Greg Lehman
Greg Lehman, a descendant of the Trawulwuy people of North East Tasmania, undertook a Master of Studies (MSt) at Balliol College, University of Oxford, after being awarded a Roberta Sykes Scholarship in July 2012. In describing his experience at Oxford, Greg said "Studying at Oxford brings you closer to what feels like an international hub of learning. The resources available, the people, the conversations... there is always something happening that can take your work to a higher level."
Greg has worked in a range of Indigenous research roles over thirty years, investigating deaths in custody, return of land, management of World Heritage associative values, reconciliation, education, history and identity.
Greg is a past director of the Riawunna Centre for Aboriginal Education. He has a long-standing interest in, and is a significant contributor to, public discourse on Indigenous identity and cultural interpretation in Australia. Greg is currently a Director on the Boards of Skills Tasmania and Natural Resource Management South, as well as being a Fellow of Anglicare’s Social Action and Research Centre. He is a regular national contributor of essays and reviews and was recently included in the Griffith Review’s edition ‘Tasmania: the tipping point?’
During the 2000s, Greg worked professionally as a writer and in creative communications, achieving a Gold Award for scriptwriting at the Summit International Creative Awards (USA) in 2004, Design and Jury Awards from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects in 2005, as well as the Real Estate Institute of Tasmania Award for Excellence for Best Television Advertising and Best Website in 2007.
He returned to Indigenous affairs when he became Manager of Aboriginal Education in Tasmania, receiving a National Ambassador Award from Principals Australia’s Dare to Lead project. In 2011, Greg was appointed as an Indigenous Visiting Research Fellow by the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), a post that enabled him to recommence his research, enrolling in a PhD at the University of Tasmania to examine the visual representation of Tasmanian Aborigines in colonial art.
The Roberta Sykes Scholarship allowed Greg to extend his PhD research by enrolling in the nine month MSt in History of Art and Visual Cultures. This intensive program, involving both coursework and a dissertation, will ensure that his research is of the highest international standard. In September 2012, on his way to Oxford, Greg presented a paper at the University of Stuttgart entitled ‘An Infamous Absence: Tasmanian Aborigines in the European Eye’, for the 13th Biennial German Association for Australian Studies Conference, Visualising Australia: images, icons and imaginations – representing the continent at home and abroad. Greg’s paper explored the transformations in representation of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture resulting from the arrival of French and British artists in the late 18th century and considered how these have impacted on understandings of, and attitudes to, Aboriginal people today.
As Greg puts it, “while much has been published of the archaeology, ethnography and history of Tasmanian Aborigines, there has been no focus on the fascinating visual record of my people and our culture. Through a survey of traditional Indigenous representation, records of early European encounters by Dutch, French and British expeditions, colonial imagery and contemporary art, I am mapping the construction of Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) identity and history in the public imagination and how this has influenced colonial identity and international perspectives on our history. In particular, the narratives of genocide and extinction in Tasmania provide an important case study of the legacy of Social Darwinism in post-colonial Australia.”
Greg sees his project as offering an opportunity for new conversations about Aboriginal culture and identity and for communities to achieve greater freedom in creating their own futures.
“We can do this by being better informed about the influence that visual histories have played in creating many of the things we take for granted as part of our culture. These things are often constructs of imperial art, used to suppress that culture.”
Greg has worked in a range of Indigenous research roles over thirty years, investigating deaths in custody, return of land, management of World Heritage associative values, reconciliation, education, history and identity.
Greg is a past director of the Riawunna Centre for Aboriginal Education. He has a long-standing interest in, and is a significant contributor to, public discourse on Indigenous identity and cultural interpretation in Australia. Greg is currently a Director on the Boards of Skills Tasmania and Natural Resource Management South, as well as being a Fellow of Anglicare’s Social Action and Research Centre. He is a regular national contributor of essays and reviews and was recently included in the Griffith Review’s edition ‘Tasmania: the tipping point?’
During the 2000s, Greg worked professionally as a writer and in creative communications, achieving a Gold Award for scriptwriting at the Summit International Creative Awards (USA) in 2004, Design and Jury Awards from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects in 2005, as well as the Real Estate Institute of Tasmania Award for Excellence for Best Television Advertising and Best Website in 2007.
He returned to Indigenous affairs when he became Manager of Aboriginal Education in Tasmania, receiving a National Ambassador Award from Principals Australia’s Dare to Lead project. In 2011, Greg was appointed as an Indigenous Visiting Research Fellow by the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), a post that enabled him to recommence his research, enrolling in a PhD at the University of Tasmania to examine the visual representation of Tasmanian Aborigines in colonial art.
The Roberta Sykes Scholarship allowed Greg to extend his PhD research by enrolling in the nine month MSt in History of Art and Visual Cultures. This intensive program, involving both coursework and a dissertation, will ensure that his research is of the highest international standard. In September 2012, on his way to Oxford, Greg presented a paper at the University of Stuttgart entitled ‘An Infamous Absence: Tasmanian Aborigines in the European Eye’, for the 13th Biennial German Association for Australian Studies Conference, Visualising Australia: images, icons and imaginations – representing the continent at home and abroad. Greg’s paper explored the transformations in representation of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture resulting from the arrival of French and British artists in the late 18th century and considered how these have impacted on understandings of, and attitudes to, Aboriginal people today.
As Greg puts it, “while much has been published of the archaeology, ethnography and history of Tasmanian Aborigines, there has been no focus on the fascinating visual record of my people and our culture. Through a survey of traditional Indigenous representation, records of early European encounters by Dutch, French and British expeditions, colonial imagery and contemporary art, I am mapping the construction of Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) identity and history in the public imagination and how this has influenced colonial identity and international perspectives on our history. In particular, the narratives of genocide and extinction in Tasmania provide an important case study of the legacy of Social Darwinism in post-colonial Australia.”
Greg sees his project as offering an opportunity for new conversations about Aboriginal culture and identity and for communities to achieve greater freedom in creating their own futures.
“We can do this by being better informed about the influence that visual histories have played in creating many of the things we take for granted as part of our culture. These things are often constructs of imperial art, used to suppress that culture.”
