Keynote Speakers

Professor Lesley Head

The University of Melbourne

Lesley Head is a geographer whose research examines human-environment relations. She is fascinated by how humans have physically changed earth’s systems, how we think about our place in nature, and how these two things are connected. Lesley started her research career using palaeoecology and archaeology to study long-term changes in the Australian landscape, and the interactions of people with their environments across deep time. Her recent research focuses on the cultural dimensions of contemporary environmental issues including climate change. Her books include Hope and Grief in the Anthropocene (2016) and Plants: Past, Present and Future (with Zena Cumpston and Michael-Shawn Fletcher, 2022).

Lesley is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne, where she was Head of the School of Geography from 2015 to 2021. She is current President of the Australian Academy of Humanities. She previously worked for many years at the University of Wollongong, including as an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research.

Resilience and Change: Bringing Archaeology into Conversation with Climate Change Response

Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher

Wiradjuri / The University of Melbourne

Prof. Michael-Shawn Fletcher is a Wiradjuri man and a Geographer. Michael’s research focusses on understanding the physical and social drivers of past landscape change across the Southern Hemisphere using natural archives such as wetland sediments and tree rings. Michael’s drive is to develop a deeper understanding of how the world around us operates. He is particularly focussed on how our long-term relationship with Country influences who we are, as well as influencing the environments in which we live. Michael is the Director of Research and Research Capability at the Indigenous Knowledge Institute and the Associate Dean (Indigenous) in the Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne.

Healthy Country: Re-Writing the Book on Australia

Nathan Tikigeer Woolford

Flinders University

Nathan Tikigeer Woolford, a Gooreng Gooreng man, is disrupting the colony, one day at a time. With over twenty-five years of experience, he is one of Australia’s leading authorities on Aboriginal heritage, culture, and engagement. His journey has taken him through diverse realms including heritage and collection management, native title, archaeology, anthropology, education, mediation, negotiation, compliance, policy, and research.

Nathan’s expertise has seen him serve in various capacities – as principal, executive, manager, subject matter expert, and expert witness. His collaborations span a broad spectrum, with many Aboriginal groups and communities across Australia, to large and small corporations, and from local to federal government bodies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Anthropology and Archaeology, and a Graduate Diploma in Philosophy from the University of Queensland.

In 2022, Nathan joined Flinders University, where he lectures in Indigenous Studies, Museology, and Archaeology. He is also undertaking a PhD, working on a thesis entitled “Culture versus Commodity.” He is a current recipient of the Professor Lowitja O’Donoghue Indigenous Student Postgraduate Research Scholarship, and a previous recipient of the Neville Bonner Memorial Scholarship and the Daryl West Prize.

Dave Johnston

Australian National University

When David Johnston was a boy, he keenly explored the caves near his home, leading his mother to suggest he might become an archaeologist. Later, he became one of the first Indigenous Australians to gain a degree in archaeology, graduating from ANU with Honours and completing a Master degree in London.

Conserving the nation’s Aboriginal heritage is Dave’s passion. As a consultant archaeologist for 27 years, he has worked on more than 2,000 heritage projects across eastern Australia from Cape York to Point Nepean.

In 2014, he was awarded the Sharon Sullivan National Heritage award for his outstanding contribution to the Indigenous heritage environment and his continuing influence on practice.

Dave has had a remarkable career and is recognised as a world leader in the field of Australian Indigenous archaeology.

He has made important contributions to the field and its development at Australian universities as well as working to ensure an Indigenous perspective and voice in the study and teaching of Australian archaeology.

His contributions have been recognised internationally. He was involved in the development of a code of ethics for the World Archaeological Congress and also drove the adoption of a code of ethics by the Australian Archaeological Association.

He was instrumental in the development of the Australian Government’s guidelines for Indigenous heritage and was a member of the AIATSIS Research Ethics Committee that developed the Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies.

Dr Galiina Ellwood

(pronounced gula-na)

Australian Indigenous Archaeologists Association

I am an Aborigine of the Nunukul/Ngugi tribes of the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke and Moreton Islands and the Buchulla people of K’gari. I was awarded my PhD cum laude and medal of excellence for a doctoral research thesis, “A Shared History Forgotten: Aboriginal miners and prospectors of tropical Queensland, from pre-contact times – c.1970.” I have worked in the cultural heritage field at both government and grass roots levels as an archaeologist, physical anthropologist and Indigenous historian since the late 1980s in NSW and Qld. I am one of the founding members of the Australian Indigenous Archaeologist Association. Currently, I am investigating the history of Aboriginal involvement in cultural heritage interpretation and management since the early 1970s. Including the first graduates in degrees with archaeology and/ or prehistory as majors.

Mark Grist

Grist Archaeology and Heritage Management

Mark is a Wergaia, Wamba Wamba and Nyeri Nyeri man of the northwest of Victoria. He is very focussed on the Mallee Country and especially on Lake Tyrrell (Direl). He in fact says that even when he is away, “My spirit is very much in this landscape”. (Arts Mildura, Youtube, 23 August,, 2022).

