Purai Global Indigenous History Centre
People
Directors
Professor Kathleen Butler
Co-Director
Director of Indigenous Research
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: kathleen.butler@newcastle.edu.au
Professor Kate Senior
Co-Director
Assistant Dean, Research and Innovation
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: kate.senior@newcastle.edu.au
Dr Ray Kelly
Honorary Co-Director
Chairperson, New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: purai@newcastle.edu.au
Purai Staff
Ms Ella Fisher
Indigenous Media and Communications Assistant
Global Indigenous Studies student (UoN)
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: ella.fisher@newcastle.edu.au
Ms Angelina Joshua
Community Liaison Officer
Diploma of Arts & Linguistics (CDU)
- T: +61 (0) 4921 7408
- E: purai@newcastle.edu.au
Mr Aiden Powell
Project Manager, Research Assistant
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: aiden.powell@newcastle.edu.au
Ms Coralie Properjohn
Research Assistant
Bachelor of Social Work (Curtin University)
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: coralie.properjohn@newcastle.edu.au
Dr Jacqueline Wright
Project Manager, Research Assistant
- T: +61 2 4055 1082
- E: jacqui.wright@newcastle.edu.au
Emeritus Professor John Maynard
Emeritus Professor
Indigenous Education and Research
- John.Maynard@newcastle.edu.au
- 0408416886
Professor Victoria Haskins
Emeritus Professor
School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci
- Victoria.Haskins@newcastle.edu.au
- 0249215221
Associate Professor Helen English
Associate Professor
School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci
- Helen.English@newcastle.edu.au
- 0405607272
Molly McNeil
Early Career Researcher
Learning from Gloucester: University of Newcastle and Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast research partnership
What can Gloucester teach us about the present challenges and potential futures of regional Australia?
Associate Professor Julie McIntyre
Associate Professor
School of Humanities, Creative Ind and Social Sci
- Julie.Mcintyre@newcastle.edu.au
- 0249217029
Associate Professor Sara Motta
Associate Professor
Newcastle Business School
- Sara.C.Motta@newcastle.edu.au
- 0249215020
Dr Angela Page
Academic Pacific Program Lead
Education
- T: +61 2 4921 6410
- E: apage1@newcastle.edu.au
Dr Kevin Sobel-Read
Associate Professor
School of Law and Justice
- Kevin.Sobel-Read@newcastle.edu.au
- 0249216613
Associate Professor Tamara Young
Associate Professor
Newcastle Business School
- Tamara.Young@newcastle.edu.au
- 0249215804
Institute for Regional Futures
Executive Director: Laura Eadie
Institute for Regional Futures
- T: +61 2 4055 3300
- E: IRF@newcastle.edu.au
Dr Cara Cross
Thesis: Our land, our healer: Exploring the use of sulphur, sulphate minerals and sulphate clays within Aboriginal pharmacopoeia.
Dr Ashlen Francisco
Thesis: A History of the Transition from Protection to Welfare in NSW 1939-1940.
Bing Gibson
Thesis: Vanua Levu, Fiji’s Next Tourist Frontier, A Place by Locals for Visitors
Dr Padraic Gibson
Thesis: The Communist Party of Australia and the Fight for Aboriginal Rights 1921 – 1934.
Dr Srishti Guha
Thesis: Gaze Returned: The Politics of Colonial Visual Culture and Iconography in India and Australia 1860 – 1950.
Dr Jesse Hodgetts
Thesis: Traditional Aboriginal Language and Song from Original Speakers and Songmen in NSW.
Carole Y Johnson
Thesis: NAISDA and Indigenous urban Dance in Australia in the 1980s: A story of political activism, community development and transnational cooperation and creativity!
Estelle Leishman
Thesis: Eco-Art Mulubinba, Examining the benefits, challenges and innovations of utilizing a sustainable art practice in Newcastle, NSW.
Associate Professor Marlene Longbottom
Thesis: Balwalwanga bhulungs: We are strong women.
Dr Pearl Nunn
Thesis: Visible and Vocal: Women of Colour in Eighteenth Century Britain.
Aiden Powell
Thesis: From Songlines to Spotify: The Polyphonic Story of Aboriginal Music and Song in the 21st Century
Dr Jennifer Rumbel
Thesis: Sacred Stories – Sacred Spaces: A Journey into Discovery, Truth & Right Relations
Jane Singleton
Thesis: The work and life of Katie Langloh Parker who notated Noongahburrah/Yuwaalaraay legends and language in 19thcentury North West NSW.
Dr Truman Smith
Thesis: "Unprovoked Barbarity": Kidnapping on Queensland’s Frontier, 1859 – 1897.
Derrick Vale
Thesis: Knock 'Em Down Bowra: Looking into the Life of Aboriginal People in Bowraville from a Koori's Point of View.
Lynette Walshe
Thesis: An epistemology of the philosophical culture and spirituality between Indigenous Language and Country. Gathering a holistic understanding of the expression "Language Belongs to Country".
Nadine Wilson
Thesis: People of the Wulawula (Forest near Water): A more-than-human history of Worimi Country/the Myall Lakes region.
