Fields of Research

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history
Australian history
Global Indigenous studies peoples, society and community
Visual arts
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural history
International relations
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge management methods
Screen media
European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental knowledges
Cultural heritage management (incl. world heritage)
Environmental education and extension
North American history
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander information and knowledge management systems

Research Objectives

Understanding Australia's past
Conserving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artefacts
Understanding past societies
Understanding Europe's past
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connection to land and environment
Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tradition
International relations
Other culture and society
Understanding the past of the Americas
Expanding knowledge in the environmental sciences
Marine systems and management

Career Best Publications

Research Publications

'All I know is history': memory and land ownership in the Dudley District, Kangaroo Island; History, power, text: cultural studies and Indigenous studies
'Fanny Smith: Icon' Interview with ABC Radio National
A Curious Absence; Hadley’s Art Prize
A Journey of 13,033 stones: the Westlake Collection and Papers; Collections
A panel session with Keith Windschuttle, Henry Reynolds and Greg Lehman; The Tasmanian Readers' and Writers' Festival
A shocking new history? The question of historiography, invasion and genocide in Nick Brodie’s The Vandemonian War
A shocking new history? The question of historiography, invasion, and genocide in Nick Brodie’s 'The Vandemonian War'; Journal of Genocide Research
A trip to Australian Museum
After the first stone: the Tasmanian correspondence of EB Tylor and Henry Ling Roth; Before the Field
An analysis of the 2021 apologies by the Royal Society of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community; Australian Historical Studies
Archaeology and Aboriginal protest: the influence of Rhys Jones's Tasmanian work on Australian historiography; Australian Historical Studies
Australia's Deep History; Brisbane Writers Festival
Book review of 'Deep Time Dreaming': Billy Griffiths on exploration of the distant past
Book review of 'Foreign Bodies: Oceania and the Science of Race 1750-1940'
Book review of 'History in the media'
Book review of 'Ochre and Rust: Artefacts and Encounters on Australian Frontiers'
Book review of 'Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803'
Book review of 'The Black War: Fear, Sex and Resistance in Tasmania' and 'The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania'
Book review of 'The Captive White Woman of Gipps Land: In pursuit of the legend'
Book review of ‘Me Write Myself’: The Free Aboriginal Inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land at Wybalenna, 1832-47
Breaking a loud silence: book review of 'Whitewash'
Building Tasmanian Aboriginal protocols for digitisation and use of G.A. Robinson's Tasmanian papers; Digital History Workshop
Busting Myths and Misconceptions: The Tasmanian Aborigines; Myths and Misconceptions Public Lecture Series
Canberra Critics Circle Award for Literature
Chair of session with Hamish Maxwell-Stewart and Aunty Patsy Cameron; The Tasmanian Readers’ and Writers’ Festival
Close and Personal: interview with Marion Stoneman
Decolonising the deep past: archaeological narratives, human origins and indigeneity; Society for Social Studies of Science Annual Conference
Dick and Joan Family Award for Tasmanian History, 2018
Discussion with Kate Grenville; The Australian High Commission
Extinction, survival, and resurgence: European imperial and Indigenous histories; AHA conference
Four women at the end of the world; Writing lives
Genetic connections: Rebe Taylor discusses the problematic issue of using DNA and blood to decide who is an Indigenous Australian and who is not; The Knowledge Solution: Australian History
Genocide in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), 1803-1876; Cambridge World History of Genocide: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern, and Imperial Worlds c.1535 to World War One
Genocide, extinction and Aboriginal self-determination in Tasmanian historiography; History Compass
History from the margins; Brisbane Writers Festival
History in the making: Interview with Hilary Burden
How a Quest For the Past Found a Living Present: Extract from 'Into the Heart of Tasmania'
Into the Heart of Tasmania; Clunes Booktown Festival
Into the Heart of Tasmania; Brisbane Writers Festival
Into the Heart of Tasmania with Rebe Taylor: Intervew with Philip Clark
Into the Heart of Tasmania, a conversation with Aunty Patsy Cameron; Fullers Bookshop
Into the Heart of Tasmania, a public lecture and conversation with Greg Lehman; Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Into the heart of Tasmania: A search for human antiquity; Melbourne University Publishing Limited
Into the Heart of Tasmania: Journeys in history writing; The 2019 Dick & Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History Lecture
