Online Webinar
Summary:Shortlisted authors for the state’s most significant literary prize, The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History, discuss the Black War, the fate of child convicts and a prominent figure from the colonial past.
Presenter(s):
- Tim Bonyhady & Greg Lehman, The National Picture: The art of Tasmania's Black War
- Jacqueline Fox, Bound By Every Tie of Duty: John Lewes Pedder, Chief Justice of Van Diemen's Land
- Steve Harris, The Lost Boys of Mr Dickens: How the British Empire turned artful dodgers into child killers
- Hosted by Professor Kate Darian-Smith, College of Arts, Law & Education
Benjamin Duterrau, The conciliation, 1840
Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History is a $25,000 biennial prize recognising works that make a significant contribution to our understanding of Tasmania's past. The award seeks to celebrate books on the island's history and cultural heritage.
These works remind us that historical sources are not only written records but also paintings, photographs, drawings, prints, maps and objects. This online forum will bring together the shortlisted authors to discuss their works. The winner of the award, which is managed by the University of Tasmania, will be announced in July.
The 2020 shortlist consists of:
The Lost Boys of Mr Dickens: How the British Empire turned artful dodgers into child killers by Steve Harris (Melbourne Books)
Steve Harris has 30 years' experience in journalism, media and high-performance organisations. He is the only person to have been editorial head of both of Melbourne's major media groups - Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Age, and Editor-in-Chief of the Herald and Weekly Times Group. He was founding Editor of The Sunday Age, and has also been CEO of Melbourne FC, founding director of the Centre for Leadership and Public Interest, and served on the boards of the Australian Children's Television Foundation and Victorian Arts Centre. He is also the author of Solomon's Noose and The Prince and the Assassin.
The National Picture: The Art of Tasmania's Black War by Tim Bonyhady and Greg Lehman (National Gallery of Australia)
Professor Tim Bonyhady is one of Australia’s foremost environmental lawyers and cultural historians. Tim has been an advisor to Commonwealth and State inquiries into environmental law and has curated exhibitions for the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. He is a Professor in the Australian National University's College of Law and Director of the Australian Centre for Environmental Law and the Centre for Climate Law and Policy.
Professor Greg Lehman is a well-known Tasmanian art historian, curator, essayist, poet and commentator on identity and place. Descended from the Trawulwuy people of north east Tasmania, Greg has an intimate relationship with the island’s Indigenous culture and his creative works explore the impact of colonisation on Tasmania’s social fabric. Greg was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor, Aboriginal Leadership at the University of Tasmania in January 2020.
Bound By Every Tie of Duty: John Lewes Pedder, Chief Justice of Van Diemen's Land by Jacqueline Fox (Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd)
Dr Jacqueline Fox is an historian whose research interests focus on the social, cultural and legal dimensions of British settler colonialism in the early nineteenth century. Her PhD (UTas, 2012) proposed a revisionist biography of Sir John Pedder, which became her shortlisted work. Jac is currently attached to the School of Humanities as a University Associate.
About the Award
The award was set up to commemorate and celebrate the contribution Joan Green, and her late husband Dick, made to Tasmania. The Greens were key players in the establishment of the National Trust in Tasmania and have been strong supporters of the arts and many community organisations. Dick Green was a former Mayor of Launceston and served on various boards, while Joan Green was a champion golfer and, for more than 50 years, has contributed to a variety of organisations.
More information is available on the Green Family Award website.
