MARCIA LANGTON, B.A. (Hons, 1st Class) ANU, PhD Macq. U., A.M., F.A.S.S.A.

Professor Marcia Langton holds the Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, and was appointed Distinguished Redmond Barry Chair. She is an anthropologist and geographer and is widely-published on topics in Australian Indigenous Studies, including Aboriginal land tenure, Aboriginal art and Indigenous agreement-making. Professor Langton was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 for services to anthropology and advocacy of Aboriginal rights. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. In 2017, Professor Langton was appointed as the first Associate Provost at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests lie in the areas of political and legal anthropology, Indigenous agreements and engagement with the minerals industry, and Indigenous culture and art. She established and managed several collaborative research projects (funded by the ARC and Industry partners in a sequence of ARC Linkage grants) in the fields of Indigenous agreement making and implementation, overcoming poverty and marginalisation by establishing good practice in governance and distribution of mining benefits, and traditional resource rights.

Professor Langton has a track record in traditional Indigenous knowledge systems, digital technologies, and developed critical methodologies for researchers, including scientists, social scientists and historians, in the challenges of sustaining cultural knowledge and biological diversity in Aboriginal societies.

BARRY HUNTER - CHAIR

Barry J Hunter is a descendant from the Djabugay speaking people of Cairns hinterland. He grew up besides the Barron River in the rainforest near Kuranda. Barry’s experience includes employment in Government conservation agencies, mining and exploration industry, community and not-for-profit NGO’s, and recently as a consultant working around Aboriginal Land Management, Carbon Industry and community economic development. With over 30 years experience in Aboriginal affairs particular in areas of land, natural and cultural resource management.

Barry has a Bachelor of Applied Science from Charles Sturt University and has a keen interest in the work community rangers do in looking after land, fire management and cultural heritage. Also having a real passion building community capacity and planning that deliver sustainable social, cultural and economic outcomes within our communities.

JOHN CLARK

John Clark is from Kowanyama. Through his father’s side, he is a Kokoberra person. Through his mother’s side, he is an Ewamain person. He has been the manager for the Kowanyama Aboriginal Land and Natural Resource Management Office for three years. He is a Board member for the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation.

KATIE STRIDE, BA/LLB(UQ), Grad Dip Legal Prac (ANU),MPubAd (UQ), Nationally Accredited Mediator

Katie Stride is the National Native Title Judicial Registrar for the Federal Court of Australia, having worked in Indigenous legal, government and NGO roles for the past 25 years across Qld, WA and the ACT. She is committed to identifying and developing capacity building opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Katie is working towards an LLM (Sustainable Development) focussing on the Indigenous estate and its interface with environmental issues, including climate change. This study builds on Katie’s extensive experience in negotiating and mediating Indigenous Land use Agreements and other similar agreements.

She brings a wealth of relevant experience, skills and enthusiasm to the ABF Board.

PETE FAULKNER

After a career as an investment banker and capital markets trader in London, Pete settled in FNQ in 2006 and established Conus Business Consultancy Services. He specialises in regional economic data analysis as well as strategic planning, business modelling and organisational leadership. His economics blog is widely read by business leaders, politicians, and journalists.

Pete has been involved with conservation and natural resource management for three decades and has previously been on the boards of Reef Check Australia and Coral Cay Conservation (London). He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Terrain NRM, Australian Chocolate and NQ NRM Alliance.

ROSS WILLIAMS

Ross Williams is a proud Bindal person of Townsville to Burdekin regions on his Father’s side and on his mother’s side he is connected to the Islands and peoples of Erub and Mer Islands of the Torres Straits. His traditional name is Timmulbar (Lightning). Ross has over 40 years’ experience working with Traditional Owner groups, Elders and Leaders, in Government roles and non-Government organisations on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander environmental, social, cultural, economic and planning matters. He has been working as a freelance Researcher and Evaluation Consultant over the last 7 years providing specialist advice, evaluations and assessments on projects and programs across Australia in relation to social determinates, and cultural heritage and environmental programs.

Previously he has worked for the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and recently, as an Evaluator working on projects that include the Commonwealth Games Reconciliation Action Plan, the Cape York Peninsular Aboriginal Land Joint Management Program, Environmental Australian’s Reconciliation Action Plan, National Park Ranger joint management program, and facilitated the State-wide First Nations Futures Programs for the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

MICHAELA YOUNG

Michaela is an Environmental Law expert and has practised law as well as taught and undertaken research in this area of law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She joined Ndevr Environmental, a specialist carbon and human rights consultancy, in 2017. Michaela has extensive experience working with Australia’s Carbon and Energy regulatory framework, including the ERF. She works both on audits and advisory in this space, with experience spanning across all the land-based Methods under the ERF. Michaela also serves as a founding member of Ndevr’s Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group, and plays a leading role in developing Ndevr’s Human Rights advisory services.

Michaela has also served on the Board of Trustees of one of Africa’s largest Conservation Trust Funds, administered by WWF (the Table Mountain Fund) and has worked as the Managing Editor of an international, academic Journal, the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law EJournal, and spent many years supporting the Environmental Law Association of South Africa, organising national conferences, hosting and presenting seminars.

JEROME PANG

Jerome is a proud Kalkadoon man from Mount Isa in North West Queensland. He is also a descendant of the Waanyi, Gangalidda, Lardil and Pitta Pitta peoples. Jerome has a strong a passion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander development and has completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree Majoring in Indigenous Studies at Griffith University. His career pathway has primarily been in Government, both Federal and State, focusing on constituent engagement and stakeholder management. He has two years of experience in the private sector as the Chief of Staff at an Indigenous Advisory firm, engaging with First Nations peoples to ensure commercial benefits to their communities.

Jerome is currently a Manager in the Queensland Department of Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts. He aims to use his lived experience as an Aboriginal man and professional engagement experience to enable our people to be the decision makers for their economic futures.