Museum welcomes Professor Clare Wright as new Council Chair

Professor Wright is an award-winning historian, author and public commentator who has served on the Museum’s Council since October 2022.

Author of four works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom, she is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University.

In 2020 Professor Wright was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to literature and to historical research.

National Museum of Australia Director Katherine McMahon said she was delighted with the appointments of Professor Wright, Professor McGrath, Professor Davis and Janine Freeman.

‘Professor Wright is one of Australia’s foremost and celebrated contemporary historians,’ Ms McMahon said. ‘She has served on the Museum’s Council with distinction.

‘On behalf of the Museum I welcome Clare as our new Chair and extend a warm welcome to Ann, Megan and Janine to our Council. I look forward to working with the four of them as they help steer the Museum’s next exciting chapter.’

Professor Wright will take up the role from late August when current Council Chair Mr Ben Maguire AM steps down after three terms spanning 10 years.

‘As Chair, and before that as a member of Council, Ben has helped the Museum deliver its vital national remit,’ Ms McMahon said. ‘He has ensured the Museum is a trusted national institution that speaks to all Australians, especially those of us who live in remote and regional communities.

‘I want to thank Ben for his incredible service, his dedication and his invaluable contribution.’

Outgoing Council Chair Ben Maguire also welcomed the new appointments.

‘Clare’s appointment to Council Chair is well-deserved recognition of her already significant contribution, her standing as a historian, and her passion and dedication,’ he said.

‘And in Professor McGrath, Professor Davis and Ms Freeman we have three new Council members who will play a pivotal role in advancing the Museum’s distinctive national mission and contribution to Australia.

‘I congratulate all four on their well-deserved recognition and am excited to see where they take the Museum in the years ahead.’

Professor Wright said she was honoured to lead the National Museum of Australia’s Council.

‘It is an incredible honour to be appointed Chair of this remarkable national collecting institution, a repository and caretaker for the rich material heritage that tells Australia's First Nations, colonial, 20th century and contemporary stories in all their complexity and diversity,’ she said.

‘I look forward to working closely with Council and the Museum's amazing team of curators, researchers, guides and administrators to bring these stories – as well as international blockbuster exhibitions – to life.’

Professor Clare Wright OAM

Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster, podcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. Clare is currently Professor of History and the inaugural Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University.

She is the author of four works of history, including the best-selling The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka and You Daughters of Freedom, which comprise the first two instalments of her Democracy Trilogy. The final instalment of the trilogy, Ṉäku Dhäruk, a history of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, will be published in October 2024.

Clare has written and presented history documentaries for ABC TV. She also hosts the ABC Radio National history podcast, Shooting the Past, co-hosts the La Trobe University podcast Archive Fever and is Executive Producer of Hey History! the first Australian history podcast designed for use in the classroom.

In 2020, Clare was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours list for ‘services to literature and to historical research’. In 2022, Clare was on the National Cultural Policy Expert Advisory Panel and was commissioned to co-write (with Christos Tsiolkas) the Vision Statement for the policy document, Revive. She is a Member of the National Museum of Australia Council and past Board Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas.

Professor Ann McGrath AM

Professor Ann McGrath AM is the WK Hancock Distinguished Professor of History and the Director of the Research Centre for Deep History at The Australian National University (ANU), and holds a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship until 2025. At ANU, she was the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History in 2003 and in 2019 she became Director of the Research Centre for Deep History.

She was awarded the John Douglas Kerr Medal for Distinction in Research and Writing Australian History in 2016. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2007 and in 2018 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the social sciences as an academic and researcher in the field of Indigenous history and to tertiary education.

Professor Megan Davis

Professor Megan Davis is a leading constitutional lawyer and public law expert, specialising in Indigenous peoples and the law, the constitutional recognition of First Nations people and democracy. She is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Society at the University of NSW and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She is also Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court.

Professor Davis has campaigned for the constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples for two decades and was central to the design of the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. She is a Sydney Peace Prize Laureate for the Uluru Statement and was awarded a 2024 PeaceWomen Award by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Janine Freeman

Janine Freeman is currently the Independent Chair of Fair Food Western Australia, a Director at the Water Corporation of WA Board and a Director of the WA Government Employees Superannuation Board. She was a former member of the WA House of Assembly seat of Mirrabooka. First elected in 2008, Ms Freeman served in the Assembly until retiring from politics in 2021. During that time, she acted as the Speaker of the House and sat on various committees, including as Chair of the Education and Health Standing Committee and a member of the Delegated Legislation Committee.

Media contact: Diana Streak, 0409 888 976 or media@nma.gov.au