Professor Ann McGrath
Position: Distinguished Professor
School and/or Centres: School of History
Position: Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow and W.K. Hancock Professor of History
School and/or Centres: School of History
Position: Director of the Research Centre for Deep History
School and/or Centres: School of History
Email: ann.mcgrath@anu.edu.au
Phone: (02) 612 54850
Location: Level 5, RSSS Building, 146 Ellery Crescent
Qualification:
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (University of Queensland, 1976) Doctor of Philosophy (LaTrobe University, 1984)
Researcher profile: https://researchportalplus.anu.edu.au/en/persons/ann-mcgrath
My current interests are deep history in global context, spatial history and scale. I have a longstanding interst in the history of gender and colonialism, the history of Indigenous relations and intermarriage in Australia and North America. My latest project is 'Rediscovering the Deep Human Past: Global Networks, Future Opportunities'. My publications include 'Illicit Love: Interracial Sex and Marriage in the United States and Australia' (University of Nebraska, 2015) which won the NSW Premiers History Prize and 'Born in the Cattle' (Allen & Unwin 1987), winner of inaugural Hancock Prize. I am interested in presenting scholarly history in a range of genres. Exhibitions curated include one on Women and Childbirth during the Federation era and one on International Outlaws as national heroes. I produced the film 'A Frontier Conversation' (Wonderland Productions, Ronin distributors, 2006) and with Andrew Pike, co-directed and produced the prize-winning 'Message from Mungo' (Ronin, 2014); I have worked as an advisor on various television and film projects. My consultancy and outreach work have included co-ordinating the history project of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, working as an expert witness in the Gunner & Cubillo case and on various Northern Territory land claims. I was accepted as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Humanities was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia Medal (AM) for services to history, especially Indigenous history. My work has also been recognized by the award of the Inaugural W.K. Hancock prize, the Human Rights Award for non-fiction, the John Barrett Prize, the Archibald Hannah Junior Fellowship at the Beinecke Library, Yale, Membership of the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham and Membership of the School of Social Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, a Rockefeller Foundation Scholarly Residency at Bellagio, an Honorary Doctorate at Linneaus University, Sweden and the 2017 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship.
Deep History, Landscape History, Gender and Colonialism; Australian indigenous history; Comparative and trans-national history of frontiers in Australia and North America; Birth, Love, Marriage and Intermarriage; Law, Justice and History; Museums, Museology and Public History; Art and Visual Evidence in History.
Deepening Histories of Place: Exploring Indigenous Landscapes of National and International Significance
ARC Linkage Project with National Parks, Australia, Dept Environment, Climate Change and Water, NSW, Ronin Films, National Film and Sound Archives, AIATSIS and University of Sydney.
Through researching the Indigenous histories of selected sites in New South Wales and Northern Territory landscapes, this project will investigate the social and environmental links that create historical 'highways' of understanding, including song-lines, tracks, exploration, trade, pastoral and tourism routes. By researching written texts, art, film and sound evidence, this project will develop innovative models for comprehensive, indigenous and landscape-focused historical interpretation. Bringing together a unique interdisciplinary and industry team, its publications, pod-streaming and other history delivery strategies will deepen understandings of internationally significant Australian landscapes.
- McGrath, A 2018, Life Sentences: Aborigines more popular than Captain Cook, pp. 1pp-2pp.
- McGrath, A 2018, 'OBITUARIES: Mickey Sue Dewar OAM (1956-2017)', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 413-415.
- McGrath, A 2018, 'Alan Powell: Historical Navigator of the Far Country', in Dr Samantha Wells (ed.), Beyond the Far Country, Historical Society of the Northern Territory, Northern Territory, pp. 58-70pp.
- McGrath, A 2017, 'Australia: Abiding Injustice', World Policy Journal, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 5-6pp..
- McGrath, A 2017, 'The Big Question: What legacies of colonialism prevent indigenous peoples from achieving justice?', World Policy Journal, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 3-7pp.
- Conor, L & McGrath, A 2017, 'Xavier Herbert: Forgotten or Repressed?', Cultural Studies Review, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 62-69.
- McGrath, A 2017, 'On the Sacred clay of Botany Bay: Landings, National Memorialization, and Multiple Sovereignties', New Diversities, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 85-102pp.
- McGrath, A. 2017, ‘Ancient “Evidence” for a Modern Sacred’, in Aigner, K (ed). Australia : the Vatican Museums Indigenous collection , Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra.