Ms Tingting Xu
Thesis: Mui Tsai in Hong Kong and Shanghai During the Interwar Period.
Professor Transform Aqorau
Vice-Chancellor, Solomon Islands National University
Solomon Islands National University
Centre for Islands Futures: Solomon Islands National University; Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS); Visiting Fellow: Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong; Honorary Professor: TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland.
Dr Laurie Bamblett
Co-director, Australian Centre for Indigenous History
Australian National University
Professor Swapna Banerjee
Professor, History, Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies
Professor Richard Chenhall
Professor in Medical Anthropology
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne
Professor Kathleen Clapham
Senior Aboriginal researcher and anthropologist
Ngarruwan Ngadju First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health, University of Wollongong
Dr Daphne Daniels
Chair, Strongbala Pipul Wanbala Bois Komiti (Strong People One Voice Committee), Deputy Chair, Yugul Mangi Development Aboriginal Corporation, Chair, Family Violence Prevention Working Group
Ngukurr Community
Dr Daphne Daniels is a Nunggubuyu woman from Ngukurr in South-East Arnhem Land. She is the deputy chair of the Yugal Mangi Development Corporation and the editor of the Ngukurr News. In 2022 Daphne was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle, recognising her involvement in 25 years of community-based research.
Dr Devaleena Das
Associate Professor of Body, Sexuality and Health
Medical School, University of Minnesota, Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health
Professor Françoise Dussart
Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
University of Connecticut
Dr Frances Edmonds
Honorary (Senior Fellow) Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne
Professor Penny Edmonds
Professor of History in the College of Human Sciences and Culture, Flinders University, Adelaide. She is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Science
Flinders University
Associate Professor John Robert Evans
rofessor of Indigenous Health Education in the School of Public Health
University of Sydney
Professor Valerie Harwood
Professor of Sociology and Anthropology of Education
Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney
Ms Sekai Holland
Former Zimbabwean Co-Minister of State for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration in the Cabinet of President Robert Mugabe & Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
Dr Jackie Huggins
Director, Partnerships and Innovation (Indigenous Engagement) Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Professor Niklas Juth
Karolinska institutet, Centre for Research ethics and Bioethics
Uppsala University, Sweden
Professor Emerita Marilyn Lashley
Professor Emerita, Department of Political Science
Howard University, Washington D.C
Associate Professor Claire Lowrie
Associate Professor of History
School of Creative Arts and Humanities, University of Wollongong
Dr Paul McKenzie Jones
Associate Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies
University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta CA
Mr Djon Mundine
Djon Mundine OAM, independent Bandjalung curator, writer, artist, activist
Concept-Curator 1988 Aboriginal Memorial, Winner 2020 Red Ochre Life-time Achievement Award of the Australia Council
Professor Amanda Nettelbeck
Professor in School of Humanities, College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities
University of Adelaide
Professor Atsushi Nobayashi
Director, Department of Globalization and Humanity
National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka Japan
Dr Patricia O'Brien
Australian Research Council Future Fellow, School of History
Australian National University
Winner of the 2026 General History Prize at the NSW History Awards: Errol Flynn: The true story of Australia's Hollywood icon by Patricia A. O'Brien, published by Allen & Unwin
Dr. Sarah McLean-Orsborn
Lecturer, Te Wānanga o Waipapa, School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies
University of Auckland
Dr Naomi Parry
Author & Adjunct Researcher, History and Classics
University of Tasmania
Accredited Member: Professional Historians' Association
Dr Venetria K Patton
Harry E. Preble Dean, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Professor of English and African American Studies
University of Illinois
Ms Karen Rogers
Artist & Director, Ngukurr Arts Aboriginal Corporation
Ngukurr, Northern Territory, Australia
Associate Professor Theresa Runstedtler
Professor and Department Chair, Critical RGC Studies
American University, Washington D.C
Scott Manning Stevens
Citizen of the Akwesasne Mohawk nation & associate professor and the director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program
The College of Arts and Sciences, Syracuse University, NY
Terry Snowball
Repatriation Coordinator
National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Suitland, MD 20746
Dr Ronald Stephens
Professor of African American Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies
Purdue College of Liberal Arts
Professor Anna Lydia Svalastog
Chair for Navigating Knowledge Landscapes
Department of Welfare, Management & Organisation Østfold University of Applied Sciences, Norway
- E: als@hiof.no
Professor Quito Swan
Professor of History and Africana Studies; Director, Africana Studies Program
The George Washington University
Dr. Kath Apma Penangke Travis
Academic Researcher
Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit, Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities (ISILC), Victoria University
Member of the Victorian Stolen Generations Steering Committee and South Australian State Records and State Library Aboriginal Reference Group.
- F: kath.travis@vu.edu.au
Dr Jacinta Walsh
Lecturer / Indigenous Research Fellow, School of Philosophical, Historical, and Indigenous Studies, ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures Monash Indigenous Studies Centre
Monash University
Associate Professor Angela Wanhalla
Māori, New Zealand, colonial, environmental and women's history
University of Otago
Contact
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.