could rely on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel for shellfish. The settlement’s main section was located at the mouths of the Little Oyster Cove Creek and Oyster Cove Rivulet.   Three Aboriginal children, photograph by Anton Faymann. Source: Wikimedia Commons   The second section, an area of little less than 700 hectares, was set apart for Aboriginal people to hunt wallabies, wombats, and possums. Once again, the children (5 boys and 5 girls) were promptly removed from their parents and sent to the Queen’s Orphan Asylum in Hobart. Authorities never considered opening a school at Oyster Cove and their removal deeply affected people at Oyster Cove.   At the end of 1854, seven years after their arrival, only 17 people of the original Oyster Cove community were still alive. In 1859, the number dropped to 14, five men and nine women. Among them were Truganini, William Lanney, Mary Ann Arthur, and her husband Walter George Arthur. Walter Arthur was particularly vocal in demanding better conditions for his people. Eventually, the new governor Sir Henry Fox Young granted him a 3-hectare block of land near Oyster Cove.   Truganini, Mary Ann, William Lanney, and Bessy Clark, photograph by Henry Frith, 1866. Source: National Portrait Gallery   Here, Arthur, Mary Ann, Fanny (Mary Ann’s sister), and Tarenootairrer (Mary Ann’s mother, renamed Sarah by Robinson) built their cottage. They even hung a portrait of Queen Victoria in the living room. Lyndall Ryan observes that “like so many other Aboriginal men in his position, he appears to have developed a schizophrenic personality: sometimes he was a resistance leader demanding better conditions for his people; at other times he was a desperate conformist aching for the acceptance of white society. But he was never ‘good enough.’”   Tarenootairrer, an important elder in the Oyster Cove Community, died in 1858. Walter Arthur passed in 1861, as he was rowing back to Oyster Cove from Hobart. He probably fell overboard and his body was never found. William Lanney, the last “full-blood male,” died in 1869.   The Last Survivor of Oyster Cove Truganini and her (alleged) partner William Lanney, 1870. Source: Wikimedia Commons   After Lanney’s death, only two women remained at Oyster Cove: Truganini and Mary Ann. Mary Ann died in July 1871, ten years after her husband. For decades, Truganini has been hailed as the “last Aboriginal Tasmanian”, and her death in 1876 was announced as the “death of the last full-blood Tasmanian.” While she was far from the last person of Aboriginal Tasmanian ancestry, she was the last survivor of the so-called Oyster Cove mob.   A member of the Nuenonne Clan of the South East Nation, the Traditional Custodians of Bruny Island, she was born at Recherche Bay in 1812, the daughter of Mangerner, chief of the Lyluequonny clan. The site where the Oyster Cove buildings were established was sacred to the Nuenonne. Truganini lived at Oyster Cove until the winter of 1874 when the mission was heavily flooded.   Aboriginal family in front of their house, photograph by Anton Faymann, 1957-8. Source: Wikimedia Commons   From 1874 until her death in 1876, she resided in Hobart, in the house of Mrs Dandrige, the wife of the former superintendent at Oyster Cove. She died there, surrounded by her faithful dogs. Oyster Cove closed down in 1874. Little more than 100 years later, in 1981, the government officially proclaimed 30 hectares of Oyster Cove a historic site. In 1984, the Tasmanian Aboriginal community reclaimed it as putalina and the Tasmanian government returned it to them in 1995. Since 1999, it has been an Indigenous Protected Area, managed by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Rangers.   On December 19, 2013, under the Aboriginal and Dual Naming Policy, six places in Tasmania were assigned Aboriginal and dual names, including Kunanyi / Mount Wellington. As of February 2023, 44 Aboriginal and dual names have been assigned to lakes, bays, rivers, and islands across the island. Tasmania is itself referred to as lutruwita/Tasmania in honor of its Traditional Custodians.