- McGrath, A 2016, 'Review: Rohwer Reconstructed: Interpreting Place through Experience', The Public Historian, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 322-324pp.
- McGrath, A 2016, 'Going Against History?', The Institute Letter, vol. Summer 2016, pp. 1pp.
- McGrath, A 2016, 'Secrets of Nation', Inside Story, vol. online, pp. 4pp.
- Kennedy, R, Leane, J, McGrath, A et al 2016, 'Roundtable: Message from Mungo and the Scales of Memory', Australian Humanities Review, vol. 59, no. 59, pp. 247-259.
- McGrath, A 2016, In Choosing to be Cherokee, She was Forced to Renounce the US.
- McGrath, A 2016, Camping with a Bush Legend, ANU Reporter
- Allbrook, M & McGrath, A 2015, 'Collaborative Histories of the Willandra Lakes. Deepening histories and the deep past.', in Ann McGrath and Mary Anne Jebb (ed.), Long History, Deep Time: Deepening Histories of Place, ANU Press, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, pp. 241-252pp..
- McGrath, A 2015, 'BLOG - A Tale of Three Book Launches'.
- McGrath, A 2016, 'Celebrating White Men and Their Black Lovers', The Age, no. Feb 26, pp. online.
- McGrath, A 2016, 'Conquering Sacred Ground? Climbing Uluru and Devil's Tower', in Howkins, Orsi and Fiege (ed.), National Parks Beyond the Nation, University of Oklahoma Press, USA.
- McGrath, A 2016, 'Making Love and Nations', Sapiens. w.sapiens.org/culture/making-love-and-nations/
- McGrath, A 2015, Illicit Love: Interracial Sex and Marriage in the United States and Australia, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London.
- McGrath, A 2015, 'Deep Histories in Time or Crossing the Great Divide?', in Ann McGrath and Mary Anne Jebb (ed.), Long History, Deep Time: Deepening Histories of Place, ANU Press, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, pp. 1-31pp..
- McGrath, A & Jebb, M, eds, 2015, Long History, Deep Time: Deepening Histories of Place, ANU Press, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
- McGrath, A 2015, 'Crossing history's mountains: the historic values of the Greater Blue Mountains', in Doug Benson (ed.), Values for a New Generation, Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory Committee, Katoomba, pp. 95-133.
- McGrath, A, Ireland, S, Saggers, S et al 2015, 'Paperbark and pinard: A historical account of maternity care in one remote Australian Aboriginal town', Women and Birth, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 293-302.
- McGrath, A 2004, 'Minoru Hokari 1971-2004', Aboriginal History, vol. 28, pp. 235-238.
- McGrath, A 2014, 'Book Review: Matters of the Heart: A History of Interracial Marriage in New Zealand. By Angela Wanhalla, Auckland: Auckland University Press, pp 231', Australian Historical Studies, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 267-268.
- McGrath, A 2014, 'The Loneliness of the Feminist Historian', Australian Feminist Studies, vol. 29, no. 80, pp. 204-214.
- Ireland, S, Narjic, C, Belton, S et al 2015, ''Jumping around': exploring young women's behaviour and knowledge in relation to sexual health in a remote Aboriginal Australian community', Culture, Health and Sexuality, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1-16.
- McGrath, A 2014, 'Is history good medicine?', Journal of Australian Studies, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 396-414.
- McGrath, A & Pike, A 2014, Message from Mungo.
- McGrath, A 2013, 'Shamrock Aborigines: The Irish, the Aboriginal Australians, and Their Children', in Graeme Morton and David A. Wilson (ed.), Irish and Scottish Encounters with Indigenous Peoples, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, pp. 108-144.
- McGrath, A 2013, 'Book review - Indigenous Women and Work: From Labor to Activism by Carol Williams', Western Historical Quarterly, no. winter 2013, pp. 478-479.
- Aslanian, S, Chaplin, J, McGrath, A et al 2013, 'AHR Conversation How Size Matters: The Question of Scale in History', American Historical Review, vol. 118, no. 5, pp. 1431-1472.
- McGrath, A 2012, 'Book Review: A Different Inequality: The Politics of Debates about Remote Aboriginal Australia', Aboriginal History, vol. 36, pp. 173-176.
- McGrath, A 2012, 'Book Review - A Different Inequality: The Politics of Debates about Remote Aboriginal Australia by Diana Austin-Broos', Aboriginal History, vol. 36, pp. 173-176.
- McGrath, A 2012, 'A Historical Panorama', Canadian Historical Review, vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 278-283.
