Dr Donna Leslie

Dr Donna Leslie is an art historian who specialises in Aboriginal art, Australian art, and art and spirituality. Donna has over 35 years of experience in Aboriginal and Australian art, education, and museum contexts. She is an Aboriginal woman belonging to the Gamilaroi people of New South Wales. Dr Leslie was Australia's first trained Indigenous art historian at doctoral level in the discipline of Art History and is a rare and distinguished scholar publishing in the field of Aboriginal and Australian Art.

Donna is an Associate Professor in Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne. She was formerly an Associate Professor in Art History at Griffith University (2015-2020). Donna is trained in the critical analysis of art and art theory. Her doctorate in the discipline of Art History (100% research thesis) at the University of Melbourne is a specialisation in Aboriginal Art and an important milestone in the field. Donna has a broad range of interests in Australian art from the pre-colonial period through to the contemporary.

Donna is the author of two art history books, Aboriginal Art: Creativity and Assimilation (Macmillan Art Publishing, 2008; 319 pages), and Spiritual Journeying: The Art of Tim Johnson (Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019; 361 pages). She has also published numerous articles in journals, art catalogues and magazines. In 2020, she was “Highly Commended” for Spiritual Journeying: The Art of Tim Johnson (2019) in the Best Book Prize category of the Art Writing and Publishing Awards (AWAPA) held by the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ).

Donna is the recipient of two successful Australian Research Council Fellowships which demonstrate her commitment to research and to a deeper shared understanding of Aboriginal art, Australian art, and cross-cultural relationships. She has also undertaken extensive research in art and spirituality across cultures from the earliest world art to the present day.

Donna is a painter and has a history as a professional artist who has worked on exhibitions and creative projects for over 30 years. She enjoys exploring themes relating to art and story, spirituality, land and life.

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Donna is a children’s book illustrator inspired by nature and storytelling. In 1993, she won the Chrichton Award for Children’s Book Illustration for her illustrations in the book Alitji in Dreamland: Alitjinya Ngura Tjukurmankuntjala (Simon & Schuster, 1992), a translation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland in an Aboriginal context.