Lyn Henderson-Yates

Last updated

Lyn Henderson-Yates is an Aboriginal Australian social scientist professor and deputy-vice chancellor of the Broome campus of University of Notre Dame Australia in Western Australia. She is the first Aboriginal woman to be hired to this position in any university across Australia. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Henderson-Yates was born in Derby, Western Australia, and was the eldest child in a family of eight. [1] Her brother James Patrick Taylor went missing in 1974 after being seen entering the van of a white male and the case of his disappearance was never solved. [3] Many years later, in 2014, Henderson-Yates prompted a re-opening of the investigation after it emerged that James Ryan O'Neill was in Derby around the time of James' disappearance. [3] [4] [5]

Career

She became a teaching assistant in the local area and continued to work her way up the education system over the next 35 years. [1] By 2008 she was an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame and established the Nulungu Research Institute to study Indigenous Australians in a culturally sensitive manner. [6] [7] She became the first director of the centre. [6]

In 2009 she was appointed to the position of deputy-vice chancellor at Broome campus, University of Notre Dame, a milestone for Aboriginal women. [1] [2] Two years later, as a result of these achievements, Henderson-Yates was awarded the Person of the Year award by the National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee of Kullari Region. [1] [2] Student numbers at the small university campus were in decline, which resulted in Henderson-Yates and colleagues having to slash back the number of staff in 2010. [8] However in 2012 the campus unveiled a new classroom to help improve the literacy skills of local Aboriginal students. [9]

As part of her research she co-wrote a 2014 report into university accessibility to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, entitled "You Can't Be What You Can't See", as well as a book about reconciliation in Australia called Take Off Your Shoes, Walk On The Ground: The Journey Towards Reconciliation in Australia. [10] [11]

As of September 2020 Henderson-Yates is also CEO of the Derby Aboriginal Health Service, which provides support and education of healthcare to the indigenous Australians of the region. [12] Aboriginal people in the area suffer from high rates of mental illness and suicide numbers are abnormally high. The DAHS works to resolve these issues, but it struggles with the extensive funding this requires, which the government is reluctant to provide. [13] [14]

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 in Australia, in particular the landmark decision of the High Court of Australia that overturned the legal doctrine of terra nullius that had previously characterised Australian law with regard to land and title. High court judges considering the case Mabo v Queensland found in favour of Mabo, which led to the Native Title Act 1993 and established native title in Australia, officially recognising the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia to own and use the land on which their families had lived for millennia.

University of Notre Dame Australia Private university in Western Australia

The University of Notre Dame Australia is a national Roman Catholic private university with campuses in Fremantle and Broome in Western Australia and Sydney in New South Wales. The university also has eight clinical schools as part of its school of medicine located across Sydney and Melbourne and also in regional New South Wales and Victoria.

Lowitja ODonoghue

Lowitja Lois O'Donoghue Smart, AC, CBE, DSG is an Aboriginal Australian retired public administrator. In 1990-1996 she was the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). She is patron of the Lowitja Institute, a research institute for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing.

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.

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.

Truth commission Commission tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing

A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government, in the hope of resolving conflict left over from the past. Truth commissions are, under various names, occasionally set up by states emerging from periods of internal unrest, civil war, or dictatorship. In both their truth-seeking and reconciling functions, truth commissions have political implications: they "constantly make choices when they define such basic objectives as truth, reconciliation, justice, memory, reparation, and recognition, and decide how these objectives should be met and whose needs should be served".

Aboriginal deaths in custody Political and social issue in Australia

Aboriginal deaths in custody is a political and social issue in Australia. It rose in prominence in the early 1980s, with Aboriginal activists campaigning following the death of 16-year-old John Peter Pat in 1983. Subsequent deaths in custody, considered suspicious by families of the deceased, culminated in the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC).

Pat Dodson Australian politician

Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson is an Australian politician representing Western Australia in the Australian Senate. He is a Yawuru elder from Broome, Western Australia. He has been chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, a Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and a Roman Catholic priest. He was the winner of the 2008 Sydney Peace Prize and the 2009 John Curtin Medallist. His brother is Mick Dodson, also a national Indigenous Australian leader.

Mark Bin Bakar is an Indigenous Australian musician, comedian and radio announcer, writer, director/producer as well as an indigenous rights campaigner based in Broome, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. He is best known for his radio and television character, the acid-tongued Mary Geddarrdyu or Mary G, who has gained a national cult following and has been described as a Dame Edna Everage in thongs. In character Mary G has hosted a radio program and hosted a variety show broadcast nationally on SBS Television.