He is a qualified archaeologist and studied at the Australian National University, majoring in archaeology and anthropology.

Mark’s work has taken him over many years recording and protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage all over Australia, including facilitating the return of Aboriginal remains to communities throughout the country.

Mark has been a cultural heritage advisor as well as working as Curator for southeast Australia at the Victorian Museum and working for the Victorian Government as the Manager of the Statewide Heritage Programs, also State Heritage Adviser in the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development.

In 2009 Mark set up his own archeology and heritage management company, Grist Archaeology and Heritage Management Pty Ltd. Some of the projects he has worked on include identification of Aboriginal cultural heritage, including identification of human remains, stone tools, Aboriginal sites and Aboriginal landscapes.

Mark is a founding member of the Indigenous Archaeologists Association, set up in 2004 and which seeks to assist mainstream archaeologists in properly consulting with Aboriginal communities on whose lands they are working.

Mark was also involved in the identification of Aboriginal remains held in various departments of Melbourne University (the Richard Berry collection) which included stone tools, grinding labs and stone materials. These were eventually delivered to the Victorian Museum as the only place within the State for the care and custody of Aboriginal artefacts and remains. There was then to follow a process of investigation for the return of those artefacts and remains to country (The Age, 27 July, 2003).

Dr Matilda House-Williams

National NAIDOC Elder of the Year 2023, Ngambri/Ngunnawal

Dr Matilda House-Williams is a Ngambri/Ngunnawal/Wiradyuri Elder who has dedicated her life to the pursuit of social justice for Indigenous peoples. One of ten children, she was born and raised on Erambie-Cowra Aboriginal reserve, Hollywood Aboriginal reserve at Yass and Ngambri/Kamberri Country, and has multiple Wiradyuri, Walgalu and Wallabalooa ancestries. A tireless supporter of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy since its founding in 1972, Dr House-Williams helped found the ACT/NSW Aboriginal Legal Service and the Ngambri Local Aboriginal Land Council in Queanbeyan in the 1980s. She had a key role in establishing Winnunga-Nimmitjah Aboriginal Medical Service and the Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre at ANU in 1989. In 2006, Dr House-Williams was named Canberra Citizen of the Year. On the eve of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations in February 2008, she became the first person to perform the Welcome to Country at the 42nd opening of Federal Parliament. Her contribution to her community was recognised by ANU with the conferral of the Degree of Doctor of the University in 2017. Dr House-Williams was awarded the NAIDOC Senior Female Elder of the Year 2023.

Ken Hayward

Edith Cowan University

Cultural knowledge and academic background provide Ken with very good analytical and interpretive skills along with good communication skills. After achieving a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health and Tropical Medicine at James Cook University in Townsville, his focus shifted to Aboriginal Community Development Including Family Cultural Mapping and Cross-Cultural Competency Training. Ken has worked with Bush Heritage and in NRM Caring for Country Programs. In addition to studies, he has given voluntary time to Aboriginal Community based Organisations. This has rewarded Ken with further knowledge and experience in the significance of Aboriginal Perspectives in our society. All this provides him with the expertise required to determine the learning needs of students in order to provide appropriate teaching and learning support.

Ken’s work enhances the quality of scholarship within Kurongkurl Katitjin by strengthening Indigenous Australian cultural perspectives and knowledge to teaching and research to further enhance the potential community participation. His role as Indigenous Officer AAA NEC has been rewarding in professional standards and culturally in times of economic expansion.

Qualifications: Post Grad Diploma in Public Health & Tropical Medicine JCU; Bachelor of Arts at (UWA); Master of Social Science (ECU- current)

Jo Thomson

The University of Western Australia / Thomson Cultural Heritage Management / Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Incorporated (AACAI)

Jo was born and grew up on the south coast of NSW, moved to Western Australia in 2000, and currently lives on Whadjuk Boodjar. Jo is an archaeologist and heritage management consultant, is the current Chairperson of the WA Chapter of the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Incorporated (AACAI), and has recently submitted her PhD at UWA, in which she investigated how Indigenous heritage is valued in Western Australia. Jo has worked with many First Nations communities across Western Australia over the last 24 years and has been actively involved in advocating for better legislation and outcomes for Indigenous heritage both in Western Australia and nationally.

Panellists:

Dave Johnston, Australian National University
Dr Galiina (Kal) Ellwood, AIAA
Mark Grist, Grist Archaeology
Nathan Woolford, Flinders University
Dr Matilda House, National NAIDOC Elder of the Year 2023, Ngambri/Ngunnawal
Jo Thomson, The University of Western Australia
Moderator: Ken Hayward, Edith Cowan University

This session will hear the views of Australia’s leading Indigenous archaeologists on Australia’s embarrassing treatment and management of its Indigenous heritage in the light of mining and development priorities. The Australian Indigenous Archaeologists’ Association (AIAA) panel members, along with a representative non-Aboriginal archaeologist, will discuss their views and share their recommendations of what our nation needs to do immediately in the ongoing Indigenous Heritage Management crisis.  

The Way Forward – A Time to Listen: State of the Environment & Heritage Reform