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 is currently the Director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at the Australian National University and the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

He is 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 Dodson was named Australian of the Year, 2009.

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.

June Oscar of Bunuba descent was born at Fitzroy Crossing and has held many senior community positions, including that of Chairperson of the Marra Marra resource agency and CEO of the Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing and Chairperson of the Kimberley Language Resource Centre.

She is a graduate of WA’s Notre Dame University and also a director of Bunuba Films, the organisation which produced the play Jandamarra which tells the story of a Bunuba resistance fighter in the Kimberley. It was first seen at the 2008 Perth International Arts Festival.

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.

Dana is a strong cultural man and has an expert knowledge of Torres Strait Islander culture and history.

Robynne Quiggin has worked as a solicitor, senior policy officer and lecturer in Indigenous legal issues including Indigenous intellectual and cultural property. 

She is currently on the editorial board of the Indigenous Law Bulletin, Balayi and the Journal of Indigenous Social Policy.  She is also a board member of the Gadigal Information Service, which incorporates Koori Radio and a member of the Ngalaya Indigenous lawyers in New South Wales.

Sandy Toussaint is an anthropologist who has worked for several decades among Australian Indigenous groups, especially in the remote Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. She has published widely on matters related to the anthropology of cultural environments (water, land), health and medicine, and interdisciplinary cross-cultural inquiry. Sandy is an Adjunct Professor in Social and Environmental Inquiry at The University of Western Australia and Melbourne University.

Adjunct Professor Sandy Toussaint is an anthropologist who has worked for several decades among Australian Indigenous groups, especially in the remote Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. She has published widely on matters related to the anthropology of cultural environments (water, land), health and medicine, and interdisciplinary cross-cultural inquiry. Sandy is an Adjunct Professor in Social and Environmental Inquiry at The University of Western Australia and Melbourne University.

Dr Mark Wenitong is Past 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 Past 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.