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. Led by Professor Megan Davis, and 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

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Professor Megan Davis

Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous

Professor Megan Davis is Cobble Cobble woman from Barrungam Nation, Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous and Professor of Law at UNSW.

She is Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court and was recently appointed the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law. Prof Davis is also a current member of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.

Read more.

Gemma McKinnon

Strategy Implementation & Future Students Lead

Gemma is a Barkindji woman from Wilcannia in far western NSW. Gemma is a UNSW Law alumna graduating with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts. She has over 10 years of experience in the legal sector, primarily in the areas of public housing and administrative law. Gemma returned to UNSW in 2015 as the Aboriginal HDR Fellow at the Faculty of Law before joining the PVCI office in 2019, and was a technical advisor for the Uluru Dialogues.

g.mckinnon@unsw.edu.au

Emma Maple-Brown

Chief of Staff, PVC Indigneous

Emma is Director, Pro-Vice Chancellor Indigenous (PVCI) and is responsible for managing the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous at UNSW and supporting the Pro Vice Chancellor Indigenous in her work. As a senior leader in the PVCI Office, Emma works with the PVCI team, the Nura Gili team and the work that involves the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law including the Indigenous Law Centre.

Prior to working at UNSW, Emma was a specialist pro bono lawyer with a background in Disputes.

e.maplebrown@unsw.edu.au

Nicole Watson

Associate Professor Nicole Watson

Director of Nura Gili Academic Programs

Nicole Watson is a Murri academic from south-east Queensland, whose family hail from the Munanjali and Birri Gubba peoples. Nicole is the Director of Nura Gili Academic Programs. She has an LLB, an LLM and a DCA. Nicole has published a large body of work on legal issues that are pertinent to Indigenous peoples. Her most recent work is looking at how the stories of Indigenous peoples can be incorporated into legal decision making.

nicole.watson@unsw.edu.au

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).

m.lavin@unsw.edu.au

Nura Gili Academic

Dr Dani Larkin

Deputy Director, Indigenous Law Centre (ILC) and Lecturer, Nura Gili.

Dani is a Bundjalung, Kungarykany woman from Grafton, New South Wales and a public lawyer. Dani is a legal academic and advocate for constitutional reform and political empowerment of First Nations and her research interests include: Indigenous self-determination and cultural identity, electoral law and policy reform, Indigenous political participation, comparative constitutional law and international human rights.

dani.larkin@unsw.edu.au

Dr Johanna Perheentupa

Lecturer

Johanna grew up in Finland, where she completed a Master’s degree at the University of Turku before completing her PhD in History at UNSW. Her research centres on First Nation 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.

j.perheentupa@unsw.edu.au

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.

j.gertz@unsw.edu.au

Ben Kelly

Lecturer

Ben 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.

b.kelly@unsw.edu.au

Nura Gili Student Experience and Future Students

Quinton Vee Vee

Quinton Vea Vea

Future Students Coordinator

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.

q.vea_vea@unsw.edu.au

Kyla Sumaylo

Project Administrator, Future Students

Kyla Sumaylo has recently joined Nura Gili as a Project Administrator for Future Students, 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).

k.sumaylo@unsw.edu.au

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.

elizabeth.mayers@unsw.edu.au

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.

d.aggreyfynn@unsw.edu.au

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).

l.watts@unsw.edu.au

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.

n.attard@unsw.edu.au

Katherine Neal

Dr Katherine Neal

Student Success Officer

Katherine has a background in numeracy and Mathematics Education and has lectured at the University of Edinburgh and Sydney as well as teaching mathematics at a secondary school level. Whilst at UNSW, Katherine has worked in the Student Services Team at Nura Gil since 2014. Katherine’s particular academic interests are in improving student success in Science, Engineering and Business, especially in the mathematically related areas of these Faculties.

k.neal@unsw.edu.au

Central and Indigenous Law Centre

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Adam Phelan

Media and Communications

Adam is a Barrungam man, with family ties to southwest Queensland and in Canberra. He is a writer and comms specialist with experience in Indigenous higher education and research.

Prior to joining UNSW, Adam worked at the University of Wollongong as a Research Assistant and led communications strategy at the Illawarra Aboriginal Corporation. He is a former professional cyclist and grew up in Canberra (Ngunnawal country). He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Dean's Scholar).

a.phelan@unsw.edu.au

Emma Buxton-Namisnyk

Senior Research Associate, Office of the PVCI and the Indigenous Law Centre

Emma Buxton-Namisnyk is the Senior Research Associate in the Office of the PVCI and the Indigenous Law Centre. Emma is a graduate from the University of Oxford and the UNSW Sydney, and is also a Clarendon scholar at Oxford University, where she is in the final stages of her Dphil research. Emma has previously held positions as a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney.

e.buxton-namisnyk@unsw.edu.au

Sophie Rigney

Dr Sophie Rigney

Senior Research Associate

Dr Sophie Rigney is a Senior Research Associate with the Indigenous Law Centre, working on the ARC-funded research project ‘Recognition after Uluru: What next for First Nations?’. Sophie’s research focuses on the relationship between the state and Indigenous peoples, and she has published widely in the fields of international law, post-conflict justice, and human rights. Sophie is the author of ‘Fairness and Rights in International Criminal Procedure’ (Edinburgh University Press, 2021)

s.rigney@unsw.edu.au

Zeita Davis

Project Manager

Zeita Davis is an Ait Koedal woman from Saibai Island. Zeita has specialised knowledge and expertise in Aboriginal Unit administration and Indigenous education. Zeita has worked at Nura Gili, Jumbunna, UTS and UWS.

z.davis@unsw.edu.au

Laura Hunter

Project Officer

Laura Hunter has been working at UNSW for 5 years at the Indigenous Law Centre, Nura Gili, and the Office of Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous.

laura.hunter@unsw.edu.au

Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous