Henry Reynolds

Henry Reynolds (b 1938), historian, grew up in Hobart and was educated at Hobart High School and the University of Tasmania. In 1965 he accepted a lectureship at James Cook University in Townsville, which sparked an interest in the history of relations between settlers and Aborigines. His pioneering scholarly work, especially The Other Side of the Frontier (1981), was critical in changing understandings of the Australian frontier. With The Law of the Land (1987), this prolific historian increasingly engaged with contemporary legal and political issues. In morally charged works such as This Whispering in our Hearts (1998) and Why Weren't We Told (1999), this most lucid of writers gave the cause of Reconciliation a historical underpinning. In 2000 he took up a professorial fellowship at the University of Tasmania.