MaryAnn Bin-Sallik

Professor MaryAnn Bin-Sallik is a proud Djaru Elder from the East Kimberly who spent most of her life in Darwin. She became a nurse at seventeen, turning her mind and path to academia in her mid-thirties.

MaryAnn‘s long and distinguished career has been marked by impressive and varied achievements. She was the first Indigenous person to graduate as a trained nurse from Darwin Hospital; to be employed full-time in the higher education sector in Australia; and the first to gain a Doctorate from Harvard University.

MaryAnn is passionate about Indigenous participation in higher education. Her involvement in government, university and community advisory and review groups has greatly influenced education and equity policies for Indigenous Australians.

On her retirement in 2008, MaryAnn was made an Emeritus Professor of Charles Darwin University, in recognition of her decades of academic service and her contribution to the advancement of Indigenous education, cultures and heritage.