Ivy Trevallion

Last updated

Ivy Trevallion is a Torres Strait Islander social worker and community leader.

Trevallion, often referred to as "Aunty Ivy", is credited with helping pass the Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa (Torres Strait Islander Traditional Child Rearing Practice) Act 2020 through the Queensland Parliament in 2020. [1] It is the first bill in Australian history to legally recognise a traditional custom, namely an ancient child-rearing practice among Torres Strait Islander people where a child is adopted by a relative or community member. [2] [3]

Along with Alastair Nicholson and Charles Passi, Trevallion was one of three eminent persons engaged to provide legal, cultural and gender expertise at culturally sensitive consultations prior to the passing of the bill on 16 July 2020. [1]

Her career as a social worker commenced in the 1970's when she enrolled in the Aboriginal Task Force, completing a Community Development Certificate in 1977 and an Associate Diploma in Social Work in 1978. [4]

In 1986, Trevallion was one of the first Torres Strait Islander social workers to graduate from the University of Queensland. [4]

During her career, Trevallion has worked as a social worker, resource officer and coordinate at various organisations and government departments. [5] These include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Medical Services, Queensland University of Technology Student Support Services, the Department of Communities, the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Services and the Social and Emotional Wellbeing Counselling Service. [5] She has served on numerous boards and committees including the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance. [5]

In February 2020, Trevallion was appointed as president of the Torres Strait Islander Media Association. [6]

However, it was her advocacy and lobbying for the legal recognition of the traditional child-rearing practices of the Torres Strait as a member and president of the Kupai Omasker Working Party for which she is best known. [7] [8]

In 2021, Trevallion was named as a Queensland Great. [4]

Related Research Articles

Eddie Mabo Torres Strait Islander and land rights activist for indigenous Australians

Edward Koiki Mabo was an Indigenous Australian man from the Torres Strait Islands known for his role in campaigning for Indigenous land rights and in a landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius that characterised Australian law with regard to land and title, and officially recognised the rights of Aboriginal Australians to own and use the land on which their families had lived for millennia. Eddie Mabbo is a Torres Strait Islander community leader and land rights campaigner, was born on 29 June 1936 at Las, on Mer, in the Murray group of islands, Queensland, the fourth surviving child of Murray Islands-born parents Robert Zesou Sambo, seaman, and his wife Annie Poipe, née Mabo.

Torres Strait Islands Group of islands in the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea

The Torres Strait Islands are a group of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of 48,000 km2 (19,000 sq mi), but their total land area is 566 km2 (219 sq mi).

Torres Strait Islanders ethnic group of Australia

Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous peoples of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often grouped with them as Indigenous Australians. Today there are many more Torres Strait Islander people living in mainland Australia than on the Islands.

Palm Island, Queensland Locality consisting of a group of islands in Queensland, Australia

Palm Island is a locality consisting of an island group of 16 islands, split between the Shire of Hinchinbrook and the Aboriginal Shire of Palm Island, in Queensland, Australia. The locality coincides with the geographical entity known as the Palm Island group, also known as the Greater Palm group, originally named the Palm Isles.

1967 Australian referendum (Aboriginals) 1967 constitutional referendum on the legal status of indigenous Australians

The second question of the 1967 Australian referendum of 27 May 1967, called by the Holt Government, related to Indigenous Australians. Voters were asked whether to give the Federal Government the power to make special laws for Indigenous Australians in states, and whether in population counts for constitutional purposes to include all Indigenous Australians. The term "the Aboriginal Race" was used in the question.

Meriam people

Melanesian Meriam people are an Indigenous Australian group of Torres Strait Islander people who are united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and live as skilled hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans on a number of inner eastern Torres Strait Islands including Mer or Murray Island, Ugar or Stephen Island and Erub or Darnley Island. The Meriam people are perhaps best known for their involvement in the High Court of Australia's Mabo decision which fundamentally changed land law in Australia - recognising native title.

Aboriginal Australians Indigenous Australians who live on the Australian mainland, Tasmania, and Tiwi Islands

Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands. The term Indigenous Australians refers to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders collectively. It is generally used when both groups are included in the topic being addressed. Torres Strait Islanders are ethnically and culturally distinct, despite extensive cultural exchange with some of the Aboriginal groups. The Torres Strait Islands are mostly part of Queensland but have a separate governmental status.

Mapoon, Queensland Town in Queensland, Australia

Mapoon is a coastal town in the Aboriginal Shire of Mapoon and a locality split between the Aboriginal Shire of Mapoon and the Shire of Cook in Queensland, Australia.

Badu Island island in the Torres Strait, part of Queensland, Australia

Badu or Badu Island, pronounced ['ba:du:] in English, in Kala Lagaw Ya Badhu [bad̪u], is an island in the Torres Strait 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia. Badu Island is also a locality in the Torres Strait Island Region, and Wakaid is the only town, located on the south-east coast. This island is one of the Torres Strait Islands. The language of Badu is Kala Lagaw Ya.

Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage to groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia. The term Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or the person's specific cultural group, is often preferred, though the terms First Nations of Australia, First Peoples of Australia and First Australians are also increasingly common.

Australian Aboriginal sacred site Places deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs

An Australian Aboriginal sacred site is a place deemed significant and meaningful by Aboriginal Australians based on their beliefs. It may include any feature in the landscape, and in coastal areas, these may lie underwater. The site's status is derived from an association with some aspect of social and cultural tradition, which is related to ancestral beings, collectively known as Dreamtime, who created both physical and social aspects of the world. The site may have its access restricted based on gender, clan or other Aboriginal grouping, or other factors.

Torres Strait Regional Authority

The Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) is an Australian Government body established in 1994 to administer the Torres Strait Islands. It consists of 20 elected representatives. The primary function of the Authority is to strengthen the economic, social and cultural development of the peoples of the Torres Strait area.

A community legal centre (CLC) is the Australian term for an independent not-for-profit organisation providing legal aid services, that is, provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. They provide legal advice and traditional casework for free, primarily funded by federal, state and local government. Working with clients who are mostly the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in Australian society, they also work with other agencies to address related problems, including financial, social and health issues. Their functions may include campaigning for law reform and developing community education programs.

Land councils, also known as Aboriginal land councils, or land and sea councils, are Australian community organisations, generally organised by region, that are commonly formed to represent the Indigenous Australians who occupied their particular region before the arrival of European settlers. They have historically advocated for recognition of traditional land rights, and also for the rights of Indigenous people in other areas such as equal wages and adequate housing. Land councils are self-supporting, and not funded by state or federal taxes.

Indigenous Australians are both convicted of crimes and imprisoned at a disproportionately higher rate in Australia, as well as being over-represented as victims of crime. The issue is a complex one, to which federal and state governments, as well as Indigenous groups, have responded with various analyses and numerous programs and measures. As of September 2019, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners represented 28% of the total adult prisoner population, while accounting for 2% of the general adult population.

Indigenous land rights in Australia, also known as Aboriginal land rights in Australia, relate to the rights and interests in land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, and the term may also include the struggle for those rights. Connection to the land and waters is vital in Australian Aboriginal culture and to that of Torres Strait Islander people, and there has been a long battle to gain legal and moral recognition of ownership of the lands and waters occupied by the many peoples prior to colonisation of Australia starting in 1788, and the annexation of the Torres Strait Islands by the colony of Queensland in the 1870s.

Shannon Fentiman Australian politician

Shannon Maree Fentiman is an Australian politician. She has been the Labor member for Waterford in the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2015 and is the current Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Women, and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence.

The Closing the Gap framework is an Australian government strategy that aims to reduce disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, based on seven targets. From adoption in 2008, after meetings with the Close the Gap social justice campaign, until 2018, the federal and state and territory governments worked together via the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on the framework, with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet producing a report at the end of each year analysing progress on each of its seven targets.

Cynthia Lillian Lui is an Australian politician. She has been the Australian Labor Party member for Cook in the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2017. Originally from Yam Island in the Torres Strait, Lui is the first Torres Strait Islander to be elected to any parliament. She worked as a community worker in Cairns to win internally as a representative for Cook, she then went on to secure her place within the Labor Party as the preferred candidate. Lui gave her maiden speech in the Queensland Parliament on 15 February 2018.

Saibo Mabo was an Australian bishop in the Anglican Church of Australia. He served as an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland from 2002 to 2015, and as National Bishop to the Torres Strait Islander people during that time.

References

  1. 1 2 "Meriba Omasker Kaziw Kazipa (Torres Strait Islander Traditional Child Rearing Practice) Act 2020 passed and royal assent granted". Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships . Queensland Government. 14 September 2020.
  2. ↑ Rigby, Mark (16 July 2020). "Torres Strait Islander adoption practices bill introduced to Queensland Parliament". ABC News . Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  3. ↑ McCutcheon, Peter (17 July 2020). "Analysis: Queensland's recognition of traditional culture hailed as Mabo-like achievement by Torres Strait Island elders". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 "2021 Queensland Greats recipients". Queensland Greats Awards . Queensland Government. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 "TSI board member: Ivy Trevallion". National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance. 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  6. ↑ "Ivy Trevallion". TSIMA/Radio 4MW. Torres Strait Islander Media Association. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  7. ↑ Barraud, Anita (5 June 2012). "Torres Strait child rearing and mainstream law". Law Report . Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  8. ↑ Archibald-Binge, Ella (25 October 2018). "Ancient practice to modern law: How legalising island adoption will change lives in the Torres Strait". NITV . Special Broadcasting Service . Retrieved 24 June 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.