First Nations Speaker Series: Coomaditchie

Emeritus Professor John Maynard is a Worimi Aboriginal man from the Port Stephens region of NSW. He has held several major positions and served on numerous prominent organisations and committees including deputy chairperson of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Executive Committee of the Australian Historical Association. He was the recipient of the Aboriginal History (Australian National University) Stanner Fellowship 1996, the New South Wales Premiers Indigenous History Fellow 2003, the Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow 2004 and the University of Newcastle Researcher of the Year 2008 and 2012.

In 2014, John was elected a member of the prestigious Australian Social Sciences Academy, and in 2020 made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He gained his PhD in 2003, examining the rise of early Aboriginal political activism. He has worked with and within many Aboriginal communities, urban, rural and remote.

John’s publications have concentrated on the intersections of Aboriginal political and social history, and the history of Australian race relations. He is the author of several books, including Aboriginal stars of the turf, Fight for liberty and freedom, The Aboriginal soccer tribe, Aborigines and the sport of kings, True light and shade and Living with the locals.

Tess Allas holds a master’s of curation from The University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong. She is an award-winning visual arts curator, researcher, writer and artist specialising in contemporary Indigenous art. She has worked in Indigenous cultural development since the early 1990s and has been engaged as a curator for Museums of History NSW, the Art Gallery of NSW, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (USA), the Art Gallery of South Australia, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Wollongong Art Gallery, Murray Art Museum Albury and Carriageworks. Her independently curated exhibitions as well as her own works as an artist have been shown in Australia, Finland, France, Canada and the United States. Her visual arts practice has included print-making, ceramics, installation and the film Andy Warhol on Aboriginal art, a collaboration with American artist Charlie Schneider and Kuku Yalandji, Waanji, Yidinji and Gugu Yimithirr artist Vernon Ah Kee. She has published for institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Artspace, the Remai Modern (Canada) and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection (USA). She has written articles for many contemporary art journals and authored over 400 biographies of Australian Indigenous artists for the Design and Art Australia Online website (daao.org.au). In 2021 Tess co-authored two chapters on Indigenous contemporary art in two separate academic books both published by Routledge (USA). Tess says: ‘I am inspired by a sense of justice and human rights for the betterment of a strong cultural and community life. The very qualities I inherited from my activist grandfather, Jack Tattersall.’

Rudi has been a radio broadcaster since 2012. Having honed her skills at community radio, Rudi initially joined the ABC as a master control technician before returning to her producer roots in 2017.

As the presenter of RN Awaye! Rudi relishes the opportunity to share her love of performing arts, literature and Indigenous languages — like her own, Gamilaraay, from Kamilaroi country.