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Diane Elizabeth McEachern Barwick (29 April 1938 – 4 April 1986) was a Canadians-born anthropologist, historian, and Aboriginal-rights activist. She was also a renowned researcher and teacher in the field of Australian Aboriginal culture and society.
Barwick attended the University of British Columbia, graduating with honours in 1959. Her undergraduate thesis, The Logging Camp as Sub-Culture, focused on the subculture of the loggers of Englewood Valley and was based on fieldwork conducted in a number of logging camps. The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia Australian Women's Archives Project 2014 After graduating, she spent a year working at the Provincial Museum of Natural History and Anthropology in Victoria, British Columbia.
In 1960, she moved to Australia, where she undertook a PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) on scholarship, receiving it in 1964.
In 1964, she became a founding member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS). In 1978, she was the first woman to be elected to AIAS's council. Until 1982, she aided in the publications of the institute. From 1982 to 1986, she became a councillor for the institute's history committee; between 1983 and 1986, she had chaired the executive publications committee. In May 1985, she was appointed by the AIAS in an honorary capacity to establish a national Aboriginal biographical register.
In 1977, Barwick co-founded Aboriginal History, a journal of dedicated to aboriginal studies. She was an editor of the journal until 1982. Encyclopedia of Australian Science 2010
In 1980, she became involved in the Aboriginal Treaty Committee, working to ensure some official recognition, and protection, of Aboriginal rights.
In 1984, she published the journal article "Mapping the Past: An Atlas of Victorian clans, 1835–1904", which has become a major reference understanding the traditional ownership of Aboriginal land in Victoria. This was to be the start of a larger project, but she died just days short of her 48th birthday having just started the second part of the project.
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