WELA Program Presenter
Dr Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous Australian) woman in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Poelina is an active Indigenous community leader, human and earth rights advocate, film-maker and a respected academic researcher. Over the past two years WELA program participants have been privileged to learn from Anne’s teaching and wisdom. Anne is a Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Master of Education, Master of Arts (Indigenous Social Policy) recently submitted a PhD (Health Science) titled, ‘Martuwarra First Law Multi-Species Justice Declaration of Interdependence: Wellbeing of Land, Living Waters, and Indigenous Australian People’. Signatory to the Redstone Statement 2010, she is a 2011 Peter Cullen Fellow for Water Leadership.
In 2017, she was awarded a Laureate from the Women’s World Summit Foundation (Geneva), elected Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council (2018), Adjunct Professor and Senior Research Fellow with Notre Dame University and a Research Fellow with Northern Australia Institute Charles Darwin University. Poelina is a Visiting Fellow with the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, Canberra Australia Water Justice Hub to focus on Indigenous Water Valuation and Resilient Decision-making.
Among her latest work is the Regenerative Songlines Project, launched during NAIDOC 2021.It is a network connecting regenerative projects and practitioners, led by First Nations peoples and inclusive of all Australians. The project aims at transforming the extractivist, colonial mindset and practices of the dominant industrialised society, economy and culture of Australia, towards regeneration and restoration, so that we can live and thrive within bioregional ecological limits and planetary boundaries. Join the Regenerative Songlines Launch event on July 8th to learn more about this and be part of it!
