Robin Fisher

Robin Fisher (born 1946) is a New Zealand-born Canadian historian specialising in the history of British Columbia and First Nations–European relations. He is known for his work on Indigenous history in British Columbia and for his role in establishing the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).

Education Fisher was born in New Zealand in 1946 and attended Palmerston North Boys High School. He completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and History at Massey University in 1967 and a Master of Arts in History at the University of Auckland in 1969. In 1970, he emigrated to Canada to undertake a PhD at the University of British Columbia, completing his dissertation, "The Early Years of Indian-European Contact in British Columbia, 1774–1890", in 1974. He subsequently became Dean of Arts and Science and, in 1997, Dean of the newly formed College of Arts, Social and Health Sciences. The book won the John A. Macdonald Prize of the Canadian Historical Association in 1977, awarded to the work judged to have made the most significant contribution to an understanding of the Canadian past. His biography Wilson Duff: Coming Back, A Life (2022) won the 2022 Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing. The book was described in BC Studies as a thoroughly researched and well-written work that constitutes a "superb contribution" to the history of anthropology and museum practice in the Pacific Northwest.

Awards John A. Macdonald Prize, Canadian Historical Association, 1977, for Contact and Conflict Lieutenant Governor's Medal for Historical Writing, 2022, for Wilson Duff: Coming Back, A Life

Selected bibliography Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations in British Columbia, 1774–1890 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1977; 2nd ed. 1992). Captain James Cook and His Times, co-edited with Hugh Johnston (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1979). Duff Pattullo of British Columbia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991). Vancouver's Voyage: Charting the Northwest Coast, 1791–1795 (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1992). From Maps to Metaphors: The Pacific World of George Vancouver, co-edited with Hugh Johnston (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1993). Wilson Duff: Coming Back, A Life (Vancouver: Harbour Publishing, 2022).