KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Geraldine Atkinson is a proud Bangerang/Wiradjuri woman and
co-Chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria. She was elected to the Assembly in November 2019 as a candidate from the North East Region.

For over 40 years, Geraldine has been instrumental in driving government and policy reform in Aboriginal education.

From starting in the field as an Aboriginal teacher’s aide in 1976, Geraldine moved forward to become the President of the Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (VAEAI), a role she has held since 1999.

In that role she represents the organisation on Koorie education matters across all education sectors: early childhood, school education, and post compulsory education and training.

Geraldine obtained a Bachelor of Education from Deakin University in 2013 and went on to obtain her Masters of Education in 2019. In early 2020, her leadership in Aboriginal education was further recognised with the awarding of a Deakin University Honorary Doctorate Award.

Daryle Rigney, a citizen of the Ngarrindjeri Nation, is a professor and Director of the Indigenous Nations and Collaborative Futures Research hub in the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney. He is a board member of the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute, a member of the Indigenous Advisory Council, Native Nations Institute, University of Arizona, a member of the South Australian Certificate of Education’s Aboriginal Steering Committee and a Senior Fellow, Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity, Melbourne & Atlantic Institute, Oxford Univerity, UK. Daryle’s academic work and community work currently focus on developments in Indigenous nation-building and governance following colonisation. He has published widely and influentially on these topics.

Claire Chartes is from Ngati Whakaue, Tuwharetoa, Nga Puhi and Tainui. Claire’s primary area of research is in Indigenous peoples’ rights in international and constitutional law, often with a comparative focus. Claire is working on articles on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the relationship between tikanga Māori and the state legal system, tensions between human rights and Indigenous peoples' rights and on the legitimacy of Indigenous peoples’ rights under international law, to be published as a book by Cambridge University Press. Claire is also working on a number of collaborative research projects including on Indigenous peoples’ self-determination and the philosophical foundations of Indigenous law. She is a member of the International Law Association’s committee on Indigenous peoples’ rights, and was awarded a Royal Society Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2017. Claire has typically combined her academic research and teaching with advocacy for the rights of Indigenous peoples at the domestic and international levels, and is currently a trustee on the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples. In 2016–2017, Claire was appointed by the president of the United Nations General Assembly to advise him on enhancing Indigenous peoples' participation in the United Nations. From 2010 to 2013, Claire worked for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section, focusing on the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Janine Gertz is a citizen of the Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Nation, from the Upper Burdekin region of North Queensland. Janine’s research interests are grounded in her community development and nation-building work with the Gugu Badhun Aboriginal Nation. Janine’s doctoral research title is Gugu Badhun Self-Determination: Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the local level.

Tim Goodwin is a barrister at the Victorian Bar and practices primarily in commercial and public law. Tim was one of the Junior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. Prior to joining the Bar, Tim worked at Allens as a solicitor for three years in commercial litigation, and in banking and finance.

Before joining Allens, Tim served as Associate to Justice North and Justice Bromberg of the Federal Court of Australia. He also served as Foreign Law Clerk to Justice Skweyiya of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Tim has a Bachelor of Arts and Laws (with Honours) from the Australian National University and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School.

Tim is a member of the Yuin people of the South East Coast of New South Wales. He serves on a number of boards, including as a Board Member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

John Borrows B.A., M.A., J.D., LL.M. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Osgoode Hall Law School), LL.D. (Hons., Dalhousie, York, Queen’s & Law Society of Ontario), D.H.L, (Toronto), F.R.S.C. John is Anishinaabe/Ojibway and a member of the Chippewa of the Nawash First Nation in Ontario, Canada. His publications include, Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law (Donald Smiley Award for the best book in Canadian Political Science, 2002), Canada's Indigenous Constitution (Canadian Law and Society Best Book Award 2011), Drawing Out Law: A Spirit's Guide (2010), Freedom and Indigenous Constitutionalism ((Donald Smiley Award for the best book in Canadian Political Science, 2016), The Right Relationship (with Michael Coyle, ed.), Resurgence and Reconciliation (with Michael Asch, Jim Tully, eds.), Law’s Indigenous Ethics, all from the University of Toronto Press. He is the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences and the 2019 Molson Prize Winner from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Damian Griffis is a descendant of the Worimi people. He is a leading advocate for the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability. Damian has been a central figure in the establishment of both the Aboriginal Disability Network NSW and the national organisation representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disabilities and their families – the First Peoples Disability Network Australia (FPDN).

Damian represents FPDN at regional, national and international forums.

In 2014, he won the Tony Fitzgerald (Community Individual) Memorial Award at the Australian Human Rights Awards.

Cheryl Saunders is a Laureate Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne and the founding director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. She has specialist research interests in Australian and comparative public law. She is a President Emeritus of the International Association of Constitutional Law, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and a foundation fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She is a former board member of International IDEA, a senior technical advisor to its constitution building program and a convenor of the Constitution Transformation Network.

