Presenters, Chairs and Facilitators

Session 5
» Ms Karmi Sceney Chair
» Mr John Daly
» Mr Norman Fry
» Dr Will Sanders
» Mr Tony Tapsell

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Ms Karmi Sceney
Ms Karmi Sceney was born on Bathurst Island and has a large extended family on the Tiwi Islands and in Darwin. Both her parents were institutionalised at the Garden Point mission under assimilation policies. Her father (deceased) was from central Australia and her mother is from Melville Island.

Ms Sceney currently works for the Northern Territory Department of Education, Employment and Training as the General Manager of the Indigenous Education Division. She has previously worked for the Northern Land Council and the Office of Aboriginal Development. She was the chairperson of the Yilli Rreung Council, and is now serving her third term with the Council.

Some of Ms Sceney’s previous roles have included Chairperson of the NT Area Consultative Committee, Council member of the National Reconciliation Council, Deputy Chairperson of the Indigenous Housing Authority of the NT, Board Member of the Enterprise Career Education Foundation, Member of the Indigenous Education, Employment and Training Youth Taskforce and also the Australian Indigenous Training Advisory Council.

Mr John Daley
Mr John Daly was elected as the Deputy Chair of the Northern Land Council in May 2002. He is a Nanggiwumerri man whose traditional lands take in the southern Daly River region. He was first elected to the Darwin/Daly/Wagait regional council in 1998 before becoming the executive member for Darwin/Daly/Wagait following the October 2001 Full Council elections. After many years working for the Northern Territory police force, he has recently established his own feral animal control business operating on pastoral stations throughout the Daly region.

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Mr Norman Fry
Mr Norman Fry has been the Northern Land Council’s Chief Executive since 1996. He was born and raised in Darwin and he holds a Bachelor of Education and a Diploma of Teaching from the Northern Territory University. After graduating he spent several years working as a teacher in Darwin and on Melville Island and he also worked in the area of special needs education teaching handicapped children.

From 1984 to 1996 Mr Fry worked as a lecturer and Associate Dean at the Northern Territory University’s Faculty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (FATSIS). During this period he pursued a sporting career and represented Australia as a member of the Aboriginal Cricket side which toured England in 1988 to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the Aboriginal team which toured England in 1868. Since joining the NLC in 1996 Mr Fry has made it his priority to achieve self-empowerment for Aboriginal people.

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Dr Will Sanders
Dr Sanders has been an Australian National University researcher in the area of public policy and Indigenous Australians since 1981. In that time he has worked in four ANU departments - the North Australia Research Unit in Darwin, the Urban Research Unit, the Department of Political Science and the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research in Canberra. His work has covered areas including Aboriginal housing policy, relations between the social security system and Aborigines, the Community Development Employment Projects scheme, inter-governmental relations and Indigenous organisations becoming local governments. With colleagues he was recently awarded a three year Australian Research Council grant to work on Indigenous community governance.

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Mr Tony Tapsell
Mr Tapsell commenced his career in the Northern Territory in 1972 as a Patrol Officer in Training with the Commonwealth’s Northern Territory Administration. He has had extensive experience both living and working in remote areas and has held senior positions with the Commonwealth and Northern Territory Governments servicing Local Government. He has also worked in Local Government as a Town Clerk.

Mr Tapsell held the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Jabiru Town Council for eight and a half years which included a period of two and a half years when he was joint Chief Executive Officer of both the Jabiru and Gunbalanya Councils. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Local Government Association and has been since February 2002. He has tertiary qualifications in Aboriginal Affairs, Local Government, Accounting, Information Systems and Urban and Regional Planning.

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