History of Indigenous Australians

The history of Indigenous Australians began at least 65,000 years ago when humans first populated the Australian continental landmasses. This article covers the history of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, two broadly defined groups which each include other sub-groups defined by language and culture.

Beagle Bay Community, Western Australia Community in Western Australia

Beagle Bay is a medium-sized Aboriginal community on the western side of the Dampier Peninsula, north of Broome in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Jackie Huggins 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.

Tom Calma

Thomas Edwin Calma,, is an Aboriginal Australian human rights and social justice campaigner. He is the sixth chancellor of the University of Canberra, a post held since January 2014, after two years as deputy chancellor. Calma is the second Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person to hold the position of chancellor of any Australian university.

Elizabeth Grant CF is an Australian architectural anthropologist, criminologist and academic working in the field of Indigenous Architecture. She is a Churchill Fellow and has held academic positions at a number of universities including The University of Adelaide and is Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT University's RMIT School of Architecture and Design and holds an Adjunct Professorship at the University of Canberra and has held an adjunct Associate Professorship at the University of Queensland. She researches, writes, and is an activist focusing on architecture and design with Indigenous peoples as architectural practice and a social movement, and the observance of human rights in institutional architecture. She also has expertise in Indigenous housing and homelessness, design for Indigenous peoples living with disability, and indigenising public places and spaces. She is a regular guest on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National and ABC Local Radio. She regularly writes and reviews architectural projects for architectural magazines such as Architecture Australia, the journal of the Australian Institute of Architects, the Australian Design Review, and others.

Death of Ms Dhu Australian Aboriginal woman

Julieka Ivanna Dhu was a 22-year-old Aboriginal Australian woman who died in police custody in South Hedland, Western Australia, in 2014. On 2 August that year, police responded to a report that Dhu's partner had violated an apprehended violence order. Upon arriving at their address, the officers arrested both Dhu and her partner after realising there was also an outstanding arrest warrant for unpaid fines against Dhu. She was detained in police custody in South Hedland and was ordered to serve four days in custody in default of her debt.

June Oscar

June Oscar AO is an Australian Aboriginal woman of Bunuba descent, Indigenous rights activist, community health and welfare worker, film and theatre producer, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Oscar is best known for her fight against Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and work in improving the lives of Aboriginal people in remote communities. In 2007, she led the successful campaign for alcohol restrictions in the Kimberley town of Fitzroy Crossing.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) is an independent, national non-government, not-for-profit, community-based organisation founded in 1997 which advocates for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and aims to help overcome disadvantage. Its staff, board and membership comprise mainly non-Indigenous people who support Indigenous voices and interests.

Anne Pattel-Gray is an Aboriginal Australian theologian and author who is an expert on Black theology. She is a descendant of the Bidjara people of Queensland and was the first Aboriginal person to earn a PhD at the University of Sydney.

Elsie Heiss, also known as Aunty Elsie, is an Indigenous Australian, a Wiradjuri elder and a Catholic religious leader. She has led Aboriginal Catholic Ministry programs for over three decades and was NAIDOC Female Elder of the Year in 2009.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Rabbitt, Elaine. "Henderson-Yates, Professor Lyn - Woman - The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia". www.womenaustralia.info. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Williams, Amy (14 July 2011). "Awards a way forward". The West Australian. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Missing boy's case linked to Tassie child killer". The West Australian. 25 November 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  4. ↑ "WA inquest into boy missing since 1974". au.news.yahoo.com. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  5. ↑ "Inquest into Jimmy Taylor cold case". PerthNow. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  6. 1 2 Quince, Lyn (29 August 2008). "Opening of Nulungu Centre for Indigenous Studies at Notre Dame, Broome". Media Release Archive.
  7. ↑ Dame, Notre (21 February 2018). "Staff". Notre Dame. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  8. ↑ Mills, Vanessa (1 December 2010). "University sacks almost half its staff". ABC News. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  9. ↑ Kalmar, Nicola (4 December 2012). "Centre to boost literacy skills in Broome". The West Australian. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  10. ↑ "'Can't be what you can't see': The transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students into higher education Final Report 2014" (PDF).
  11. ↑ "Take Off Your Shoes, Walk on the Ground: The Journey Towards Reconciliation in Australia". Proquest. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "Staff". DAHS. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Sainty, Lane. "This Woman Grew Up In The Worst Suicide Region In Australia. Now She's Working To End The Crisis". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  14. ↑ Sainty, Lane. "An Aboriginal Health Service In One Of Australia's Worst Suicide Regions Is Self-Funding Mental Health Roles". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
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.