General Responsibilities

Professor Greg Lehman is a well-known Tasmanian art historian, curator, essayist and commentator on Indigenous 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.

Prior to his appointment as Pro Vice Chancellor, Aboriginal Leadership at the University of Tasmania in January 2020, Greg was a McKenzie Research Fellow at the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Following his appointment as an Indigenous Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in 2011, Greg worked in a number of research roles at the Australian National University’s National Centre for Indigenous Studies and Deakin University’s Institute for Koori Education.

Greg first graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Bachelor of Science in 1984, majoring in Life Sciences and Geography. In 2012, Greg was awarded a Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Scholarship to complete a Masters in the History of Art and Visual Cultures at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he researched the work of colonial artist Benjamin Duterrau. He received the 2016 AAANZ award for ‘Best Art Writing by an Indigenous Australian for his essay Benjamin Duterrau: the Art of Conciliation. He completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania’s Academy of the Arts in 2017. Greg’s thesis, Regarding the Savage, explored the understanding of Aboriginal culture, history and identity through visual history.

Greg has also worked as a successful curator. In 2017, he led the development of First Tasmanians, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery’s first permanent Indigenous gallery. Together with Tim Bonyhady, he also co-curated The National Picture: the Art of Tasmania’s Black War, a major touring exhibition on the work of Benjamin Duterrau and other Tasmanian colonial artists that opened at the National Gallery of Australia in May, 2018. The National Picture won the 2019 Museums and Galleries Australia Award for Travelling Exhibitions.

As well as academic articles on subjects ranging from fire ecology and heritage management, to Indigenous tourism and colonial art, Greg has contributed key publications to Australia’s ‘History Wars’. He was a foundation member of the National Museum of Australia’s Indigenous Reference Group, and is Indigenous Advisor to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart.

Greg is a Full Writer Member of APRA. In 2010, his lyrics were performed at ‘Voices of Celebration’ as part of the Gondwana National Choirs and Sydney Children’s Choirs’ 21^st Birthday Concert at the Sydney Opera House. He also wrote a libretto for the oratorio A Tasmanian Requiem, which premiered at the Theatre Royal, Hobart in 2018. His creative writing has been published in anthologies of verse and essays for over twenty years. He regularly collaborates with visual artists who seek to engage with Tasmanian’s deep history and culture. These collaborations have included Christof Buchel, Tom Nicholson, Nigel Helyer and Imants Tillers.