Elizabeth Bradshaw | Chair

Elizabeth Bradshaw is a highly experienced cultural heritage and social performance manager with a global career spanning over 30 years in the mining and cultural heritage sectors. Elizabeth worked for Rio Tinto (1996 to 2018) in operational and senior corporate roles including global lead for cultural heritage. She has undertaken heritage management work for government and Indigenous communities. She now provides expert advice to businesses, government and stakeholder organisations as Elizabeth Bradshaw Consulting Pty Ltd.

She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences, UWA; Senior Industry Fellow at Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland; and Expert Member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee for Archaeological Heritage Management.

Andrew Dowding

Andrew Dowding is a Ngarluma man from Roebourne in the Pilbara region. He has a Graduate Diploma in Policy and Applied Social Research from Macquarie University and was an intern at the American Institute of Indian Studies, Archives and Research Centre for Ethnomusicology in 2007–8. He is a Director of Ngarluma Tharndu Karrungu Maya Ltd and has worked as an Indigenous Anthropologist in the heritage consulting industry. His latest project was Ngarluma Ngurra: Aboriginal Culture on the map. This exhibition (with FORM) displays the cultural mapping work he has done with the Ngarluma Traditional Owners, using Google Earth Outreach.

Carmen Lawrence

After training as a research psychologist at The University of Western Australia and lecturing in a number of Australian universities, Dr Lawrence entered politics in 1986, serving at both state and federal levels for 21 years. She was at various times WA Minister for Education and Aboriginal affairs and was the first woman Premier and Treasurer of a state government. She shifted to federal politics in 1994 when she was elected as the Member for Fremantle and was appointed Minister for Health and Human Services and Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. She has held various portfolios in Opposition, including Indigenous Affairs, Environment, Industry and Innovation and was elected national President of the Labor Party in 2004. She retired from politics in 2007. She is Now Professor Emerita in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western Australia. From 2010-2015 she was Chair of the Australian Heritage Council and is currently President of the Conservation Council of WA.

Vanessa Russ

Dr Vanessa Russ is a Ngarinyin /Gija woman from the Kimberley. She was the first Aboriginal director of the Berndt Museum. She graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from the College of Fine Arts (Art + Design) UNSW before returning to Western Australian to pursue a PhD in Fine Arts from UWA 2013. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2014 to investigate the effects of national identity in mainstream art museums on Indigenous populations. For this she travelled across the United States of America, Hong Kong and Singapore.

John Stanton

Dr John Stanton was the Director of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology 1995–2013, and was its Founding Curator. He retired to continue his collections-based research. John Stanton has extensive experience and involvement in the area of Aboriginal arts, which he has developed primarily since his appointment in 1978 as Curator of the Anthropology Research Museum. His anthropological research has focused on the Western Desert; he also has ongoing research programs in the northwest and the southwest of the Western Australia. Many of these projects have focused on assisting Aboriginal communities to establish local Keeping Places and cultural centres.

Donny Wooloogoodja

Donny Woolagoodja is a senior Worrorra man and Traditional Owner of Kimberley Aboriginal countries. He is a renowned artist and designer of a giant Wanjina featured in the opening of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Donny is the son of Sam Woolagoodja, who ‘freshened’ Wanjina paintings and maintained cultural traditions during the turbulent period of colonisation of his homeland. Along with other senior Aboriginal people, Donny (with Valda Blundell) produced the book Keeping the Wanjinas Fresh: Sam Woolagoodja and the Enduring Power of Lalai (2005, Fremantle Press).