Diane Elizabeth McEachern Barwick (29 April 1938 – 4 April 1986) was a

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-born anthropologist,

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, and Aboriginal-rights activist. She was also a renowned researcher and teacher in the field of Australian Aboriginal culture and society.

Biography

Barwick was born on 29 April 1938 in

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, Canada. Her father was Ronald Bernard McEachern, who was a forest worker, high rigger, and camp manager, nicknamed 'Bear Tracks', and her mother was Beatrice Rosemond, née O’Flynn.Tim Rowse, 'Barwick, Diane Elizabeth (1938–1986)', ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2007, accessed online 27 April 2015
/ref> Barwick attended the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

, graduating with honours in 1959. Her undergraduate thesis, ''The Logging Camp as Sub-Culture'', focused on the subculture of the loggers of Englewood Valley and was based on fieldwork conducted in a number of logging camps.The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
Australian Women's Archives Project 2014 It After graduating, she spent a year working at the Provincial Museum of Natural History and Anthropology in

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. In 1960, she moved to Australia, where she undertook a PhD at the

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(ANU) on scholarship, receiving it in 1964. On 14 April 1961, she married Richard Essex Barwick, a fellow PhD student. In 1964, she became a founding member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS). From March 1966 to June 1972, she was a research fellow in the department of anthropology and sociology, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU. In 1978, she was the first woman to be elected to AIAS's council. Until 1982, she aided in the publications of the institute. From 1982 to 1986, she became a councilor for the institute's history committee; between 1983 and 1986, she had chaired the executive publications committee. In 1973, she had her first child, Laura Eden Barwick. She undertook research and teaching at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Barwick, between 1974 and 1978, was employed as a tutor and a lecturer at ANU. In 1977, Barwick was a co-founder and editor of ''

Aboriginal History ''Aboriginal History'' is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal published as an open access journal by Aboriginal History Inc. It was established in 1977 (co-founded and edited by Diane Barwick) and covers interdisciplinary historical studies ...

'', the journal of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History, Research School of Social Science, ANU. She retained the position until 1982.Encyclopedia of Australian Science 2010
/ref> In 1979, she was a temporary research fellow in the department of history, Research School of Social Sciences, ANU for a year. In 1980, she became involved in the Aboriginal Treaty Committee, working to ensure some official recognition, and protection, of Aboriginal rights. In May 1985, she was appointed by the AIAS in an honorary capacity to establish a national Aboriginal biographical register. On 4 April 1986, she died of a cerebral hemorrhage at

Royal Canberra Hospital Royal Canberra Hospital was the first hospital in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It opened in 1914 (a year after the planned city was opened) on the Acton Peninsula, as the Canberra Community Hospital. It grew to become the major hospital in ...

. She was buried in Gungahlin cemetery with Catholic rites.

Research

Barwick's research and writing focussed on the traditional and contemporary aspects of aboriginal life, while she campaigned against prejudice and injustice for aboriginal people. She was particularly sensitive to Indigenous peoples' connection to land, and the impact of dispossession; her work stressed the importance of understanding the historical context of colonialism. In 1984, she published the journal article "Mapping the Past: An Atlas of Victorian clans, 1835-1904", which has become a major reference understanding the traditional ownership of Aboriginal land in Victoria. This was to be the start of a larger project, but she died just days short of her forty-eighth birthday having just started the second part of the project.

Legacy

Diane Barwick St, in Canberra, is named in her honour.

Selected bibliography

* ''Outcasts in White Australia'', 1971. * ''Handbook for Aboriginal and Islander History'', Diane Barwick, Michael Mace and Tom Stannage, editors, Aboriginal History, Canberra, 1979. econd edition 1980; third edition 1984* 'Mapping the Past: An Atlas of Victorian Clans 1835-1904', Part 1, ''Aboriginal History'' 1984, 8(2):100-31 *

Posthumously

* ''Rebellion at Coranderrk'' by Diane Barwick. Edited by Laura E. Barwick and Richard E. Barwick. Published by Aboriginal History Incorporated, Canberra, 1998.

References

External links

Diane Elizabeth Barwick's Obituaries by Diane Bell.
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barwick, Diane 1938 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Canadian women scientists Australian anthropologists Australian women scientists Canadian anthropologists Canadian women anthropologists Canadian emigrants to Australia Scientists from Vancouver Australian women anthropologists Australian indigenous rights activists Women human rights activists 20th-century Australian women 20th-century anthropologists