2024 Eddie Koiki Mabo Lecture

Eddie Koiki Mabo had a strong and long-lasting connection with James Cook University. It was here that he began his journey to challenge land ownership laws on Mer (Murray Island) in the Torres Strait. The University provided the environment and context in which discussions challenging terra nullius could be had, including staff and student involvement in the coordination of the original 'Land Rights and the Future of Race Relations' conference that sparked the legal action filed in the High Court of Australia the following year.

The recognition of native title by the High Court of Australia in 1992, and the Keating Government's subsequent Native Title Act 1993, were important steps forward in our country's reconciliation with Australia's Indigenous peoples.

About Professor Brown

Professor Ngiare Brown is a senior Aboriginal medical practitioner and the first female and first Indigenous Chancellor of James Cook University. She is a proud Yuin nation woman from the south coast of NSW, with a passion for Aboriginal and Indigenous health, child safety, and adolescent development. She has made extensive contributions to research process, bioethics, policy, translation, and practice within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and worked over the past three decades to develop an extensive international network in Indigenous health and research.

Professor Brown was one of the first Aboriginal medical graduates in Australia, completing her medical degree at the University of Newcastle in 1991, and later obtaining a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from JCU in 2000, named an Outstanding Alumna in 2012. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Professor Brown has held a variety of positions in education, mentoring, clinical practice, research, and advocacy. She is a founding member and foundation Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, a founding member of the Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors' Congress, and Associate Professor and Foundation Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Sydney. She is the Founding Director of Ngaoara, a not-for-profit committed to child and adolescent wellbeing, and a Commissioner with the National Mental Health Commission.