Presenters, Chairs and Facilitators

Session 4
» Mr Gatjil Djekurra Chair
» Professor Stephen Cornell
» Dr Manley Begay
» Mr David Ross
» Mr Darryl Cronin
» Ms Theodora Darrnanthi Narndu
» Ms Catherine Phillips

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Mr Gatjil Djekurra
Mr Gatjil Djerrkura OAM was born at Yirrkala, a Yolgnu community near the mining township of Nhulunbuy in east Arnhem Land. He is a senior traditional elder of the Wangurri clan. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation in Nhulunbuy. The corporation is an independent Aboriginal controlled medical service administered by a Board of Directors which is made up of representatives from all Yolgnu communities in east Arnhem Land. He is also the Chairman of the Batchelor Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Mr Djerrkura has previously been the ATSIC Chairman of Miwatj Provincial Governing Council, the ATSIC Northern Zone Commissioner, Chairman of ATSIC, Managing Director of Djerrkura and Associates and the General Manager of Yirrkala Business Enterprise.

Professor Stephen Cornell
Professor Stephen Cornell is professor of Sociology and of Public Administration and Policy at the University of Arizona, where he also directs the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy. His Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago. He taught at Harvard University for nine years and at the University of California, San Diego, before joining the Arizona faculty in 1998.

Dr. Cornell has spent much of the last twenty years working with Indigenous nations in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere on governance and economic development issues. In 1986 at Harvard University, he co-founded the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development, the most comprehensive effort yet undertaken to examine the conditions for sustainable economic development on Indian reservations. He continues to co-direct that project today. He also serves as a Faculty Associate with the Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy at the University of Arizona.

Dr Manley Begay
Dr Manley Begay is a citizen of the Navajo Nation. He is both Director of the Native Nations Institute at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, and senior lecturer in the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Arizona. He teaches courses on nation building, curriculum development and Indigenous education. Along with Professors Cornell and Kalt, he is a co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Dr. Begay was born in Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation (Arizona) and raised in Tuba City via Wheatfields, Navajo Nation (Arizona).

Mr David Ross
Mr David Ross has a long history of service to the Aboriginal people of Central Australia and to the Central Land Council (CLC). Born and raised in Alice Springs, he commenced work at the CLC in 1979 in a clerical position. From 1981 he was field operations manager and from 1983 to 1985 he was secretary to the Council. In 1987 he completed an Associate Diploma in Business Management at the South Australian Institute of Technology before taking up the Land Council’s Deputy Director position in 1988. He was appointed Director in July 1989. In 1994 he left the CLC to become an ATSIC Commissioner for the Central Region and in June 1995 he became the inaugural Executive Chairman of the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) based in Adelaide. Mr Ross was reappointed as CLC Director in 2000.

Mr Darryl Cronin
Mr Cronin is a research fellow at the Faculty of Indigenous Education and Research (FIRE) at the Charles Darwin University in Darwin. His research interests covers issues of Aboriginal self-determination, Aboriginal authority, governance and capacity development, and Aboriginal resource management and intellectual property. He is implementing a governance research project in the Daly River region in collaboration with the Daly Darwin Wagait Regional Council of the Northern Land Council and the CSIRO. He is also developing a governance research project with Traditional Aboriginal Owners in the Cobourg region of the Northern Territory. He has a law degree but no longer practices law. He has worked for a number of land councils across northern Australia in a variety of capacities in fieldwork, land claims, council liaison, legal, corporate management, administration and consultant. He is a member of the Charles Darwin University Human Ethics Committee and a board member of the Cobourg Peninsula Sanctuary and Marine Park Board.

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Ms Theodora Darrnanthi Narndu
Ms Narndu is a traditional Aboriginal owner of Port Keats (Wadeye) in the Northern Territory. She was born on April 24 1942 and her father left her a rich heritage and her mother gave her knowledge of her own family history and culture.

Ms Narndu is President of Wadeye Palngun Wurnangat Women’s Association and Vice President of Kardu Numida Incorporated. Her responsibilities as a middle manager and a traditional owner are considerable and she has gained knowledge and experience in a variety of settings. She was a school teacher for post-primary children in the early days when she learnt that education was very important for the future of the children and for a good family life. She believes that education needs to be delivered using local knowledge and observing local customs.

Ms Narndu has a certificate in Community Organising from Nungalynga College. She has been an elected member of local Government Council in Port Keats (Wadeye) and she became one of the first women to be elected as President to Kardu Numida Council in 1997. She was also a representative for Wadeye Ward on the Jabiru Regional Council.

Ms Narndu was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003 in recognition of her contribution to Women, Families and Community. Her vision is to leave her grand children a good future as their heritage.

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Ms Catherine Phillips
Ms Phillips is a Senior Project Officer with the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS). A resident of Darwin for more than twenty-five years, she began working with Theodora Narndu and the women of Wadeye in 2001 through the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy. One of the things the women asked for was that the same person would keep working with them. She made a commitment to do this and each has benefited in a variety of ways. A mother and grandmother, Ms Phillips is interested in social justice, good processes, strong communication and partnerships where both groups learn from each other.

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