Lyndall Ryan | |
---|---|
Born |
Paddington, New South Wales |
14 April 1943
Awards | John Barrett Award for Australian Studies (2013) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater |
University of Sydney (BA, DipEd) Macquarie University (PhD) |
Thesis title | Aborigines in Tasmania, 1800–1974 and their problems with the Europeans |
Thesis year | 1975 |
Influences | Manning Clark |
Academic work | |
Institutions |
University of Newcastle (1998–) Flinders University (1984–97) Griffith University (1977–83) |
Main interests | Indigenous Australian history Australian colonial relations |
Notable works | The Aboriginal Tasmanians (1981) |
Lyndall Ryan (born 14 April 1943) is an Australian academic and historian. She has held positions in Australian Studies and Women's Studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was Foundation Professor of Australian Studies and Head of School of Humanities at the University of Newcastle, 1998–2005. She is currently Research Professor in the Centre for the History of Violence in the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Newcastle. She completed a PhD at Macquarie University in 1975, her thesis was titled "Aborigines in Tasmania, 1800–1974 and their problems with the Europeans".
Her book The Aboriginal Tasmanians, first published in 1981 presented a critical interpretation the early history of relations between Tasmanian Aborigines and white settlers in Tasmania. A second edition was published by Allen & Unwin in 1996 in which she brought the story of the Tasmanian Aborigines in the 20th century up to date. Her work was later attacked by Keith Windschuttle, thus drawing her into the History wars. Windschuttle pointed to alleged discrepancies between Ryan's claims, her cited sources for the claims, and what the cited sources for the claims and the historical record actually reported. Ryan contested Windschuttle's claims in an essay entitled 'Who is the fabricator?' in Robert Manne's 'Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle Fabrication of Aboriginal History' published in 2003 and further addressed them in her book, Tasmanian Aborigines: A history Since 1803, published in 2012.