Draft:Karen Annette O'Brien

Karen Annette O'Brien is an author, academic and historian of the social and legal contexts of petitioning, colonialism and political articulation. Born in Everton, Liverpool of Irish descent, she lives in Sydney, Australia. She has lectured at the Universities of Melbourne, New South Wales and the University of Sydney, Australia, where she is an honorary affiliate.

Research
O'Brien is a legal historian of comparative legal inquiry into the early modern and modern history of Britain and British colonies. Her scholarly contributions are influential in early modern and modern history where her research reveals petitions as potent instruments of power to subvert authority in the historical interactions between First Nations and British colonial governments on the subject of prior land ownership and self-determination. Her academic interests in early modern British social history and litigation address the legal context of contention in female land and property ownership that underscores female transgressive language practices and customary healing traditions. Her contributions to history are acknowledged for their advocacy of First Nations social action and extensive research of primary sources for drawing attention to First Nations and colonial-settler relationships through the act of petitioning as a means of understanding First Nations political action. O’Brien is the recipient of a Nationally competitive award for her research of petitioning, and is formerly an Associate Investigator of the Australia Research Council award in the Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.

Selected Publications
'Cursing, Crisis and Customary Knowledge in Early Modern English Townships''. Palgrave, 2024.

'Petitioning for Land: The Petitions of First Peoples of Modern British Colonies.'' Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.

'White Magic and the Cunning Folk''.

"Indigenous Icons: From Walkabout to Ten Canoes, Art, Activism and David Gulpilill. [Book Chapter] in Stars in World Cinema: Screen Icons and Star Systems Across Cultures

Further Publications

 * "Visualising Indigenous Activism." Visual Studies 34, no. 3 (2020): [Volume 34, No 3, November Collective Situations: Readings in Contemporary Latin American Art 1995-2010 –Duke Press - Kelly and Kester (eds) and Indigenous Media and Political Imaginaries in Contemporary Bolivia – Nebraska – Gabriela Zamorono Villarreal].
 * "Angela Cameron, Sari Graben, and Val Napoleon, Eds. Creating Indigenous Property: Power, Rights, and Relationships. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020. Journal of British Studies 62, no. 1 (2023): 274–75.
 * "'This is our land' The Larrakia Petition and the Proposed Commission for the Negotiation of a Treaty." House of Commons, Parliament, House of Commons, Petitions Committee, October 2019.
 * "Social Cohesion and Resilience in First Australian Family and Kinship Networks." Journal of Family History 42, no. 4 (2017): 440–451.
 * "Intimate Worlds: Kinship Relations and Emotional Investment among Nantwich Women 1603–1685." Journal of Family History 41, no. 2 (2016): 131–143.
 * "Sexual impropriety, petitioning and the dynamics of ill will in daily urban life." Urban History 43, no. 2 (2016): 177–199.
 * "'Boots, Blankets and Bomb Tests: Indigenous Australian Petitioning and Resistance to Colonisation'." Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity 2, no. 2 (2014): 357-377.
 * "Companions of Heart and Hearth: Hardship and the Changing Structure of the Family in Early Modern English Townships." Journal of Family History 39, no. 3 (2014): 183–203.
 * "With my eyes, my heart and with my brain I am thinking: Testimony, Treaty and Decolonising Indigenous History from Images." Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal, 1-27 (2011).
 * "Academic Language, Power and the Impact of Western Knowledge Production on Indigenous Student Learning." The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 37 (2008): 56-60. [Available at:


 * "Exhibition review: Forerunners of Change: Celebrating Indigenous Rights and the Aborigines Progressive Association, Hereby Make Protest Exhibition, Carriageworks, Sydney 17 June to 18 July 2014." History Australia (2014).
 * [DOI: 10.1080/14490854.2014.11668541]
 * "Review of J. Walvin, 'The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery, Yale University Press, 2011." Revue française de civilisation britannique – Cercles (2014).