image of person or book cover 2062578846723920162.jpg
This image has been sourced from The Conversation
Greg Lehman Greg Lehman i(A8938 works by)
Gender: Male
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Palawa / Tasmanian
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Who’s Your Mob? : An Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography Shino Konishi , Julie Andrews , Odette Best , Brenda Croft , Stephen Kinnane , Greg Lehman , John Whop , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 458 2023; (p. 24-26)

'In his 1968 Boyer Lectures, After the Dreaming, anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner lamented that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples had been omitted from narratives of the nation’s past. Contending that this omission was ‘a structural matter’, he likened Australian history to ‘a view from a window which has been carefully placed to exclude a whole quadrant of the landscape’. He proposed that the kinds of stories which could bring Indigenous history into view for Australian readers would focus on the lives of individuals.' (Introduction)

1 Rising Seas and a Great Southern Star : Aboriginal Oral Traditions Stretch Back More Than 12,000 Years Duane Hamacher , Greg Lehman , Patrick D. Nunn , Rebe Taylor , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 14 August 2023;
1 Interest and Truth in History : A Review of Truganini: Journey through the Apocalypse by Cassandra Pybus Greg Lehman , 2022 single work review essay
— Appears in: Aboriginal History Journal , April no. 45 2022;

— Review of Truganini : Journey through the Apocalypse Cassandra Pybus , 2020 single work biography
'The last glimpses of Tasmanian Aborigines born before or around the time of the British invasion of Tasmania were recorded just 10 years after the introduction of photography to the island in 1846.1 Among the earliest and best known of these photographs were those taken at Oyster Cove by Tasmania’s first bishop, Francis Russell Nixon, and displayed at the London International Exhibition in 1862. More intimate studio portraits were made by locally born photographer Charles Alfred Woolley in 1866. Woolley’s images were highly successful and used to illustrate the earliest international publications on Tasmanian Aborigines by Enrico Giglioli and James Bonwick.2 A consistent presence across these portfolios is the face of a woman who has become emblematic not just of an entire people, but of our survival of an attempted genocide and ongoing need to liberate our story from the legacies of an oppressive colonial narrative.' 

 (Introduction)

1 An Exceptional Future Greg Lehman , 2021 single work essay
— Appears in: Island , no. 163 2021; (p. 48-54) Breathing Space 2021; (p. 42-52)
'Tasmania has been lauded for its natural beauty and sublime landscapes by European arrivals since the late nineteenth century. It took another century for the island's biodiversity and unique ecologies to be recognised for their inherent values. In 1995, something occurred that many thought impossible -  Tasmanian Aboriginal land rights were granted to a people whom popular history had declared were gone forever. In addition, a burgeoning conversation movement in Australia has increasingly recognised that Western models of ecological value based on rarity, diversity or threat are able to embrace the principles of ethics and knowledge emerging from Indigenous lifeworlds. This has resulted in what Philip Toyne has described as 'a green black alliance to stem the tide of destructive elements in our society', embracing our responsibilities to the past and recognising the deep values and connections that make a place an enduring home?' (Introduction)
1 Not Lost Greg Lehman , 2021 single work prose art work
— Appears in: Island , no. 162 2021; (p. 110-111)
1 European Vision and the South Pacific, 1768-1850 Greg Lehman , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodean Perspective : Selected Writings of Bernard Smith 2018;
1 [Review] Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art Greg Lehman , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: Ab-Original , vol. 2 no. 1 2018; (p. 115-119)

'The task of adequately describing what we call "Aboriginal art" in Australia seems impossible. Whether through the disciplines of art history, anthro-pology, or any of the shifting fields of visual, critical, or postcolonial studies, the challenge is one of the greatest that might be conceived from within the traditions of the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, the idea of assem-bling such a multiplicity of cultural expressions from across vast and diverse historical and geographical dimensions into a coherent whole may seem even more absurd if approached through the epistemologies of Indigenous traditions. It may be argued to be more about imposition than exposition. Yet, this would appear to be the challenge that Ian McLean has set himself with Rattling Spears.' (Introduction)

1 1 y separately published work icon The National Picture : The Art of Tasmania's Black War Tim Bonyhady , Greg Lehman , Canberra : National Gallery of Australia , 2018 14745206 2018 multi chapter work criticism art work

'`Benjamin Duterrau and his National picture project are at the core of this publication because he was the colonial artist most interested in Tasmania's Aboriginal people, and the only artist who chose to depict, on a substantial scale, their conciliation or pacification by George Augustus Robinson', writes Tim Bonyhady and Greg Lehman in their introduction to The National Picture: The Art of Tasmania's Black War.