- McGrath, A 2012, 'Australia', in James E. Bennett, Rebecca Beirne (ed.), Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand, I B Tauris & Co Ltd, New York, USA, pp. 31-35pp..
- McGrath, A 2012, 'Australia's Occluded Voices: Ned Kelly's History Wars', in Micheal O hAodha and John O'Callaghan (ed.), Narratives of the Occluded Irish Diaspora, International Academic Publishers, Bern, pp. 7-36pp..
- McGrath, A 2011, 'A Supervisor's reflection', in (ed.), Gurindji journey: a Japanese historian in the outback, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia, pp. 1-11.
- McGrath, A 2011, 'Book Review: End of an era: Aboriginal labour in the Northern Territory', Aboriginal History, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 159-161.
- McGrath, A & Curthoys, A 2010, 'History as literature', Agora, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 25-30pp.
- McGrath, A 2010, 'Book review: Ochre and Rust: Aretfacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers by Philip Jones', Aboriginal History, vol. 33, pp. 270-271.
- McGrath, A 2010, 'Book review: Taking Assimilation to Heart: Marriages of White Women & Indigenous Men in the United States & Australia 1887-1937 by Katherine Ellinghaus', Aboriginal History, vol. 34, pp. 313-316.
- McGrath, A 2010, 'Shamrock Aborigines: the Irish, the Aboriginal Australians and their children', Aboriginal History, vol. 34, pp. 55-84.
- McGrath, A 2010, 'Film Review: Modern Monsters and the Martu', History Australia, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 65.1-65.3.
- McGrath, A 2010, ''Bad' History, Good Intentions and Australia's National Apology', in Helga Ramsey-Kurz and Ulla Ratheiser (ed.), Antipodean Childhood: Growing Up in Australia and New Zealand, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, pp. 47-67.
- McGrath, A 2006, 'Preface', Aboriginal History, vol. 30, pp. v-x.
- McGrath, A 2005, 'Book review: Shared landscapes: archaeologies of attachment and the pastoral industry in New South Wales', Aboriginal History, vol. 29, pp. 226-229.
- McGrath, A & Curthoys, A 2009, 'Gallery, Museum and Other Exercises for Writing History', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories Imagination and Narration (2nd edition), Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria, pp. 10.1-10.4.
- McGrath, A 2009, 'Reflexivity and the Self-Line', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories Imagination and Narration (2nd edition), Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria, pp. 7.1-7.11.
- McGrath, A 2009, 'Must film be fiction?', Griffith Review, no. Winter 2009, pp. 191-199.
- McGrath, A & Curthoys, A, eds, 2009, Writing Histories Imagination and Narration (new ed), Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria.
- McGrath, A & Curthoys, A 2009, 'Introduction [Writing Histories Imagination and Narration]', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories Imagination and Narration (2nd edition), Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria, pp. viii-xvi.
- McGrath, A & Curthoys, A 2009, 'How to Workshop Your Writing', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories Imagination and Narration (2nd edition), Monash University ePress, Clayton Victoria, pp. 11.1-11.4.
- McGrath, A & Curthoys, A 2009, How to write History that people want to read, UNSW Press, Sydney Australia.
- McGrath, A 2009, Writing Readable History, pp. Online.
- McGrath, A 2008, 'Naked Shame: Nation, Science and Indigenous Knowledge in Walter Roth's Interventions into Frontier Sexualities', in Russell McDougall and Iain Davidson (ed.), The Roth Family, Anthropology, and Colonial Administration, Left Coast Press, California, pp. 193-209.
- McGrath, A 2008, 'Translating Histories: Australian Aboriginal Narratives, History and Literature', The Southern Hemisphere Review, vol. 24, pp. 34-47.
- McGrath, A 2008, Reconciliation requires an Aborigine for head of state, Sydney Morning Herald.
- McGrath, A 2007, 'Being Annie Oakley: Modern Girls, New World Woman', Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 28, no. 1 & 2, pp. 203-231.
- McGrath, A, Grimshaw, P, Lake, M et al 2006, Creating a Nation 1788-2007, Australian Scholarly Publishing Pty Ltd, Perth.
- Peters-Little, F, McGrath, A & Macfarlane, I 2006, 'Preface: Exchanging Histories, in special edition of Aboriginal History vol 30', Aboriginal History, vol. 30.
- McGrath, A 2006, A Frontier Conversation, Ronin Films.
