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1. In Conversation with Norma Ingram

   The President of COTA NSW will be in conversation with Norma Ingram, a Wiradjuri woman born in Cowra, NSW.

2. Preston Campbell

   Preston Campbell hails from Tinga in New South Wales and is a loved and respected National Rugby League player for the Gold Coast Titans.

3. Partners

   Thank you to all of the National NAIDOC Week sponsors, supporters and suppliers.

4. Professor Michael McDaniel

   Professor Michael McDaniel is a proud member of the Kalari Clan of the Wiradjuri Nation.

   He has led a distinguished career in Indigenous higher education and has a record of service to the arts, culture and community which spans more than 30 years. 

5. Professor Michelle Trudgett

   Professor Michelle Trudgett, from the Wiradjuri Nation in NSW, has an international reputation as a leading scholar.

6. Professor Chris Sarra

   Professor Chris Sarra, a Goreng Goreng man from Bundaberg, has championed the improvement of Aboriginal educational outcomes throughout Australia for over 20 years.

7. 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.

8. Professor Kelvin Kong

   Professor Kelvin Kong is a Worimi man who grew up on Country in Port Stephens, on the New South Wales mid-north-coast. Kelvin graduated from the University of New South Wales to become Australia's first Indigenous surgeon.

9. Listen

   Professor Jacinta Elston

   National NAIDOC Education Award Category

   

   Professor Jacinta Elston, is an Aboriginal woman from Townsville, North Queensland who lives in Naarm (Melbourne), Victoria on the lands of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation. Professor Elston was appointed in 2018 as the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) at Monash University, and was the head of the William Cooper Institute when it was established. The William Cooper Institute, named after the Yorta Yorta political activist and community leader, is a hub for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research, learning and engagement, and promotes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and advancement across Monash University.

   Professor Elston is a highly regarded higher education and public health advocate with a remarkable record of leadership spanning over two decades in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advancement, education, and research. Professor Elston also has an extensive record of community engagement and board leadership.

   As Monash University’s inaugural Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) and head of the William Cooper Institute, Professor Elston led the development and implementation of the University’s Indigenous strategy, strengthening both leadership within the University and extensive Indigenous outreach and engagement.

   Professor Elston, together with the Monash Business School, led the successful conceptualisation and implementation of Australia’s first Masters of Indigenous Business Leadership. This Masters program was a first-of-its-kind leadership program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, designed to strengthen our Mob’s workforce across public, private and community sectors. Recognising that many Indigenous business leaders have had limited opportunities to engage in formal education and business training, this transformational co-designed program offers unparalleled access to higher education opportunities that strengthen Indigenous community and business leaders. Monash University graduates the first cohort from the program this coming weekend.

   Through innovative course design and support mechanisms, the business leadership program removes barriers to access that have prevented Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from entering tertiary education. This includes tailoring the learning to create a culturally safe and engaging environment, and delivering face-to-face intensive learning, allowing students to participate without interrupting work, family or community commitments for long periods of time.

   For its first eight years Professor Elston was the Chair of Cancer Australia’s Leadership Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Control. Something she unfortunately knows all too well, as a survivor of breast cancer herself.

   Professor Elston’s many impressive achievements and contributions include:

   • Former Chair of the North Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Womens’ Legal Service
   • Former Chair of the Townsville Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Health Service
   • A Fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation
   • 2019 Chief Executive Women Scholar
   • Previous Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre’s Primary Care & Population Advisory Committee member
   • Inaugural and Former Chair of Cancer Australia’s Leadership Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Control
   • Former member, NHMRC Research Committee
   • Former Professor of Indigenous Health at James Cook University
   • Former member, James Cook University Council
   • Current Board Member of Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA)

   Professor Elston left Monash University at the beginning of 2022 to commence consulting work with Cancer Australia, and Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. Professor Elston’s enduring commitment and dedication to the mentoring and advancement of emerging Indigenous leaders through education, together with the work she does to strengthen corporate Australia’s capacity to partner with Indigenous leaders to bring change to issues facing First Nations communities, ensures her incredible impact will continue to be felt well into the future.
10. Listen

    Professor Kelvin Kong

    National NAIDOC Person Award Category

    

    Professor Kelvin Kong is a Worimi man who grew up on Country in Port Stephens, on the New South Wales mid-north-coast. Kelvin graduated from the University of New South Wales to become Australia's first Indigenous surgeon. He credits his mother, Grace Kinsella, a pioneering Indigenous registered nurse, for inspiring him and his older sisters, twins Marlene and Marilyn, to become doctors. Their father, Kong Cheok Seng, a Malaysian Chinese man, is also a doctor. 

