Speakers

N'arweet Carolyn Briggs AM

Senior elder and chairperson and founder of the Boon Wurrung Foundation

Carolyn is a Boon Wurrung senior elder and is the chairperson and founder of the Boon Wurrung Foundation. A descendant of the First Peoples of Melbourne, the Yaluk-ut Weelam clan of the Boon Wurrung, she is the great-granddaughter of Louisa Briggs, a Boon Wurrung woman born near Melbourne in the 1830’s.

Carolyn has been involved in developing and supporting opportunities for Indigenous youth and Boon Wurrung culture for over 40 years.

In 2005, she established the Boon Wurrung Foundation, which has been responsible for significant work in cultural research, including restoration of the Boon Wurrung language. The Foundation also helps connect Aboriginal youth to their heritage.

In 2020, she completed her PhD on Indigenous knowledge transmission (Yulendj Boon Wurrung) and she is currently one of the Chair Investigators in Repairing Memory & Place: An Indigenous-led approach to urban water design, a collaborative project led by Monash University’s Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture. 

Jacinta Ruru (live via video link)

Professor of Law at the University of Otago

Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui) MNZM, FRSNZ is a Professor of Law and holds an inaugural Sesquicentennial Distinguished Chair at the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand.

She researches how state legal systems should reconcile with their Indigenous peoples, their laws and knowledges, and specifically considers Māori rights and responsibilities to care for, own, manage and govern lands and waters.

Her work includes co-authoring Discovering Indigenous Lands: The Doctrine of Discovery in the English Colonies (Oxford University Press, 2010) and co-editing Ngā Kete Mātauranga. Māori Scholars at the Research Interface (Otago University Press, 2021).

Jacinta completed her PhD studies in Canada and is the recipient of a number of significant awards for her research, supervision and teaching.

Brendan Kennedy: Dindi Thangi Wudungi

TATI TATI DELEGATE AND DEPUTY CHAIR OF MURRAY LOWER DARLING RIVERS INDIGENOUS NATIONS (MLDRIN)

Brendan Kennedy is a Tati Tati, Latji Latji, Wadi Wadi, Weki Weki, Mutti Mutti, Yitha Yitha and Nari Nari Traditional Owner and artist who has deep knowledge and extensive work experience in the areas of First Peoples culture, language, art, science and advocacy.

Born in Robinvale on his Tati Tati country, he is a strong advocate for Cultural Flows, the abolishment of Aquanullias, and water justice and has been instrumental in elevating the profile of First Nations Water Rights in the Murray Darling Basin.

Brendan is currently Deputy Chair and Tati Tati delegate on Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN), a member of the Victorian Roadmap for Aboriginal Access to Water Working Group and the National Native Fish Recovery Steering Committee and Chair of the Victorian Aboriginal Water Officer Network (AWON). He is the current Director and Aboriginal Water Officer of Tati Tati Kaiejin, an Indigenous-owned and operated not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to reconnect First Nations peoples to waterways and Country, and the Former Chair of the Project Control Group (PCG) in Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) Aboriginal Water Program.

Ana Lara-Heyns

PhD researcher, Monash University

Ana Lara-Heyns is a Mexican Mestiza, with ancestry tracing back to the Nahua people in the centre of Mexico. She has an honours degree in Cultural Anthropology (UDLAP, Mexico) and a Master’s in Tourism and Social Anthropology (University of Brighton, UK).

Ana currently teaches at Monash University in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (MADA), where she is finishing her PhD. She is a founding member of APR Collective, which creates spaces and encounters for social change and the expansion of knowledge.

Her PhD research focuses on challenging western conventional practices to encourage designers, planners and architects to work with Indigenous ontologies by understanding their position within Country’s system of relatedness.

Ana’s research is Country-centred in collaboration with Boonwurrung Elder Professor N’arwee’t Carolyn Briggs AM PhD. The research considers urban underground waterways through the Indigenous paradigm of relationality, as it can contribute to more sustainable management of urban waterways and better protections for layers of cultural meaning embedded in the underground.

Moderator

Kimberley Moulton

Senior Curator South Eastern Aboriginal Collection, Museums Victoria

Kimberley Moulton is a Yorta Yorta woman and writer and curator. She is currently Senior Curator, South-Eastern Aboriginal Collections at Museums Victoria and an Artistic Associate for RISING Festival Melbourne. Kimberley works with knowledge, histories and futures at the intersection of First Peoples historical and contemporary art and the archive. Kimberley has researched South Eastern Cultural Material held across the world with an interest in connection, repatriation and relationships between the belongings and communities they are from.

She has held curatorial and community arts roles at Melbourne Museum for over ten years and independently curated across arts institutions within Australia and North America. Most recently she was a co-curator for the inaugural Tri-Nations Indigenous Triennial at Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG-Qaumajuq) for Naadohbii: To Draw Water. Kimberley has written for contemporary art and museum associated publications worldwide and is a PhD candidate at Wominjeka Djeembana Indigenous Research Lab, Monash University Melbourne.