Diane Bell OAM is a feminist anthropologist, author, and social justice advocate. She is Emerita Professor of Anthropology at both the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., and the Australian National University, Canberra. Over the past four decades, she has undertaken extensive fieldwork with Australia's First Nations peoples in Central and Southeast Australia, as well as comparative research in North America.
Her ten books—written or edited—along with numerous scholarly articles, have focused on Indigenous women’s ceremonial lives, land rights, native title, law reform, human rights, violence against women, religion, the environment, and feminist theory and practice. Her groundbreaking work Daughters of the Dreaming has been in continuous print since 1983, and her 1998 book Ngarrindjeri Wurruwarrin: A world that is, was, and will be received the NSW Premier’s Gleebook Award for Cultural and Literary Criticism. In 2012, she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to literature, and in 2023, she was awarded the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship for her forthcoming biography, The Queen and the Protector.
Diane began her working life as a primary school teacher in the 1960s. As a single mother, she returned to full-time study in the 1970s, completing a BA Hons at Monash University (1975) and a PhD at the Australian National University (1981). She has since held senior academic positions in Australia and the USA, consulted for NGOs, Indigenous organisations, and governments, and has been honoured for her work as a writer, academic, and advocate.
After 17 years in the United States, Diane retired from George Washington University and returned to Australia, settling on Ngarrindjeri country, along the Finniss River in South Australia. There, she prepared the Ngarrindjeri Consent Determination Native Title Report, ran for the federal seat of Mayo in the 2008 by-election, furthered her creative work as Writer and Editor in Residence at Flinders University, and taught at the University of Adelaide. Through her involvement in environmental organisations, she has been a vocal advocate for the return of water to the Murray–Darling River system.
Now based in Canberra, Diane continues to write, speak, strategise, and advocate for a more just society—an enduring theme that unifies her scholarly, creative, and activist pursuits.