Martin Nakata AM is an Australian academic, researcher and scholar in the field of Indigenous education, knowledge, and studies. He is the first aboriginal/indigenous person from the Torres Strait Islands to obtain a doctoral degree. [1] [2] He is also a proponent of indigenous standpoint theory. As of 2021, he is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of James Cook University. [3] [4] In 2020 he was conferred with Member of the Order of Australia for "significant service to tertiary education, and to learning outcomes for Indigenous students". [5] An asteroid in the Koronis family has been named in his honour as 7547 Martinnakata for his contribution to Indigenous astronomy. [6]
Nakata is of Torres Strait islander and Japanese descent. His mother is a traditional owner of islands in the Torres Strait, a remote region of Australia. His dad was born in Kushimoto-cho, Wakayama-Ken, Japan. Prof Nakata grew up in the islands where he did all his schooling years and has a thorough and intimate understanding of the languages and customs of the Torres Strait Islander people. He was trained as a teacher and in 1991 graduated with a Bachelor of Education with first class honours, and in 1998 he graduated with a PhD degree in education from James Cook University, and thereafter specialised in the field of Indigenous education.
Nakata is recognised nationally and internationally as one of the leading Indigenous academics in Australia. He has had an extensive academic research career in the fields of Indigenous education, Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Knowledge. His current research work includes two longitudinal projects on the academic preparation of Indigenous students for university studies, and the academic performance of Indigenous school students in the Math and Science curriculum. He is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, and leading the Indigenous STEM project to examine under-explored aspects of learning which can improve educational performance of indigenous students in Australia. He has presented over seventy plenary and keynote addresses at professional conferences in Iceland, Norway, Scotland, Greece, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Canada, United States, Peru, Aotearoa (NZ) and Australia, and has published extensively on Australian Indigenous education issues in national and international academic journals, anthologies and books. He has been the co-editor of the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education for the past ten years, and he continues to serve on editorial boards of academic journals in several countries. [7]
James Cook University (JCU) is a public university in North Queensland, Australia. The second oldest university in Queensland, JCU is a teaching and research institution. The university's main campuses are located in the tropical cities of Cairns and Townsville, and one in the city state of Singapore. JCU also has study centres in Mount Isa, Mackay, Thursday Island and Rockhampton. A Brisbane campus, operated by Russo Higher Education, delivers undergraduate and postgraduate courses to international students. The university's main fields of research include environmental sciences, biological sciences, mathematical sciences, earth sciences, agricultural and veterinary sciences, technology and medical and health sciences.
The Torres Strait, also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is 150 km (93 mi) wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian mainland. To the north is the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. It is named after the Spanish navigator Luís Vaz de Torres, who sailed through the strait in 1606.
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 recognised that indigenous rights to land had continued after the British Crown acquired sovereignty and that the international law doctrine of terra nullius was not applicable to Australian domestic law. 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.
Torres Strait Islanders are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal peoples 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.
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 institute is a leader in ethical research and the handling of culturally sensitive material and holds in its collections many unique and irreplaceable items of cultural, historical and spiritual significance. The collection at AIATSIS has been built through over 50 years of research and engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and is now a source of language and culture revitalisation, native title research and family and community history. AIATSIS is located on Acton Peninsula in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Native American studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history, culture, politics, issues, spirituality, sociology and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America, or, taking a hemispheric approach, the Americas. Increasingly, debate has focused on the differences rather than the similarities between other Ethnic studies disciplines such as African American studies, Asian American Studies, and Latino/a Studies.
Standpoint theory, or standpoint epistemology, is a theory for analyzing intersubjective discourses. Standpoint theory proposes that authority is rooted in individuals’ personal knowledge and perspectives and the power that such authority exerts.
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, but excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. The term "Indigenous Australians" is applied to Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders collectively.
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.
The Bidjigal people are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are modern-day western, north-western, south-eastern, and southern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. The land includes the Bidjigal Reserve, Salt Pan Creek and the Georges River. They are part of the Dharug language group, and there is debate as to whether the clan is part of the Dharug or Eora people.
Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or membership in the ethnic groups that lived in areas within the Australian continent before British colonisation, or both. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples, who are many various peoples of the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and the Torres Strait Islanders, a Melanesian people from the seas between Queensland and Papua New Guinea. 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.
Australian studies forms part of the academic field of cultural studies. It involves an examination of what constructs Australia's national identity. This area of scholarship traditionally involves the study of Australian history, society and culture but can be extended to the study of Australian politics and economics. This area of scholarship also includes the study of Australia's Indigenous population, Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.
Henrietta Marrie is a Gimuy Walubara Yidinji elder, an Australian Research Council Fellow and Honorary Professor with the University of Queensland.
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.
Indigenous health in Australia examines health and wellbeing indicators of Indigenous Australians compared with the rest of the population. Statistics indicate that Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders are much less healthy than other Australians. Various government strategies have been put into place to try to remediate the problem; there has been some improvement in several areas, but statistics between Indigenous Australians and the rest of the Australian population still show unacceptable levels of difference.
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.
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.
Paul Christopher Memmott is an Australian architect, anthropologist, academic and the Director of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre at the University of Queensland. He is an expert on topics related to Indigenous architecture and vernacular architecture, housing, homelessness and overcrowding.
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.