Gary Forrester

Gary Forrester (born 3 July 1946 in the United States) is a New Zealand-Australian musician, composer, novelist, poet, short-story writer, memoirist, and academic. He was profiled by Random House Australia (Australian Country Music, 1991) as one of the major figures in the Australian music scene during the 1980s and 1990s, and by FishHead: Wellington's Magazine as a "modern Renaissance man." According to Fishhead, "in addition to publishing three novels and a book of poems, Forrester is a successful bluegrass composer and musician, an advocate for indigenous rights, and a father of six children. Oh, and don't forget his day job - law lecturer in ethics at Victoria University." He lectured at the University of Melbourne from 1976–80, at the Northwestern School of Law from 1983–85, at the University of Illinois from 2000–03, and at Victoria University of Wellington from 2007-2013.

Beginning in the 1980s, he represented Indian tribes in securing restoration legislation through the United States Congress; authored a text on American Indian law; and wrote numerous articles on the rights of indigenous peoples, the environment, and other legal topics.

Strangers To Us All: Lawyers and Poetry (featuring biographies and works of poets and writers who have a legal background) declared that "Gary Forrester is a hard man to pigeon-hole. He has practiced law, taught law, and spent time away from the legal profession. He is a singer, musician, poet, and writer."