professor mick dodson am

Australian of the Year 2009, National Australia Day Council

australian of the year 2009 - education challenge

Adelaide

As part of his Tour of Honour, Professor Mick Dodson joined Jonty Bush, Pat LaManna and Graeme Drew to visit Adelaide shools and community organisations from 23-25 June 2009. For details from the press release, click here.

Northern Territory

Professor Mick Dodson has just returned from a very successful tour of schools in the Northern Territory with Minister Paul Henderson.

For details of Professor Dodson's visit to Milner Primary School click here

For details of Professor Dodson's visit to Ngkurr School and Katherine High School click here

Australian Capital Territory

- Radford College, on 23 March 2009, invited Professor Dodson to address Year 11 and 12 history students who had been studying the Northern Territory intervention, the national apology to the Stolen Generations, treaties and the period of first contact. It was a rare opportunity for students to engage with one of the pivotal figures behind the influential Bringing Them Home Report, which heralded a shift in the nation’s awareness of its past relationship with Indigenous people.

- Wanniassa School 3 March 2009 Professor Dodson commended the school on their innovative Achievement Centre, designed for children disengaged with learning. Having mentored young Indigenous leaders, Professor Dodson appreciated the primacy of individualised support provided by the Achievement Centre. While there, he also launched their Reconciliation Action Plan. Click here for information on the ANU Reconciliation Action Plan.

Professor Mick Dodson awarded australian of the year

26 January 2009, Canberra

The ANU National Centre for Indigenous Studies congratulates its director, Professor Mick Dodson AM, for having been named Australian of the Year 2009.

Professor Dodson has been an advocate for Indigenous rights, human rights and social justice for the better part of his life. His dedication has attracted national and international acclaim. In many instances, he played an instrumental role in events of historic importance in Australia and globally. Like others driven by passion, he works tirelessly and sometimes at great personal sacrifice. Above all, he is a humanitarian.

Some of his accomplishments read like milestones in Australian history. He was the first Indigenous lawyer admitted to the Victorian Bar and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. He participated in drafting the federal Native Title Act (1993), the legislative expression of native title rights recognised in the watershed Mabo case. He was a pivotal part of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the Bringing Them Home Report, both of which remain highly influential documents that triggered legal reform, heralded a shift in the nation's awareness of its past and led to an acknowledgement (and recently a formal prime ministerial apology) for the policies of forced removal of Indigenous children from their families.

At the international level, he campaigned to put the human rights of the world's Indigenous peoples on the United Nations agenda and participated for over a decade in bringing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to fruition. As the current community representative for the Pacific region at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Professor Dodson continues his vital service to the Australian community and especially to Indigenous peoples, and home and worldwide.

- Press Club address 17 February 2009

- Media Release from Northern Territory Chief Minister's Office 18 February 2009