Kirstie Parker

Last updated

Kirstie Parker (born 1967) is a Yuwallarai journalist, policy administrator and Aboriginal Australian activist. From 2013 to 2015 she served as the co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples and during her tenure pressed for policies that allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to gain the ability for self-determination.

Contents

She has served on the board of Reconciliation Australia and other public policy commissions aimed at improving the lives of Indigenous people. She was the third Aboriginal person to serve on the Australian Press Council. In 2018, her unpublished manuscript The Making of Ruby Champion won the David Unaipon Award of the Queensland Literary Awards, which included both publication and prize money.

She has been the Director of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation for the Government of South Australia since 2017.

Early life

Kirstie Parker was born as the third child of four siblings in 1967, [1] the daughter of a Yuwallarai mother and a father originally from London. Her mother, Pam, had one year of formal schooling, but taught herself to read and write by studying Anne of Green Gables . Her father, Roger, was also an avid reader and they encouraged Parker in her writing. [2] She was raised in northern New South Wales, Australia. [3]

Career

At 16, Parker began working as a junior journalist [2] and throughout her career has worked in print media, radio and television. [4] Among the media outlets she has been associated with are ABC Radio, The Tablelander regional paper in Atherton, Queensland and The West Australian newspaper of Perth. [3] In 2006, she became the editor of the Koori Mail , a newspaper written and owned by Indigenous Australians, [4] where she wrote for seven years. [5]

In 2013, Parker was elected to serve a two-year term as co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, along with Les Malezer, a Gubbi Gubbi-Butchulla man from Queensland. [5] During her tenure, a crisis in funding threatened Aboriginal communities across Australia with closure. Parker and Malezer strongly opposed the eviction of Indigenous people from their homelands, citing previous failures in adequately integrating Aboriginal people into new areas in various states and stressing the need for self-determination policies. [6] The duo worked on the panel reviewing the status of recognition for Australia's Indigenous people in 2014. [7] The following year Parker was one of the delegates who met with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. She urged a recognition plan that allowed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to provide input into the recognition process. When Abbott agreed, a First Peoples National Convention was held. The convention recommended that the Constitution of Australia be amended to grant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people representation in the federal Parliament and the establishment of a commission to supervise negotiations between First Nations and the government. [8]

Parker is an activist and public policy advisor on Indigenous affairs. [5] Some of her work in this area includes working at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in Canberra managing media and communications; serving as a director at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute in Adelaide; directing public affairs for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; and serving as media advisor to Robert Tickner, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. [3] [4] She has served as a director of Reconciliation Australia [5] and co-chair of the Closing the Gap campaign, an initiative which focuses on health issues of Indigenous Australians. [9] [10] She is a public speaker often discussing policies affecting Indigenous peoples and how the media can be used to empower Aboriginal people. [1] [11] [12]

In 2015, she began working as the CEO of the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Redfern, New South Wales. [9] In 2017, she became the third Indigenous person to be appointed to the Australian Press Council. [4] [13] Her role on the adjudication panel is to advise the council on Aboriginal issues. [14] That year, she also joined the Department of Premier and Cabinet in South Australia as the Director of Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, [15] a post she holds as of May 2021. [16]

Awards and honours

Parker has received numerous awards for both her writing and advocacy. In 2001, she received the Australian Government's Centenary Medal for her work with Indigenous communities and women. [17] She received a Centenary Medal for contribution to the Indigenous community and Australian life (2003), and an International Women’s Day Award for service to the SA community in 2000. Her journalism was recognized in 2008 with the Print Media Award of the Australian Human Rights Commission for her article, National Apology: commemorative lift out. [18] In 2012, Parker was recognized for her activism on behalf of Indigenous people with the 100 Women of Influence Awards presented by the Australian Financial Review . [9] She was one of the inaugural women honoured with the Australian Peacewomen Awards of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom at the organization's centennial celebrations in 2015. [19] In 2016, Parker was a finalist in the 2016 NSW Women of the Year Awards (Aboriginal Woman of the Year category). [20] In 2018, her unpublished manuscript The Making of Ruby Champion won the David Unaipon Award of the Queensland Literary Awards, which included both publication and prize money. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oodgeroo Noonuccal</span> Aboriginal Australian poet, artist, teacher and campaigner for Indigenous rights

Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( UUD-gə-roo NOO-nə-kəl; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowitja O'Donoghue</span> Australian public administrator (1932–2024)

Lowitja O'Donoghue, also known as Lois O'Donoghue and Lois Smart, was an Australian public administrator and Indigenous rights advocate. She was the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) from 1990 to 1996. She is known for her work in improving the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians, and also for the part she played in the drafting of the Native Title Act 1993, which established native title in Australia.

Reconciliation Australia is a non-government, not-for-profit foundation established in January 2001 to promote a continuing national focus for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. It was established by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, which was established to create a framework for furthering a government policy of reconciliation in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larissa Behrendt</span> Indigenous Australian academic and writer

Larissa Yasmin Behrendt is an Australian legal academic, writer, filmmaker and Indigenous rights advocate. As of 2022 she is a professor of law and director of research and academic programs at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney, and holds the inaugural Chair in Indigenous Research at UTS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcia Langton</span> Australian Aboriginal scholar and activist

Marcia Lynne Langton is an Aboriginal Australian writer and academic. As of 2022 she is the Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Langton is known for her activism in the Indigenous rights arena.

Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, and/or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of present day Australia prior to British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups, which includes many ethnic groups: the Aboriginal Australians of the mainland and many islands, including Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islanders of the seas between Queensland and Papua New Guinea, located in Melanesia. 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; 812,728 people self-identified as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin in the 2021 Australian Census, representing 3.2% of the total population of Australia. Of these Indigenous Australians, 91.4% identified as Aboriginal; 4.2% identified as Torres Strait Islander; while 4.4% identified with both groups. Since 1995, the Australian Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag have been official flags of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen José</span> Australian photographer (1951–2017)

Ellen José (1951 – 2 June 2017) was an Australian Indigenous artist, photographer and anarchist. She was a Torres Strait Islander descendant from Murray, Darnley and Horn Islands who lived in Melbourne with husband and fellow anarchist Joseph Toscano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrietta Marrie</span>

Henrietta Marrie is a Gimuy Walubara Yidinji elder, an Australian Research Council Fellow and Honorary Professor with the University of Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackie Huggins</span> Indigenous Australian historian and writer

Jacqueline Gail "Jackie" Huggins is an Aboriginal Australian author, historian, academic and advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She is a Bidjara/Pitjara, Birri Gubba and Juru woman from Queensland.

Wintjiya Napaltjarri, also known as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1, was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Tjunkiya Napaltjarri; both were wives of Toba Tjakamarra, with whom Wintjiya had five children.

The Queensland Literary Awards is an awards program established in 2012 by the Queensland literary community, funded by sponsors and administered by the State Library of Queensland. Like the former Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, the QLAs celebrate and promote outstanding Australian writing. The awards aim to seek out, recognize and nurture great talent in Australian writing. They draw national and international attention to some of our best writers and to Queensland's recognition of outstanding Australian literature and publishing.

Aileen Moreton-Robinson is an 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Harding</span> Australian Aboriginal activist (1934–1996)

Eleanor Harding was an Indigenous Australian from the Torres Strait Islands who worked to attain civil rights for Aboriginal Australians. She advocated for women's rights and adequate educational opportunities, as well, serving with numerous organizations to attain equality for indigenous people. In 2012, she was inducted into the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll by the State of Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dauan Island</span> Town in Queensland, Australia

Dauan Island is an island in the Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia; it is also known as Cornwallis Island. Dauan Island is also a town and locality in the Torres Strait Island Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Dauan Island had a population of 131 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous Australian literature</span> Literature produced by Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australian literature is the fiction, plays, poems, essays and other works authored by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MaryAnn Bin-Sallik</span> Djaru Elder and Australian academic

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jody Broun</span> Indigenous Australian artist and activist

Jody Broun is an Indigenous Australian artist and activist with a long-standing career, most recently with her current position being Chief Executive Officer of the National Indigenous Australians Agency. She has completed a Diploma of Teaching, Bachelor of Education and a Masters in Philosophy. In 1998 she was awarded first prize in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award for her artwork "White Fellas Come To Talk Bout Land" and in 2005 Broun was awarded first place in the Canberra Art Prize for her artwork "Half-Time Game". Along with these major awards Broun has displayed many artworks in solo and group exhibitions, winning many other awards, and grants. Broun is a Yindjibarndi woman with family connection from the Pilbara region in North Western Australia, and is known for her dedication to Indigenous communities in Australia.

Vanessa Lee-AhMat is an Australian scholar who was the first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD graduate from Griffith University School of Medicine. In 2005, Lee-AhMat was recognised by the Parliament of Australia for her dedication and commitment to Thursday Island community, in the Torres Strait.

Yvette Henry Holt is an Aboriginal Australian poet, essayist, academic, researcher and editor, she heralds from the Bidjara, Yiman and Wakaman nations of Queensland. The youngest child born to prominent Aboriginal Elder, Albert Holt and Marlene Holt. Holt came to prominence with her first multi-award-winning collection of poetry, Anonymous Premonition, published by the University of Queensland Press in 2008. Since 2009 Holt has lived and worked in Central Australia among the Central and Western Arrernte peoples of Hermansburg and Alice Springs.

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri poet and activist from southwest New South Wales. She is an associate professor in creative writing at the University of Melbourne.

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Parker 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Henningham 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 AustLit 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Georgatos 2013.
  5. ↑ Kurmelovs 2014.
  6. ↑ Anderson, Hosch & Eccles 2014, p. 36.
  7. ↑ Leibler 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 Thorpe 2015.
  9. ↑ Gooda & Parker 2015.
  10. ↑ Guardian 2016.
  11. ↑ & Community Business Bureau 2018, p. 2.
  12. ↑ Samios 2017.
  13. ↑ NewsMediaWorks 2017.
  14. ↑ Community Business Bureau 2018, p. 5.
  15. ↑ "Bio". Kirstie Parker. 27 May 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  16. ↑ Department of the Prime Minister 2001.
  17. ↑ Australian Human Rights Commission 2008.
  18. ↑ WILPF 2015.
  19. ↑ "Bio". Kirstie Parker. 27 May 2013. Retrieved 21 November 2019.

Bibliography

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.