Jeanine Leane

Jeanine is a Wiradjuri woman from South West NSW. She was born in Wagga, Wagga and educated in Gundagai, Wagga, Wagga, Armidale and Canberra. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and History form the University of New England, Armidale (1983) and a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Canberra, (1984). Jeanine’s PhD studies are being undertaken through the University of Technology, Sydney. Jeanine Leane

Jeanine’s interest in education, diversity and Indigenous perspectives is strongly grounded in twenty years of teaching at secondary and tertiary levels – Canberra Colleges, University of Canberra and Australian Catholic University. During her time at UC and ACU she initiated and developed, under the sponsorship of Australian Curriculum Studies Association, semester units in Indigenous Education, What works, and Indigenous Cultures and People which are now compulsory units at both universities.

Jeanine has three unpublished manuscripts which were short listed for the David Unaipon award in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Two of these are under consideration at Publishers, IAD and UQP.

In 2010 Jeanine became the recipient of the Arts Queensland David Unaipon Award for Unpublished Indigenous Writer, for her manuscript, Purple Threads. 

Jeanine is also the winner of the 2010 Scanlon Prize for a collection of Indigenous Poetry, Dark Secrets: After Dreaming (A.D. 1887-1961), published by PressPress).

Current Research Focus

In 2006 Jeanine commenced her Ph D investigating The white man’s ‘Aborigine’, but what is the alternative? While deliberately considering the ‘Aborigine’ as a construct of white imagination, Jeanine is following the trajectory of Anglo-European representations in literature, with particular emphasis on a number of prominent authors (KS Pritchard, Patrick White, David Malouf and Kate Grenville) and how their fictional portraits influenced generations of non-Aboriginal learners via school curricula from the 1960s onward.

In 2009 Jeanine, along with colleague Samantha Faulkner took on the national co-ordination role of the Black Words research community. Black Words is a collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers and storytellers and is a subset of the AustLIt data base.

Jeanine is also investigating Aboriginal authors and the way their works are being interpreted in schools. Jeanine hopes to eventually publish her thesis and expand its recommendations into Policy which will ultimately become incorporated into curricula.

Research publications

(2010) Aboriginal representation: conflict or dialogue in the Academy? Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (Volume 39S) pdf 262Kb

Contact

jeanine.leane@aiatsis.gov.au