Abstract In 1829 Lieutenant Governor George Arthur issued a series of Proclamation Boards illustrated with images of friendship, equality before the law and mutual punishment for Aborigines and Europeans alike, in an attempt to conciliate Aboriginal people in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). These striking images have been reworked over time, and have come to shape understandings of Australian history at national and international levels. Yet for images so regularly cited in history books they have been under researched and frequently detached from the interconnected global and imperial histories that produced them. In line with new work that seeks to trace the political and cultural networks of empire, this paper considers the boards in transnational context. Proposing that the boards be considered objects of diplomacy, the paper examines the transference of iconography, including the humanitarian handshake, found on treaty medals and British anti-slavery tokens between networked British colonies. Reflectin...