Inga Vivienne Clendinnen, (née Jewell) was born on August 17, 1934, and died on on September 8, 2016.

She was an Australian author, historian, anthropologist, and academic.

Her work was focused on social history and the history of cultural encounters.

Clendinnen was considered an authority on Aztec civilization and pre-Columbian ritual human sacrifice.

Inga Clendinnen also wrote on the Holocaust, and on first contacts between indigenous Australians and white explorers.

Clendinnen served in the position of Senior Tutor of History at the University of Melbourne from 1955 to 1968, was a Lecturer at La Trobe University from 1969 to 1982, and was then a Senior Lecturer in History until 1989.

After been compelled to curtail her academic activities after contracting hepatitis in 1991, Clendinnen began working on her memoir, Tiger’s Eye, which focused on issues of illness and death.

Inga Clendinnen retained an association with La Trobe University, however, as she was appointed Emeritus Scholar.

During 1999, she was invited to present the 40th annual Boyer Lectures.

Topics presented in these lectures, concerning first contacts in Australia, were later published as True Stories.

She married the academic John Clendinnen in 1955 and had two children with him.

She died after a short illness.

Inga Clendinnen passed away at 82 years old.