Lyndall Ryan is a pioneering and highly influential Australian historian, whose work has recast and reconceptualised the historical experiences of Aboriginal people in colonial and post-colonial contexts and on Australian history from a feminist perspective. She is recognised internationally as a leading scholar in massacre studies, particularly of colonial frontier massacre in Australia. Her major works include her ground-breaking book, Aboriginal Tasmanians (1981) and a later book based on extensive new research, entitled Tasmanian Aborigines: A History since 1803 (2012).