:Gavan Daws

{{Short description|American writer, historian and filmmaker}}

{{No footnotes|date=June 2013}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Gavan Daws

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| birth_date = 1933

| birth_place = Australia

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| occupation = Writer

| language = English

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| alma_mater = University of Hawaii at Manoa Ph.D.

University of Melbourne B.A.

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| notableworks = A Shoal of Time

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Gavan Daws is an American writer, historian and filmmaker residing in Honolulu, Hawaii. He writes about Hawaii, the Pacific, and Asia. He is a retired professor of history at University of Hawaii at Manoa.{{Cite web |last=mcameron |date=2020-05-18 |title=There's Never Been a Better Time to Visit Hawaii—Through a Great Book |url=https://www.royalhawaiianmovers.com/theres-never-been-a-better-time-to-visit-hawaii-through-a-great-book/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Royal Hawaiian Movers (RHM) |language=en-US}}

Daws is originally from Australia and got his B.A. in English and History from the University of Melbourne. He has a Ph.D. in Pacific History from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

His best-known works are Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands, in print since 1968; Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai, the biography of a nineteenth-century missionary priest to Hawaii who served leprosy sufferers, and who has recently been canonized; and Prisoners of the Japanese: POWs of World War II in the Pacific. Daws co-produced and co-directed Angels of War: The People of Papua New Guinea and World War II, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary. His other work includes song lyrics and a stage play with music and choreography. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Humanities in Australia, and served as the Pacific member of the UNESCO Commission on the Scientific and Cultural History of Humankind.