Inga Clendinnen, (; 17 August 1934 – 8 September 2016) was an Australian author,

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, anthropologist, and academic. Her work focused on social history, and the history of cultural encounters. She was an authority on Aztec civilisation and pre-Columbian ritual human sacrifice. She also wrote about the Holocaust, and on first contacts between Indigenous Australians and white explorers. At her death, she was an Emeritus Scholar at La Trobe University, Melbourne.

Early life and education

Clendinnen was born in Geelong, Victoria, in 1934. She was the youngest of four children. Her father owned a cabinet-making business and later became a Geelong City Councillor; her mother was a homemaker. Clendinnen graduated from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...

in 1955 with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

with

Honours Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

, followed by a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

in 1975.

Career

Clendinnen's work focused on social history, and the history of cultural encounters. She was considered an authority on

Aztec The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...

civilisation and

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

ritual

human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of dead ancestors or as a retainer sacrifice, wherein ...

. She also wrote on the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

, and on first contacts between

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

and white explorers. Clendinnen held the post of senior tutor of History at the University of Melbourne from 1955 to 1968, was a lecturer at

La Trobe University La Trobe University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its main campus is located in the suburb of Bundoora. The university was established in 1964, becoming the third university in the state of Victoria a ...

from 1969 to 1982, and was then a senior lecturer in History until 1989. Forced to curtail her academic activities after contracting

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes ( jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal ...

in 1991, Clendinnen began working on her memoir, ''Tiger's Eye,'' which focused on issues of illness and death. She retained an association with La Trobe University, however, as she was appointed Emeritus Scholar. In 1999, she was invited to present the 40th annual

Boyer Lectures The Boyer Lectures are a series of talks by prominent Australians, presenting ideas on major social, scientific or cultural issues, and broadcast on ABC Radio National. The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commi ...

. The ideas presented in these lectures, concerning first contacts in Australia, were later published as ''True Stories''. In the

Australia Day Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port ...

2006 Honours List, Clendinnen was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), with a citation that read: Clendinnen's AO award was noted and a motion paying tribute to her contributions was passed, in the proceedings of the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

State Parliament's

Upper House An upper house is one of two chambers of a bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restric ...

Personal life and death

Clendinnen married the philosopher of science John Clendinnen in 1955, and had two children with him. Clendinnen died on 8 September 2016 after a short illness.

Awards and nominations

* 1988 – received the Herbert Eugene Bolton Memorial Prize for ''Ambivalent Conquests'' * 1999 – winner of the NSW History Awards, Premier's General History Prize for ''Reading the Holocaust'' *1999 – winner of the

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' * 2000 –

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, t ...

, Gleebooks Prize for Critical Writing for ''Reading the Holocaust'' * 2002 – received the Adelaide Festival Award for Innovation for ''Tiger's Eye'' * 2003 – received the New South Wales Premier's History Award for her piece "History Here: a Vier from Outside" * 2004 – New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction for ''Dancing with Strangers'' * 2005 – recipient of the ASA (

Australian Society of Authors The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) was formed in 1963 as the organisation to promote and protect the rights of Australia's authors and illustrators. The Fellowship of Australian Writers played a key role it its establishment. The organisati ...

) biennial medal * 2006 – Appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for her services as a writer and historian. * 2007 – received the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal * 2016 –

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is a major international award that recognizes and supports outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. It awards nine prizes of $300,000 each year to outstanding ...

Bibliography

Books

* ''Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatán, 1517–1570'' (1987) *''Aztecs: An Interpretation'' (1991) *''Reading the Holocaust'' (1998) *''True Stories'' (1999) *''Tiger's Eye: A Memoir'' (2000) *''Dancing with Strangers: Europeans and Australians at First Contact'' (2003) *''True Stories: History, Politics, Aboriginality'' (2008) (2nd ed.) *''The Cost of Courage in Aztec Society: Essays on Mesoamerican Society and Culture'' (2010)

Essays and Essay Collections

* ''Agamemnon's Kiss: Selected Essays'' (2006) * "The History Question: Who Owns the Past?" (2006) (from the 23rd edition of

Quarterly Essay ''Quarterly Essay'' is an Australian periodical that straddles the border between magazines and non-fiction books. Printed in a book-like page size and using a single-column format, each issue features a single extended essay of at least 20,000 ...

)

Articles

* * Review of

References

External links

Australian Biography Online

1999 Boyer Lectures by Inga Clendinnen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clendinnen, Inga 1934 births 2016 deaths Australian historians Academics from Melbourne Officers of the Order of Australia Australian memoirists Australian Mesoamericanists Women Mesoamericanists Historians of Mesoamerica Aztec scholars Mayanists 20th-century Mesoamericanists University of Melbourne alumni Australian women memoirists 20th-century Australian women writers 20th-century Australian writers Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities 21st-century Mesoamericanists 21st-century Australian women writers 21st-century Australian writers University of Melbourne women Australian women historians