Our Team | Indigenous Strategy, Education & Research

Based at Nura Gili, our team work across a diverse portfolio to drive forward UNSW Indigenous Strategy and enhance Student Experience. Working collaboratively with faculties and divisions, we strive to create a university environment where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples thrive and are empowered.

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Leadership team

Scott Parlett

Director, Nura Gili

Scott Parlett is a proud Malyangapa and Barkindji descendent but born and raised in rural QLD (Winton). He has a strong passion in creating a respectful and inclusive working environment that supports multiculturalism and diversity. His vision for Nura Gili is building a culturally safe, sense of belonging and connection to community that’s beyond ‘box-ticking’ systems through recruitment, retention and success becoming future community, local, national and global leaders.

Tanya Griffiths

Current Students Lead, Nura Gili

Tanya is a proud Ngiyampaa/Wangaapuwan/Yorta Yorta woman from far western NSW. She has over 24 years’ work experience in higher education sector, in several positions in the student services area. The most recent was leading the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Student Support Services team at the University of Sydney, where she was employed for 15 years.

Martina Lavin

Executive Officer

Martina Lavin has worked at UNSW since 1999; the bulk of that time she spent as a Health and Safety Coordinator supporting most faculties and divisions at some stage over that period. Her transition from health and safety to senior administration began with the role of Executive Officer in the campus life and community engagement portfolio.

Martina has a Bachelor of Environmental Science (Institute of Technology, Sligo) and a Masters in Teaching (WSU).

Quinton Vee Vee

Quinton Vea Vea

Future Students Lead

Quinton Vea Vea is a proud Bidjara and Australian South Sea Islander man. Quinton has worked at The National Centre of Indigenous Excellence for 5 years, in various positions in community engagement. He was program coordinator running a swim school of 500+ children and adults. Most recently Quinton worked as an Associate Consultant with Blak Impact focusing on Social Impact frameworks and program evaluation of outcomes that benefited First Nations Peoples.

Nura Gili Academic

Associate Professor Katrina Thorpe

Academic Lead

Dr Katrina Thorpe is a Worimi woman and Academic Lead at Nura Gili. Katrina's research focuses on educational approaches that engage students in Country-centred 'Learning from Country' pedagogies. Katrina is passionate about developing culturally responsive pedagogies that facilitate connections between students and Aboriginal people, communities and Country. Katrina also has 20 years experience teaching mandatory Indigenous Studies across a number of disciplines including education, social work, nursing, health and community development.

Ben Kelly

Senior Lecturer

Ben (he/him) is an Education Focused academic who has taught Indigenous Studies with Nura Gili at UNSW since 2007. Drawing on his training in Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology and Education, Ben teaches a range of courses across the Indigenous Studies Major. Taking inspiration from self-determination theory, culturally responsive pedagogy, and Universal Design for Learning, his teaching practice strives to cultivate learning environments where students feel safe, connected, and confident to pursue their learning goals and academic interests.

Osca Monaghan

Academic Lecturer

Osca (they/them) is a proud Guugu Yimithirr scholar and lawyer who was born on Ngunnawal country, and grown up on the lands of the Yidinji, Yirrganydji, and Djabugay peoples. They have lived, worked and studied on Gadigal land for the past ten years. Their research interests include decolonisation, legal theory, abolition, environmental law, criminal law, and gender and sexuality. They continue to practice law as a criminal defence lawyer, with a particular focus on the Children’s criminal jurisdiction in NSW.

Dr Johanna Perheentupa

Honours Convenor, Lecturer

Johanna has taught Indigenous Studies at Nura Gili since 2014. Her research centres on First Nations rights and the engagement of settler-colonial governments with Indigenous peoples. Johanna’s recent publication Redfern: Aboriginal Activism in the 1970s, by Aboriginal Studies Press, explores the ways in which local Aboriginal organisations pursued self-determination in the diverse fields of law, health, arts and culture, education and housing.

Janine Gertz

Lecturer

Janine Gertz's cultural heritage is drawn from her connections to both the Gugu Badhun in the Upper Burdekin region & the Ngadjonji on the Atherton Tablelands. Janine is a lecturer at Nura Gili with research interests grounded in her work with the Gugu Badhun Nation.

Her doctoral project is titled Gugu Badhun Sovereignty, Self-Determination, and Nationhood.

Nura Gili Student Experience and Future Students

Noni

Noni Hawkins

Future Students Coordinator
Noni Hawkins is a proud Yuin woman who grew up on Birpai Nation. Noni has recently joined Nura Gili and UNSW community as the Project Administrator. She has previously worked in positions relating to Indigenous student engagement, retention, and research at both the University of New England and the University of Melbourne. Noni has a completed Bachelor of Criminology and currently undertaking a Bachelor of Law.

Natalee Rolani-Golding

Outreach Officer

Natalee is a proud Biripi woman who grew up in Sydney. She is passionate about working with community and creating long-term change for mob. Natalee has an extensive history of mentoring Aboriginal people of all ages and life experience.

Kyla Sumaylo

Administration Officer
Kyla Sumaylo bringing 6 years of experience in Event Management. Prior to this, she was previously an Event Assistant within the UNSW Hospitality Team and has worked in Events in various Hotels around Sydney CBD. She graduated from the UTS in 2015 with a Bachelor of Management in Tourism and Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (Spanish).

Belinda Parry

Content Producer

Belinda is a proud palawa woman who grew up in lutruwita (Tasmania). While studying a Bachelor of Screen Arts: Production at AFTRS, Belinda lived on campus at UNSW where she worked as creative arts tutor. Since graduating, Belinda has worked in coordinating roles for broadcast television on shows like Play School and Australian Idol. She is now eager to use her skills to give back to community and highlight Indigenous experiences at UNSW.

Lizzy Mayers

Student Success Officer

Lizzy Mayers is a proud Worimi woman from the mid-north coast of NSW and is a Student Success officer. Lizzy joined the team at Nura Gili in 2018 and is a UNSW Alumni, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts/Education.

Daliah Aggrey-Fynn

ITP Officer

Daliah is a proud First Nation woman of the Samsep tribe of Erub situated in the Eastern Island group of the Torres Strait. Daliah possesses an in-depth knowledge, understanding and lived experience as a First Nation woman with extensive experience working within a range of multidisciplinary teams, across various areas of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.

Lisa Watts

Student Success Officer
Lisa has a background in Social Work and worked in a variety of settings including Mental Health and Community Services before moving into Higher Education where she has worked for over 20 years. While at UNSW Lisa has worked in the Student Services Team at Nura Gili since 2014 and before that in the Rural Clinical School in the Faculty of Medicine and in the School of Education. Lisa has a Bachelor of Social Work (UNSW) and a Master of Education (UNSW).

Nathan Attard

Student Success Officer
As another passionate member of the Academic Support Team, Nathan is responsible for providing support for students in the Faculty of the Built Environment and Enabling students. Nathan has over 8 years of educational experience, holding academic and pastoral coordinator positions.

Sharon Simms

Student Success Officer

Sharon is a descendant of the Dharawal people of the La Perouse Aboriginal community. Her ancestors are the Traditional Owners of the lands where she and her family continue to reside and practice their culture today. Sharon has worked in education for over 20 years, graduating with a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) degree from the University of Sydney in 2006.