| Speakers
Damian Amamoo
is CEO of Australian communications business “Inception Strategies” that specializes in the development of social comics aimed at Indigenous and Non English speaking background communities.
Damian has worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for over 12 years in a variety of community controlled, state and federal government roles including running his own business.
Damian holds a degree in Economics a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies and a Masters degree in Communication Management.
Damian lives in Adelaide with his wife Elsie and sons Orlando and Roman.
Marion Burns
Councillor, Nunkuwarrin Yunti Inc – Working together
Marion has been working as a counsellor for 27 years in a range of settings including 17 years in private practice, utilising a Narrative Approach to Therapy and Community Work. She has been working in counselling and community development at Nunkuwarrin Yunti for 6 years. Her involvement there with the Women's Healing Group is the mainstay of her community development work and has allowed many projects to build over time with a group whose direction has become very united and strong. It is from this work that she presents her paper today.
Brenda Croft
Brenda is from the Gurindji and Mudpurra peoples of Daguragu/Limbunya/Kalkaringi region of the Northern Territory of Australia. She was born in Perth, WA and has lived in many states and territories of Australia and overseas. Brenda has been an exhibiting artist since the mid 1980s, and worked in Indigenous art and cultural organisations since 1987. From 1999 - early 2009 she was a senior curator of Indigenous art and culture at state and federal art museums. In March 2009 she returned to academic teaching, relocating to Adelaide to commence at UniSA. Her previous forays were at the Canberra School of Art (1998) and Tranby Aboriginal College, Sydney (1992), and presenting guest lectures at national and international institutions since 1990. In 1995 she was awarded a Master of Art Administration from the University of New South Wales (College of Fine Arts) and in April 2009 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Visual Arts from the University of Sydney (Sydney College of the Arts).
John Dallwitz
Team member, Ara Irititja Project
John Dallwitz has been an artist, photographer, educator, heritage consultant and cultural adviser, based in South Australia, since the 1960s. From 1986 to 1992, John was consultant to the South Australian Government’s Aboriginal Heritage Branch in the research and development of the Aboriginal Heritage Photographic Project. For this project he located, researched, copied and catalogued into a computer database more than 10,000 photographic images and many documents of significance to Aboriginal history in South Australia. As part of that project, he carried out the research, photography, design and construction of an outdoor, transportable exhibition to mark the 10 Years Celebration of the Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act. This experience introduced him to Anangu tjuta (Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people) and was one of the factors to inspire the archive project Ara Irititja (“stories from a long time ago”). Driven by a small team of archivists, anthropologists, and IT professionals, and a great deal of Anangu support, the Ara Irititja project has developed over 16 years into an innovative, culturally sensitive database project; it now provides Anangu access at a community level to more than 100,000 digitised historical documents, photos, artworks, movies and sounds. As the Manager of the Ara Irititja Project and the Pitjantjatjara Council’s Social History Unit, John oversees and administers all of the Project’s work.
Peter Kolomitsev
Peter Kolomitsev, a highly skilled and experienced audio engineer, has been working as a professional live and studio engineer since 1988. He has recorded and produced numerous albums, EP’s and singles, worked in many studios as a recording, mix and mastering engineer. Currently he works in the audio preservation studios at the State Library of South Australia, digitising the thousands of hours of diverse recordings that make up the libraries collection.
Rita Metzenrath
Reference librarian, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Alan Smith
Prior to taking up his present position in 2004 as Director of the State Library of South Australia, Alan worked in a range of cultural institutions including as the curator of Melbourne Properties for the National Trust; Historian for Telecom; Curator of Werribee Park; a major events Manager, a Sponsorship Manager; Director of the South Australian Maritime Museum, and Director of Carrick Hill. Alan has a BA, a Graduate Diploma in Librarianship and a Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies. Alan has been chairman or member of many boards and committees. Most recently he chaired the National & State Libraries Australasia committee in 2007 - 2008 which he now still is a member, he also served on the Board of Directors for the Collections Council of Australia in 2007 – 2008. Alan was awarded a Winston Churchill Trust Fellowship in 2008. The Fellowship enabled him to visit the leaders of the most outstanding National Libraries in the world, in order to investigate management, philosophies and strategies in creating significant cultural change. His interest include history, literature, reading, classical music, opera, fine and decorative arts, theatre, antiques, food and wine, architecture, gardening, travel, entertaining and being entertained, conversation, opening nights and cultivating friendships. His ambition is to work with the State Library and the Public Library sector to help give South Australia the best library service in the country.
Kirsten Thorpe
Kirsten is employed as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive (ATSIDA) Project Officer at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). The ATSIDA Project Officer is responsible for developing ways to locate and incorporate research data on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into the ATSIDA data archive. Previously Kirsten was employed by State Records NSW (New South Wales) as the Archivist-Aboriginal Liaison (1999 - 2009). Kirsten’s work involved assisting Indigenous people to gain access to historical records held as NSW State archives. Kirsten and Indigenous Australian, descendant of the Worimi people of Port Stephens NSW. Kirsten is a Professional member of the Australian Society of Archivists and an Executive Member of the Indigenous Issues Special Interest Group (IISIG). Kirsten is a recipient of the Monash Indigenous Archives Scholarship studying a Masters of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) Professional through the Faculty of Information Technology. Kirsten is currently undertaking a minor thesis as part of her Masters titled, “Creating an Aboriginal community archive in New South Wales.” Kirsten was awarded the Australian Society of Archivists Mander Jones Award in 2002 for the article, "Indigenous Records: How Far Have We Come in Bringing the History Back Home? “ Archives and Manuscripts, vol. 29, no. 2, November 2001.
Jenny Wood and Judith Cannon
Jenny Wood is the Library Systems Manager in the AIATSIS Library. She looks after the metadata in the Mura® catalogue. Judith Cannon is the indexer in the Family History Unit, AIATSIS working with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Biographical Index. Jenny and Judith both have extensive experience working with information concerning Australian Indigenous peoples.
