First Nations Speaker Series 2022

08/09/2022

You are invited to participate in the 2022 First Nations Speaker Series. This insightful series of talks is a joint online program between the NSW Judicial Commission, the Law Society of NSW and the NSW Bar Association celebrating First Nations culture and identity.

The talks will feature authors, researchers, creators, innovators, knowledge holders and storytellers. These webinars provide an opportunity to learn about the cultural perspectives and experiences of First Nations people across a range of disciplines.

Our multi-talented speakers include Adjunct Professor Wayne Quilliam, one of Australia's pre-eminent Indigenous photographic artists, curators and cultural advisers working internationally; Ms Emily McDaniel, an esteemed curator, writer and educator from the Kalari Clan of the Wiradjuri nation and the Director, First Nations at the Powerhouse Museum; and Mr Peter Cooley, founding member of First-Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation and CEO of Indigigrow; and Dr Aunty Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann AM, 2021 Senior Australian of the Year and renowned artist and educator.

Dates

• Thursday, 8 September Adjunct Professor Wayne Quilliam
• Thursday, 15 September Ms Emily McDaniel
• Thursday, 6 October Dr Aunty Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann AM
• Thursday, 20 October Mr Peter Cooley

Time: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Venue: via webinar (joining instructions will be sent closer to the date)

RSVP: If you would like to attend the webinars, please RSVP by 1 September 2022, via the link here.

About the Speakers

Adjunct Professor Wayne Quilliam is one of Australia's pre-eminent Indigenous photographic artists, curators and cultural advisers working internationally. As a modern-day storyteller who shares culture, the images he captures help challenge the myths of a culture frozen in time, while also offering a modernising narrative.

In recent years, Wayne has achieved significant milestones, including his 300th exhibition. Quilliam’s library, which he calls “my swag of images from the past 30 years” is possibly the largest individually collected series of Indigenous photographs in Australia.

He describes his book Culture is Life (published by Hardie Grant) a modern, photographic celebration of the diversity of Indigenous Australians as his first book to make it to print.

An Adjunct Professor at RMIT University in the School of Media and Communication, his portrait Silent Strength (2021), depicting Aurukun man Eric Yunkaporta in ceremonial head-wear, won the 2022 National Photographic Portrait.

Emily McDaniel is an esteemed curator, writer and educator from the Kalari Clan of the Wiradjuri nation in central NSW. She currently holds the position of Director, First Nations at the Powerhouse Museum and is the curator of Yananurala for the City of Sydney. Her practice centres on truth-telling, storytelling and revealing histories through the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. She consults on curatorship, cultural narratives, learning, engagement and interpretation in the public domain, media, museums and galleries sectors.

Emily and her team are central to the renewal of the Powerhouse Museum. This will include the development of the new flagship Powerhouse Parramatta, the expansion of the Museum’s Discovery Centre, the renewal of Powerhouse Museum Ultimo and the ongoing programming of Sydney Observatory. The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences sits at the intersection of art, design, science and technology and plays a critical role in engaging communities with contemporary ideas and issues.

Peter Cooley

Peter grew up in La Perouse and worked as a diesel mechanic and TAFE teacher before starting his award-winning company Koori Communications and Training in 2005 which focused on running programs in Sydney as well as a Catch N Cook fishing program to reconnect Aboriginal children to fishing.

He is a founding member of First-Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation, which provides cultural reconnection and well-being programs for Indigenous youth at-risk, and co-founder of the Social Enterprise the Blak Markets.

Peter is the CEO of Indigigrow, a venture from First Hand Solutions. This sustains people, land and culture through the propagation of native plants, including bush food and the critically endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub. The corporation seeks to deliver positive environmental projects through research and rejuvenation of endangered plants, mass urban plantings creating carbon credits, improving the general atmosphere and amenity of industrial and urban precincts, and providing retail and wholesale native plants for sale.

Dr Aunty Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Baumann AM, 2021 Senior Australian of the Year, is a renowned Aboriginal Artist and Educator who is dedicated to creating bright and fulfilling futures for Aboriginal children and youth. She was the first fully qualified Aboriginal teacher in the Northern Territory and is the founder of the Miriam Rose Foundation. Miriam-Rose speaks five local languages along with English and is responsible for establishing the highly successful Merrepen Arts centre in Nauiyu. The Miriam Rose Foundation supports and encourages education and inspires creativity and self-expression through a series of programs inside and outside of the local community. The programs not only benefit children and youth but help create a more cohesive community with positive interactions from within.

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