Bronwyn Carlson

Bronwyn Carlson is deeply committed to truth-telling about Australia's colonial history and the ongoing impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

As an Aboriginal scholar and public intellectual Bronwyn devotes her time to engaging in research that is of interest and benefit to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and providing information and resources for all people to have a deeper understanding of history.

Bronwyn is the Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University and Director of the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures. She has a PhD in Sociology from University of NSW and a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Sociology and Indigenous Studies from the university of Wollongong. After being awarded three consecutive Australian Research Council grants, she was also elected as a member of The Australian Academy of Humanities.

Bronwyn's recent work has focused on colonial commemorations and the way we remember and commemorate history. Recent global protests, have included heated debate about various monuments and statues, resulting in many being defaced and even removed. Bronwyn co-authored an article entitle, ‘Monumental change: History isn't always written by the victor’ exploring how some commemorations in Australia, despite being protected, have experienced a shift in their meaning and ultimately come to represent a history that was not intended by the ‘victors’. In 2023 she co-authored a book entitled, Monumental Disruptions: Aboriginal People and Colonial Commemorations in So-Called Australia and coedited and contributed to a global collection entitled, The Palgrave Handbook on Re-thinking Colonial Commemorations.

Bronwyn is keen learn from the international communities where there are numerous cases where communities have worked together to rectify commemorations which often represent violent histories, in the hope to reconcile the past and imagine a shared future.