'The fresh research presented by Bonyhady and Lehman in this insightful new book from the National Gallery of Australia will no doubt tantalise art lovers and historians alike. It will also appeal to anyone interested in Australia's colonial past and in the ongoing interrogation of the historical record by Aboriginal artists and activists. Bonyhady and Lehman's introduction continues: `For Tasmanian Aboriginal people today, Duterrau's paintings provide a tantalising and rare visual record of the unique culture practice of their ancestors. Robinson's journals offer written descriptions of activities, such as spear-making and throwing, kangaroo hunting and ceremonial dance, accompanied by only a scattering of small, often crude sketches, which are vitally important firsthand observations'.

'This publication serves to conjure up and interrogate Tasmania's colonial past. Colonial representations of Tasmanian Aboriginal people are among the most remarkable and contentious expressions of Australian colonial art. The National Picture sheds new light on the under-examined figures in this difficult narrative: colonial artist Benjamin Duterrau, the controversial George Augustus Robinson and the Tasmanian Aboriginal people upon whose land the British settled.' (Publication summary)

1 The Exile of History Greg Lehman , 2018 single work essay
— Appears in: Island , no. 153 2018; (p. 23)

'When British ships first arrived, seeking a new Paradise in what they called Van Diemen's Land, the island was already home to hundreds of Aboriginal families who called it lutruwita. But the British took little interest in Aboriginal culture. Lieutenant John Bowen, who was in charge of the first outpost at Risdon Cove in 1803, pronounced before ever seeing an Aborigine that they would not be 'of any use He thought he would be fortunate if he never saw them.'  (Introduction)

1 7 A Tasmanian Requiem Greg Lehman , Jim Everett , Frances Butler , Helen Thompson (composer), 2018 single work musical theatre

'A Tasmanian Requiem is an ambitious musical and visual conception that faces a past haunted by the terrible legacy of the Black War of Van Diemen’s Land.

'This groundbreaking collaboration between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists acknowledges the impact of frontier conflict and the strength, beauty and resilience of Tasmanian Aboriginal culture.

'Performed by Tasmania’s premiere brass ensemble, the Island Brass Quintet, with an extraordinary classical and contemporary vocal mix, A Tasmanian Requiem is at once disturbing and uplifting, a musical gift for a shared future.'  (Production summary)

1 y separately published work icon Crystal Bone Greg Lehman , Hobart : A Published Event , 2017 17440064 2017 selected work poetry

'Only one seal remains with her on the rock. Unlike the dark forms that have returned to the sea, her companion is silvery white, and has fixed her in a wide-eyed, liquid gaze. She waits for a movement, when she knows that she must quickly strike. But when movement comes it is her that draws back.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 The Black War : Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania : Review Greg Lehman , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Aboriginal History , December vol. 39 no. 2015; (p. 259-262)

— Review of The Black War : Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania Nicholas Clements , 2014 single work non-fiction
1 Empty Page i "Who gave me this empty page", Greg Lehman , 2015 single work poetry
— Appears in: Blue Giraffe , Mid-year no. 14 2015; (p. 26)
1 Forgotten Voices Greg Lehman , 2015 single work review
— Appears in: Inside Story , December 2015;

— Review of Van Diemen's Land : An Aboriginal History Murray Johnson , Ian McFarlane , 2015 single work criticism ; Forgotten War Henry Reynolds , 2013 single work non-fiction
'Two books grapple in different ways with the evidence of Tasmanian Aboriginal history, writes Greg Lehman' 
1 [Review Essay] Friendly Mission : The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834 Greg Lehman , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Aboriginal Studies , no. 1 2011; (p. 111-113)

— Review of Friendly Mission : The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834 George Augustus Robinson , 1966 selected work diary

'In recent years there has been a small but significant explosion of writing about the history of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania and the impact of British invasion. All of it owes a profound debt to a single publication by the Tasmanian Historical Research Association in 1966, which after more than 50 years has now entered its second edition.' (Introduction)

1 Fearing Truganini Greg Lehman , 2011 single work criticism (taught in 1 units)
— Appears in: Artlink , June vol. 31 no. 2 2011; (p. 48-50)
1 Pleading Robinson Greg Lehman , 2010 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 49 2010; (p. 1-8)

— Review of Friendly Mission : The Tasmanian Journals and Papers of George Augustus Robinson, 1829-1834 George Augustus Robinson , 1966 selected work diary ; Reading Robinson : Companion Essays to 'Friendly Mission' 2008 anthology criticism
1 A Snake and a Seal Greg Lehman , 2008 single work poetry life story
— Appears in: Heartsick for Country : Stories of Love, Spirit and Creation 2008; (p. 131-142)
1 Being Here : Authenticity and Presence in Tasmanian Aboriginal Art Greg Lehman , 2006 single work essay
— Appears in: Keeping Culture : Aboriginal Tasmania 2006; (p. 33-43)
1 Make Places for the Young i "Call up your daughters as they first see the sun", Greg Lehman , 2004 single work poetry
— Appears in: River of Verse : A Tasmanian Journey 1800-2004 2004; (p. 193)
X