Professor Mick Dodson, AM (Chair) is a prominent advocate on issues affecting Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as other Indigenous peoples around the world. He was Australia’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. He is currently the Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University, the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and a Director of Dodson, Bauman & Associates Pty Ltd, legal and anthropological consultants. He holds a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws from Monash University, an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Technology and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of New South Wales.
Professor John Maynard (Deputy Chair) is Chair of Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Newcastle. His traditional roots lie with the Worimi people of Port Stephens, New South Wales. He has held several important fellowships including the Aboriginal History Stanner Fellowship for 1996 at the Australian National University and the New South Wales Premier’s Indigenous History Fellowship for 2003–04. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association 2000–02 and has worked with and within many urban, rural and remote Aboriginal communities. He is the author of four books, including Aboriginal Stars of the Turf. He holds a Diploma of Aboriginal Studies from the University of Newcastle, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Australia and a PhD from the University of Newcastle.
Emeritus Professor Robert Tonkinson held the Chair of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia until his retirement in 2003. He is well known internationally in his field of social anthropology for his contributions to the Aboriginal Australian and Melanesian literature. He has worked with Aboriginal people since 1962 and he has published extensively, especially on Western Desert society and culture. His closest links are with the Martu people in the eastern Pilbara, with whom he has been involved for forty years. A Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, he holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and a Master of Arts from the University of Western Australia and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia.
Mr Dana Ober hails from Saibai Island in the western Torres Strait. He has graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Linguistics and sub-majoring in Anthropology. He is currently undertaking studies in the Master of Applied Linguistics course at Charles Darwin University. Dana is a linguist and he is currently working as a lecturer with the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics (CALL) at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE), Northern Territory. Dana is a strong cultural man and has an expert knowledge of Torres Strait Islander culture and history.
Mr Michael Williams is the Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland. He is a member of the Gooreng Gooreng Aboriginal community from south-east Queensland. He has been involved in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs for over thirty years. For the greater part of his career, he has worked in the tertiary education sector, lecturing in mainstream history and maintaining a close involvement with programs that provide support for Indigenous Australian students. His academic interests include Indigenous language use, cross-cultural communication and the field of Indigenous knowledge. He has served on the Board of the Special Broadcasting Service, and numerous other government, academic and community boards concerned with Indigenous and non-Indigenous issues. He holds an MPhil (Qual) from Griffith University.
Terri Janke is an Indigenous arts lawyer, writer and consultant. A significant part of Terri’s client base involves the advancement of protection for Indigenous Austra lian people in respect of intellectual property matters. Terri has been involved in a wide number of matters in representing Indigenous composers, writers, film directors, film producers, artists, and others across many fields of the arts and culture. She has drafted documentation and special provisions in complex commercial documentation to cover cultural attribution and integrity issues for Indigenous peoples. Terri was born in Cairns, Queensland and has family connections with the Torres Strait and Cape York Peninsula (Meriam, Wuthathi & Yadaighana).
Dr Mark Wenitong is President of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA) and the Senior Medical Officer at Wuchopperen Health Service, Cairns, the 2006 winner of the Reconciliation Australia and BHP Billiton Indigenous Governance Awards. As President of AIDA, Dr Wenitong has worked alongside other Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders to place Indigenous doctors and students, Indigenous medical education, health, workforce, cultural, and human rights issues on the national agenda. He is the member of a number of national Indigenous health committees. Dr Wenitong is also a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Health Advisory Committee, NHMRC Indigenous Health Forum and is Chair of the Andrology Australia National Reference Group on Indigenous Male Health