Leah Lui-Chivizhe

Historian Leah Lui-Chivizhe is a Torres Strait Islander with enduring connections to the eastern and western Torres Strait. Her research focuses on how nineteenth century collections from the region can revitalise and reconnect Islanders with their pre-colonial histories of human and more-than-human relations and contribute to decolonial praxis of collector institutions. Her book, Masked Histories: Turtle shell masks and Torres Strait Islander people (MUP 2022), was highly commended for Australian History in the 2023 NSW Premier’s History Awards. She was postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sydney and senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. Leah is now Scientia Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities & Languages, University of New South Wales in Sydney. 

For more information, read about Leah’s current project Fault Lines: Imagining Indigenous futures for colonial collections and the project Reclaiming Turtles All the Way Down.