The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting their lives, established under the Hawke government in 1990. A number of Indigenous programs and organisations fell under the overall umbrella of ATSIC.
The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) is the peak body and the national representative organisation for community radio and television stations in Australia. The CBAA provide leadership, advocacy and support for members to actively provide independent broadcasting services and to build and strengthen local communities. The organisation provides advice and support to community broadcasters regarding a variety of issues.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, publishing, and research institute and is considered to be Australia's premier resource for information about the cultures and societies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The University of Technology, Sydney, Students' Association is the representative body for students at the University of Technology, Sydney. It is based on level 3 of building 1 at UTS. It publishes the student magazine Vertigo. The association has departments which have previously worked collaboratively with the university to achieve practical outcomes for students, as well as ensuring that the university is held to account over its handling of student issues. Historically, this has resulted in numerous successful campaigns which have won rights for students in the university.
The YouX Students Representatives Council, formerly the Adelaide University Union Students' Representatives Council, is the student representative body at University of Adelaide. Until a restructure in 2007, the students' representative council had been named Students' Association of the University of Adelaide (SAUA).
The Australian National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy (AEP) is a national policy adopted by the Government of Australia by each State and Territory government. The policy was first introduced in 1989 and is the foundation of education programs for all Indigenous Australians.
Indigenous Australian self-determination, also known as Aboriginal Australian self-determination, is the power relating to self-governance by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. It is the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to determine their own political status and pursue their own economic, social and cultural interests. Self-determination asserts that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should direct and implement Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy formulation and provision of services. Self-determination encompasses both Aboriginal land rights and self-governance, and may also be supported by a treaty between a government and an Indigenous group in Australia.
The Sydney University Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA) is the peak body of elected representatives who campaign on behalf of the Research and Coursework Students at The University of Sydney, alongside the University of Sydney Students' Representative Council.
The National Congress of Australia's First Peoples was the national representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians from 2009 to 2019.
The Wollotuka Institute is a unit within the University of Newcastle (Australia). It is a strategic and operational body which is responsible for all Indigenous activities of the University. The Institute was established in 1983 within the then Newcastle College of Advanced Education (NCAE) as a support program for Indigenous Australian students and was amalgamated into the University of Newcastle at the same time as the Hunter Institute of Higher Education. Wollotuka's all-Indigenous staff, overseen by an all-Indigenous Board of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Training, make it unique among Australian higher education Indigenous units and well respecting throughout Australia. 'Wollotuka' means "eating and meeting place" in the Awabakal language. Links with the Awabakal people and their land have been cited as a factor attracting academics to the university.
Thomas Edwin Calma, is an Aboriginal Australian human rights and social justice campaigner, and 2023 senior Australian of the Year. He was the sixth chancellor of the University of Canberra (2014-2023), after two years as deputy chancellor. Calma was the second Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person to hold the position of chancellor of any Australian university.
The Closing the Gap framework is a strategy by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments of Australia that aims to reduce disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians on key health, education and economic opportunity targets. The strategy was launched in 2008 in response to the Close the Gap social justice movement, and revised in 2020 with additional targets and a refreshed strategy.
Aileen Moreton-Robinson is an Indigenous Australian academic, Indigenous feminist, author and activist for Indigenous rights. She is a Goenpul woman of the Quandamooka people from Minjerribah in Queensland. She completed a PhD at Griffith University in 1998, her thesis titled Talkin' up to the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism in Australia. The thesis was published as a book in 1999 and short-listed for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and the Stanner Award. A 20th Anniversary Edition was released in 2020 by University of Queensland Press. Her 2015 monograph The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty was awarded the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's (NAISA) prize in 2016.
The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), founded in Adelaide, South Australia, as the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) on 16 February 1958, was a civil rights organisation which campaigned for the welfare of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, and the first national body representing Aboriginal interests. It was influential in lobbying in favour of the 1967 Referendum on Aboriginal Australians. It was renamed to National Aboriginal and Islander Liberation Movement (NAILM) in the early to mid 1970s, before disbanding in 1978.
MaryAnn Bin-Sallik is a Djaru Elder and Australian academic, specialising in Indigenous studies and culture. She was the first Indigenous Australian to gain a doctorate from Harvard University.
Pat Turner is an Aboriginal Australian of Gudanji-Arrernte heritage who has worked as a civil administrator for policies which guarantee the right to self-determination for Indigenous people. She was awarded the Order of Australia in 1990 for her service.
Lisa Rae Jackson Pulver is an Aboriginal Australian epidemiologist and researcher in the area of Aboriginal health who has been Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Sydney since October 2018.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, also known as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, the First Nations Voice or simply the Voice, was a proposed Australian federal advisory body to comprise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, intended to represent the views of Indigenous communities. The Voice as proposed by the Albanese government would have had the power to make representations to the Parliament of Australia and executive government on matters relating to Indigenous Australians. The specific form of the Voice was to be determined by legislation passed by Parliament had the referendum succeeded.
The Coalition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peak Bodies, usually known as the Coalition of Peaks is an Australian community-controlled peak body whose members comprise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations. Its main purpose is to negotiate with the various Australian governments regarding a national agreement on the Closing the Gap framework. Closing the Gap is a government strategy that aims to reduce disparity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians on key health, education, and economic opportunity targets.