Kevin Smith has traditional connections to Ugar (Stephen Island) and Erub (Darnley Island) in the Torres Strait. Kevin has over 28 years of professional experience in Indigenous affairs, including senior positions with the National Secretariat of Torres Strait Islander Organisations, the Brisbane Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, the National Native Title Tribunal, Aboriginal Hostels Limited (AHL) and the National Native Title Council.

Kevin has been the Chief Executive Officer of Queensland South Native Title Services since 2008 and is the newly appointed Chair of the NNTC. Kevin holds qualifications in both law and business management from the University of Queensland. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1994.

Jodie is a Djap Wurrung /Gunditjmara woman, and part of the Framlingham Community of South West Victoria.

PIC is a majority Indigenous owned, led and staffed consulting business, a world first for the PwC global network. From a small team at commencement in October 2013, PIC has grown now to over 60 staff, 60% of whom are Indigenous Australians. Over this time, PIC has completed nearly 1,000 projects, across more than 650 communities around Australia. This includes ground-breaking and major reform work across a range of social and human services, and across urban, regional and remote setting.

Jodie is the Chairperson of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and sits on the Board of Collingwood Football Club. She is a member of the Victorian Women’s Hall of Fame, noted as one of the AFR 100 women of influence and was the inaugural Dardi Indigenous Business Leadership Award recipient in Victoria. Jodie was named as Victorian Aboriginal Young Achiever in 2000, when she was working as an auditor at a big four accounting firm and has maintained a prominent role in the Indigenous space and across broader society.

Professor Gregory Phillips is a Waanyi and Jaru medical anthropologist. He leads change in cultural safety and decolonisation in community, academic, government and corporate organisations.

He wrote a world first Indigenous health curriculum framework for all medical schools in Australia and New Zealand, founded the Leaders in Indigenous Medical Education (LIME) Network, and established the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation in the wake of the federal apology to Indigenous Australians. He recently wrote and launched AHPRA’s national strategy for better regulation of health professions for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and cultural safety.

His PhD examined culture, race and power in medical schools, his research masters in medical science investigated PTSD and addictions in remote Aboriginal communities, and his Bachelor of Arts is in Aboriginal Studies and Government. He is CEO of ABSTARR Consulting, chairs the Ebony Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Institute, and is Professor of First People’s Health in the School of Medicine at Griffith University.

Ursula Raymond is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman born and raised in Darwin (NT) and is currently the inaugural Deputy Treaty Commissioner in the Northern Territory. A key component of Deputy Commissioner Raymond’s role is to ensure that Aboriginal women and girls are consulted, included and heard on Treaty matters across the NT, and that Aboriginal culture is respected and practiced appropriately during consultations. In the three-years prior to this Ursula was a Ministerial Adviser to the NT Government Minister for Tourism, Sport and Culture.

Ursula’s professional career spans more than 30-years as a broadcaster, journalist, policy adviser, political adviser and community organiser. She has held senior policy and media positions within both the NT and Australian Governments, and community organisations. This includes working at senior advisory/ministerial levels within the parliamentary systems of both the Australian and NT governments, for local and national Aboriginal organisations, and for national and local media organisations and public affairs.

Ursula has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne, and was the President of the Koori Students Association. While studying in Melbourne Ursula also worked at various local Koori organisations including the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and Koori Kollij. She also worked as a Clerk for Victorian hearings of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

On returning to the Northern Territory Ursula joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and trained as a broadcaster/journalist and for more than ten years enjoyed the job as Producer of Awaye! Indigenous Art and Culture on ABC Radio National, which is still broadcasting today.

Jamie Lowe is a Gunditjmara Djabwurrung man and Chief Executive Officer of the National Native Title Council, a national peak body set up to maximise the contribution of native title to achieving and improving the economic, social and cultural participation of Indigenous Australians. Jamie was recently elected to the executive of First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria, as Victorian Aboriginal Peoples move towards treaty and appointed by the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt to the National Indigenous Voice Co-design Group.

Jamie has a background in both government and non-government sectors and has expertise and skills in governance, management, strategic planning and economic development. Jamie believes that creating economic independence and maintaining and growing cultural identity are key to creating self-determining nations of Aboriginal people.

Councillor Charles Lynch is a Gomeroi man born in Tamworth, NSW who has lived between Tamworth, Barraba and Quirindi all his life. Cr Lynch has been involved in the NSW Land Rights network for more than 25 years in various capacities. He was first elected as the NSW Aboriginal Land Council representative for the Northern Region in 2015, and was re-elected for a second term in 2019.
 

Cr Lynch has represented the NSW Aboriginal Land Council on a range of issues affecting Aboriginal people in United Nations forums, nationally and at the State level. Cr Lynch has a strong focus on empowering Aboriginal people and Local Aboriginal Land Councils to build capacity and determine their own direction through economic development and sustainable delivery of services for the betterment of members and communities as a whole.
 

Cr Lynch is currently serving as the Deputy Chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and the Co-Chair of the NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations (CAPO). Cr Lynch is a member of Nungaroo Local Aboriginal Land Council and Tamworth Local Aboriginal Land COuncil and is involved with the Tamworth Aboriginal Medical Service and Walhallow Murri Aboriginal Enterprise Corporation. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Public Accountants and Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors