Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Breen, Gavan
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Breen, John Gavan
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Description area
Dates of existence
1935-2023
History
John Gavan Breen, known as Gavan Breen, was born on 22 January 1935 at St Arnaud in Victoria. He was an Australian linguist who specialised in documenting and preserving Aboriginal Australian languages. He was educated at St Patrick's College in Ballarat and later at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated as a metallurgist. In his early thirties, he made a significant career shift from metallurgy to linguistics and anthropology after learning about the imminent extinction of many Aboriginal Australian languages. He then decided to dedicate his lifework to salvaging endangered Australian languages. He was awarded a scholarship to pursue a master's degree at Monash University. During this time, he worked closely with the last speakers of the Warluwarra language and with the Woorabinda community. He was later appointed as a research fellow at Monash University. Over the following decade he frequently travelled to remote areas across Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia, to record and study a wide variety of Indigenous dialects and languages. Throughout his career, he documented 49 languages, some of which are now extinct. In recognition of his service to the documentation and preservation of Aboriginal languages, he was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2016. He died on 5 October 2023 in Alice Springs.
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Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created, Kymberley Doyle, 09-Jun-2025.
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Erickson, T. (2023, October 10). Vale Gavan Breen: 1935-2023. Victorian Race Walking Club website, accessed online 09-Jun-2025.