- McGrath, A 2005, 'Consent, Marriage and Colonialism: Indigenous Australian Women and Colonizer Marriages', Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, vol. 6, no. 3, p. 16.
- McGrath, A 2004, 'The history Phoenix? Inventing a History Tradition in the Northern Territory', in David Carment (ed.), NORTHERN ENCOUNTERS New Directions in North Australian History, Charles Darwin University Press, Darwin N.T., p. 219.
- McGrath, A 2003, 'Australian Centre for Indigenous History', Australian Historical Association Bulletin, vol. 96, no. June 2003, pp. 7-11.
- McGrath, A 2003, Proof and Truth: The Humanist as Expert, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Canberra ACT.
- McGrath, A & McCalman, I 2003, 'Introduction [to Proof and Truth]', in I McCalman and A McGrath (ed.), Proof and Truth: The Humanist as Expert, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Canberra ACT, pp. 1-12.
- McGrath, A 2003, 'Stories for Country: Aboriginal History and Land Claims', in I McCalman and A McGrath (ed.), Proof and Truth: The Humanist as Expert, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Canberra ACT, pp. 251-262.
- McGrath, A 2003, 'The Golden Thread of Kinship: Mixed Marriages Between Asians and Aboriginal Women during Australia's Federation Era', in Penny Edwards & Shen Yuanfang (ed.), Lost in the Whitewash, Australian National University, Canberra, pp. 37-58.
- McGrath, A 2003, 'History and Land Rights', in I McCalman and A McGrath (ed.), Proof and Truth: The Humanist as Expert, Australian Academy of the Humanities, Canberra ACT, pp. 233-248.
- McGrath, A 2002, 'White Brides: Images of Marriage across Colonizing Boundaries', Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 76-108.
- McGrath, A 2001, 'Playing Colonial: Cowgirls, Cowboys, and Indians in Australia and North America', Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-19.
- Curthoys, A & McGrath, A, eds, 2000, Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration, Monash University, Victoria.
- Curthoys, A & McGrath, A 2000, 'Introduction', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration, Monash University, Victoria, pp. vii-xiv.
- Curthoys, A & McGrath, A 2000, 'Gallery, museum and other exercises for writing history', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration, Monash University, Victoria, pp. 82-85.
- McGrath, A 2000, 'Guerilla Fighters', in Kleinert, S.; Neale, M. (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, pp. 599-600.
- Curthoys, A & McGrath, A 2000, 'How to workshop your writing', in Ann Curthoys and Ann McGrath (ed.), Writing Histories: Imagination and Narration, Monash University, Victoria, pp. 90-96.
- McGrath, A 2000, 'Massacres', in Kleinert, S.; Neale, M. (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, p. 641.
- McGrath, A 1999, 'Book Review: White Flour, White Power: From Rations to Citizenship in Central Australia by of Tim Rowse', Australian Humanities Review, vol. 30, no. 113.
- Rediscovering the Deep Human Past: Global Networks, Future Opportunities (Primary Investigator)
- The Two Lakes Project: A Research History of Lakes Mungo and Gregory (Primary Investigator)
- Deepening Histories of Place: Exploring Indigenous Landscapes of National and International Significance (Primary Investigator)
2018 Member of the Order of Australia AM
2018 Fellow of the Academy of Humanities
2018 Invited Associate Investigator, Centre of Excellence Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
2016 New South Wales Premiers History Prize, General Category
2016 John Douglas Kerr Medal for Distinction in Research and Writing Australia History.
2014 United Nations Association of Australia, Media Award(for Message From Mungo, and for Indigenous Recognition).
2011 Hedersdoktorer, Honorary Doctorate, Linnaeus University, Sweden
2007 Order of Australia Medal OAM for services in Indigenous history
2004 Fellow of Australian Academy of Social Sciences
2002 NSW Department of Education Award for Births of a Nation.
1995 Non-Fiction Prize, NSW Society of Women Writers (for Contested Ground: Aborigines under the British Crown)
1994 Human Rights Award, non-fiction (for Creating a Nation, co-authored)
1994 John Barrett Prize for Australian Studies (shared) (for best article 'Beneath the Skin: Australian Citizenship, Rights and Aboriginal Women')
1988 W.K. Hancock Prize for history- Inaugural Award of the Australian Historical Association. (for Born in the Cattle: Aborigines in Cattle Country)
1982 Northern Territory Major Annual History Award
1981 Membership, the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies
2004 - present Fellow of Australian Academy of Social Sciences
1987 - present Member Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