    Professor Kong, now works on Awabakal and Worimi Country, and is associated with the University of Newcastle's School of Medicine and Public Health. He is an Otolaryngology, Head and Neck surgeon and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS). Kelvin works at Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital and John Hunter Children’s Hospital, and he explains that hearing loss, often caused by Otitis Media (middle ear disease), significantly contributes to poor educational outcomes for children and can lead to higher unemployment rates in adults as a result. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children experience the highest levels of chronic otitis media in the world, affecting up to 70% of children in remote communities. 

    Determined to change the statistics, Dr Kong has dedicated his career to early intervention. Dr Kong says “If we can reduce the risk of hearing loss, we can have a direct impact on a child's ability to learn and develop. The change that we see is remarkable - we can take them from limited hearing and language skills to fully functioning teenagers with real employment prospects”. 

    Dr Kong is passionate about addressing the disparity in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. Each year, he spends a portion of his time working in, and for, remote Indigenous communities providing access to quality healthcare that would otherwise be limited or completely unavailable. This includes visiting the Kimberley’s each year to perform specialist consultations and surgery.  

    He is also passionate about improving pathways into specialist medical training and improving Indigenous workforce across the health and research sector. Dr Kong mentors high school students to encourage more Indigenous people to consider careers in medicine and surgery. 

    In 2011, Dr Kong joined other medical practitioners in the Care for Kids' Ears campaign to address the ongoing issues experienced by remote communities. The campaign was designed to encourage communities to be empowered with resources and information about ear health to reduce the risk of ear disease and hearing loss. Dr Kong is passionate in his advocacy in which he centres the importance of working together as a community - "When we work together with a community, we can address all the issues that arise from ear disease. Our job is to improve kids' health so they can get the education they need." 

    Some of Dr Kong's many roles include:  

    • First ever identified Indigenous Fellow, and current Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ (RACS). 
    • Examiner, Royal Australasian College Surgeons 
    • Mentor Surgical Pathways for Indigenous Australians 
    • Public and Private practice in Newcastle, at Hunter ENT Surgery 
    • Professor and mentor at the University of Newcastle 
    • Honorary Professor Macquarie University 
    • Associate Professor UNSW 
    • Clinical lead, ENT Outreach services HNELHD 
    • Indigenous Lead, Australian Society Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery 
    • Researcher; Successful in numerous NHMRC grants, awards and collaboration 
    • Chair, Advisory Group for reporting on the Ear and Hearing Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people 
    • Member, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ear and Hearing Health Partnership Committee 
    • Served on multiple advisory boards and committee’s including the Indigenous Health and Fellowship Services Committee 
    • Previous Board member for the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) 
    • Previous Board member Cancer Australia’s Advisory Board 
    • Previous Board Member Hearing Australia 
    • Previous secretary of Australia and New Zealand Society Paediatric Otolaryngology (ANZSPO) 
    • Recently, Dr Kong received an Honour Roll mention for Australian of the Year 

    Many of our young Mob are labelled as problems, too difficult, described as having learning difficulties, or as not wanting to learn. The truth is that due to the complex legacy of colonisation, under-funded communities, and racism, many of our young people are living with undiagnosed and treatable medical issues that create barriers to learning, education, employment and healthy living.  

    It is Dr Kong’s goal to ensure that these barriers are eradicated and that our Mob have equal access to quality health care to enable them to have every opportunity in life. 

    Video created by Blacklock Media.

    Thank you to Rollingball for supplying footage from Catching Dragonflies.