Leah is a Torres Strait Islander with extensive family links to the Mer, Erub, Badu and Mabuiag islands. She holds a PhD (History) and an MSc (Geography) from The University of Sydney and has worked extensively with Aboriginal and Islander peoples and communities since the mid-1980s. Her research is in Indigenous Australian histories and in recent years she has concentrated on Torres Strait material and cultural histories and performance. She is currently working with a nineteenth century ethnographic and natural history collection, exploring how Islanders can engage with the collection for remembering and performing history.