Into the Heart of Tasmania: Journeys in history writing; National Book Council of Tasmania
Introduction to Volume II: Genocide in the Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, c.1535 to World War I; The Cambridge World History of Genocide
It's Black and White: Panel with Kate Grenville, Jane Harrison and Rebe Taylor; Clunes Booktown Festival 2017
J. H. Wedge and the problem of ‘humane colonisation’; Inaugural Coral Thomas Fellowship Lecture
Kangaroo Island Unearthed: presented by Lorena Allam
Learning to see Sydney’s Indigenous past: Book review of 'Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal People of Coastal Sydne'
Linking the narrative to the digital archive: a potential new model for history and publishing; History OFF the Book Symposim
Lubra Creek; Words for Country: Landscape and Language in Australia
Mander Jones Award for best finding aid to an archival collection held by an Australian institution or about Australia
Nijinsky misrepresented
Q & A with Rebe Taylor - Author of Into the Heart of Tasmania
Queensland Literary Award for History
Reclaiming Robinson: building Tasmanian Aboriginal protocols for digitisation and use of the journals of G.A. Robinson in the SLNSW
Reliable Mr Robinson and the Controversial Dr Jones; Imperial Curiosity Conference Paper
Reliable Mr Robinson and the controversial Dr Jones; Reading Robinson: companion essays to George Robinson's friendly mission
Report to inform an apology by the Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community
Savages or saviours? The Australian sealers and Aboriginal Tasmanian survival; Journal of Australian Studies
Savages or Saviours? The sealers on the maritime frontier; The Colonial Eye Conference
South Australian Premier’s Award for non-fiction
State Library of New South Wales Indigenous Services Visit to Tasmania, 3-5 April
Stolen for the circus: book review of 'Professional Savages'
Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections and papers of Ernest Westlake; Digital Humanities Conference
Stories in Stone: an annotated history and guide to the collections and papers of Ernest Westlake (1855-1922)
Tasmanian Aboriginal oral histories from the early twentieth to early twenty-first centuries; OHA Biennial Panel Session
Tasmanian Aborigines, DNA and the Law; Politics and minorities in the English speaking area and in France: Rhetoric and reality
Tasmanian Book Prize
Tasmanian history, identity, landscape and DNA; Festival of Ideas
The Cambridge World History of Genocide: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One; Cambridge University Press
The Ernest Westlake Archive: the extensive online resource behind 'Into The Heart of Tasmania'
The first stone and the last Tasmanian: the colonial correspondence of Edward Burnett Tylor and Henry Ling Roth; Oceania
The national confessional; Meanjin
The polemics of eating fish in Tasmania: the historical evidence revisited; Aboriginal History
The polemics of making fire in Tasmania: the historical evidence revisited; Aboriginal History
The report to inform an apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community by the Royal Society of Tasmania; Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart. Papers and Proceedings
The stone tools of Tasmania: media interview with Phillip Adams
The wedge collection and the conundrum of humane colonisation; Meanjin
The Wedge Collection and the conundrum of humane colonisation; The Australasian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres
The Wedge Collection: Encounter and Exchange in Early Colonial South-East Australia; Australian Historical Association Conference
Two Cross-Cultural Historians and their Recent Work; Public Seminar by the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies
Unearthed: The Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island; Wakefield Press
Unearthed: The Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island; Wakefield Press
Unearthed: The Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island; The Age Writers Festival
Victorian Premier's award for non-fiction
Wedge Collection: digitising a significant overseas artefact collection with Indigenous protocols; The Australian Consortium of Humanities Research Centres in the Regions Collaborative
Wedge politics: feature
Writing Tasmanian Aboriginal History: A Conversation between Lyndall Ryan and Rebe Taylor; Australian Historical Association Conference
‘'All I Know Is History': Memory and Land Ownership in the Dudley District, Kangaroo Island; Cultural Studies Review
‘I just felt sad and angry all in one thing’: Jim Everett in conversation with Rebe Taylor on making the Nightingale; Studies in Australasian Cinema
‘Me Write Myself’: The Free Aboriginal Inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land at Wybalenna, 1832–47

Research Projects

Extinction, Survival, Resurgence: Indigenous and colonial histories; Australian Research Council (ARC)
Rediscovering the Ancient Land Bridge of Eastern Bass Strait; Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment (DAWE)
Understanding the use of fire by Aboriginal people in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) a literature review; Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPAC)

Research Candidate Supervision