Professor Derek Chong is a descendant of the Walkamin, Kunjun, Mullenjarli and Wongaburra people. He is a medical doctor that has specialised in mental health for over 30yrs, working in various roles and capacities. His special interests are Indigenous mental health which encompasses empowering community mental health capacity, youth, forensic and addiction psychiatry. He is currently an Adjunct Professor researching Epigenetics, Adventure Based Indigenous Therapy ® and Quantitative imaging.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Joshua has practised as a barrister since 2011. He specialises in human rights class actions and native title and appeared in two landmark class actions, Wotton v State of Queensland [2016] FCA 1457, (the Palm Island Case) and Pearson v State of Queensland (No 2) [2020] FCA 619, (Stolen Wages QLD) Australia’s largest human rights cases.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Leetona Dungay has fought for Aboriginal rights her entire life. In December 2015, her son David Dungay Jnr was killed by prison guards in the Long Bay prison hospital in Sydney. Leetona has campaigned hard ever since, demanding justice for her son and all victims of deaths in custody. Leetona played a key leadership role organising massive Black Lives Matter rallies in Sydney in 2020. She continues to organise to end mass incarceration and deaths in custody and for the return of land to Aboriginal people.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Mick Gooda’s people are Ghungalu and Yiman from Central Queensland. He advocates for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and has done so for the last 35 years. His work experience includes roles such as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Co-Commissioner on the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory and CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health. He chaired the Queensland Stolen Wages Reparation Taskforce and has been a member of the Expert Panel and the Referendum Council.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Olga Havnen grew up in Tennant Creek. Olga has been the CEO of Danila Dilba Health Service in Darwin since 2013. She has been a strong advocate and champion for social justice and Indigenous rights at local, national and international levels. Olga has previously held a range of senior-level public sector and NFP roles in her long career in Aboriginal affairs and is currently a board member of the National Indigenous Sports Foundation, Stars Foundation, SNAICC and the Justice Reform Initiative.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Debbie Kilroy is a lawyer and passionate abolitionist. Since 1992, she has led Sisters Inside – an organisation committed to de-carceration and abolition of the prison industrial complex. Debbie is a regular media commentator with a strong social media presence. Since 2019, her #FreeHer Campaign has raised over $1.2 million, kept over 400 Aboriginal women out of prison, and driven law reform, alongside Aboriginal Elders to stop imprisonment for unpaid fines in WA. Amongst her many honours, Debbie was the first former prisoner to receive an Order of Australia Medal.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Appointed Senior Counsel in 2015, Tony has developed a strong native title practice and has successfully appeared for claimants in several land claims. He has also acquired significant experience in the areas of environmental law, administrative law, human rights and discrimination law, coronial inquests and criminal law. Notably, between 2011 and 2013, Tony was an Acting Part-Time Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court.
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Amy McQuire is a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton in central Queensland. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Queensland into media representations of violence against Aboriginal women. She is also a freelance writer and journalist.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Keenan is a proud First Nations man. After losing both parents at a young age, being placed in care and making poor life decisions he experienced a lengthy involvement with the justice system. Finding a new path, he now gives back to his community and works with people with similar experiences. Co-founding a unique community-led solution and response to the current mass incarceration and child protection crisis of First Nations people. His focus is on changing the narrative for their mob and communities. Keenan’s journey has taken him to the United Nations addressing the Human Rights Council to enable change, including raising the age of criminal responsibility.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
His Honour Judge Matthew Myers AM is a Judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia and an Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales. In 2017 Judge Myers was appointed by the then Federal Attorney-General Hon. George Brandis QC to the Australia Law Reform Commission (ALRC) as a Commissioner to head the ALRC Indigenous Incarceration Inquiry. Following 11 months of inquiry, 140 national consultations and more than 120 submissions Judge Myers made findings and recommendations contained in the ALRC Report, Pathways to Justice – Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ALRC Report 133). The Report contains some 36 Recommendations. The Report was tabled in Federal Parliament 28 March 2018. To date the Report remains unanswered.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Teela Reid is a proud Wiradjuri and Wailwan woman, lawyer and storyteller born and raised in Gilgandra western NSW. She is a fearless advocate for dismantling systemic racism in our society. Teela was awarded the 2020 UNSW Young Alumni Award for her advocacy as a criminal defence lawyer and designer of the NSW Walama Court Proposal. She is also a campaigner for the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Teela believes in the power of First Nations storytelling and is the co-founder of @blackfulla_bookclub and the recipient of the Daisy Utemorrah Award for her manuscript: Our Matriarchs Matter.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Vickie is a Yuin woman. Leaving school in Year 7, she went on to gain a Master degree in Writing while in prison. Participating in the 2007 High Court challenge that succeeded in striking out legislation banning prisoners serving three years and under from voting. In the same year she, along with Charande v Singh, were named joint winners of the Tim McCoy Human Rights Award. Now she devotes her time to activism and advocacy concerning First Nations Women in prison, violence against women and deaths in custody.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Jodie is a Djap Wurrung /Gunditjmara woman, and part of the Framlingham Community of South West Victoria. She is a Co-Founder and prior Co-CEO of PWC’s Indigenous Consulting (PIC). Chairperson of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, sits on the Board of Collingwood Football Club and the Ebony Institute. 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.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
A proud Wiradjuri woman, Carly experienced trauma during her childhood which affected her throughout her young adult life. Carly’s early exposure to the justice system ignited her passion for dedicating her professional life to helping her people and others that are struggling. Carly has spent the last 20 years working in both government and non-government agencies across a range of areas.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Jim Taylor a former Lawyer and Police Officer born in Turkey in 1976 became a Lawyer in 1996. He practised law in Turkey until 2001 before he moved to Australia. Between 2004 – 2012 was a Police Officer in Western Australia. He retired from WA Police in 2012 and he’s been an anti-racism activist due to the racism he experienced from his colleagues as the only Turkish person in WA Police and also as he witnessed the racist and atrocious treatment of Aboriginal people by his fellow police officers.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Chelsea Bond (Watego) is a renowned race scholar and public intellectual with over 20 years experience working in Indigenous health. A Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman with an express commitment to Indigenous survival. Her scholarship foregrounds Indigenous intellectual sovereignty and has been central to the establishment of indigenist health humanities as a new field of research. A mother of 5, founding board member of Inala Wangarra, was one half of Wild Black Women and is a Director of the Institute for Collaborative Race Research.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Apryl Day, a proud Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wemba and Barapa Barapa woman, became a strong advocate in ending Aboriginal deaths in custody after her mother Tanya Day died in police custody in 2017. Apryl is also currently working in research to improve Aboriginal health and wellbeing.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au
Don Weatherburn is a Professor at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre and was formerly Executive Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Prior to that appointment, Professor Weatherburn was foundation Research Director at the Judicial Commission of New South Wales. He has published on a wide range of topics including sentencing, criminal justice administration, crime prevention, drug law enforcement, harm reduction and program evaluation. His latest book “The Vanishing Criminal” is soon to be released by Melbourne University Press.
E: contact@IncarcerationNation.com.au