Presenters, Chairs and Facilitators

Session 6
» Ms Toni Bauman
» Mr David Ross
» Ms Laura Beacroft
» Mr Tony Tapsell
» Mr Jason Glanville
» Ms Veronica Arbon
» Ms Elizabeth Ganter
» Ms Sharon Clark
» Mr David Coles

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Session 7
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Session 9

Ms Toni Bauman
Ms Toni Bauman is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in the Indigenous Facilitation and Mediation project. She is an anthropologist with over twenty years experience in a wide range of Indigenous matters including land claims and native title, facilitating meetings and social impact and feasibility studies. She has worked for a range of Indigenous organisations such as Land Councils, ATSIC and the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority in Darwin. In 1979 she established Mimi Aboriginal Arts and Crafts in Katherine in the Northern Territory.

Ms Bauman is an accredited Lawyers Engaged in Alternative Dispute Resolution (LEADR) mediator, an Aboriginal Adult Educator and has worked as the editor of the Indigenous Law Bulletin in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales. She is also a Director of Dodson, Bauman and Associates, Legal and Anthropological Consultants.

Ms Bauman has recently been working on an AIATSIS publication which is a guide to sites of importance to Aboriginal people in Darwin, in the past and the present, and a kind of alternative social history. The publication is the third in a series following similar publications about Sydney and Melbourne.

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.

Ms Laura Beacroft
Ms Beacroft is the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations. It is a position that was established to support flexible incorporation of Indigenous groups under the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act. The Act is being reformed and a new Act is likely to be in place in mid 2004. The Office of the Registrar has been changing the way it works over the last few years so that it assists at an earlier stage with issues and needs connected to governance and corporations. Laura is a lawyer who has worked with community and Indigenous organisations over many years.

Link to Abstract

Mr Tony Tapsell
Mr Tony 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.

Mr Jason Glanville
Mr Jason Glanville is a member of the Wiradjuri peoples from south-western New South Wales. He is the Policy and Programs Director with Reconciliation Australia, an independent non-profit Foundation which provides a national focus for the process of reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the wider Australian community. He manages a range of projects including the Good Indigenous Governance Program; Improving Banking and Financial Services for Indigenous Australians Project; Framework for a Shared Future (Treaty) Project; and Reconciliation through Education (Youth) Project

Over the last ten years Mr Glanville has worked in a range of positions in community-based Indigenous organisations, State and Federal Governments and non-government peak organisations. He worked as the Regional Manager West Queensland for the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development, located in Mt Isa. In this role he worked with remote Indigenous communities, government agencies, and the pastoral and mining industries on issues of Indigenous community governance and development, service delivery, and capacity building. Prior to moving to Queensland he was an Adviser with the Reconciliation Branch of the Department of the Prime Minster and Cabinet. He has also worked as a Senior Project Officer with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and as Indigenous Policy Officer with the Australian Youth Policy and Action Coalition (AYPAC).

Ms Veronica Arbon
Ms Veronica Arbon is from the Arabunna group in South Australia. She was born in Alice Springs and grew up at Urapunga in the Roper River region. She is currently the Head of the Batchelor Institute in the Northern Territory. She is interested through her studies, research and work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, health and management. In recent years this interest has also focused on issues of rights and quality in education through systems, processes and practices that do not require an abandonment of the value of difference. She is particularly interested in inter-relationships and exchange in these areas as they impact on adult education in remote Australia. Ms Arbon holds an Ass. Diploma in Community Development, a BA., a MEd., Graduate Certificate in Management and is presently enrolled in a PhD program.

Ms Elizabeth Ganter
Ms Elizabeth Ganter is Joint Theme Leader (Governance, Management and Leadership for Sustainable Futures) at the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre. As Principal Adviser for Innovation and Knowledge Economy for the Northern Territory Government, she contributed significantly to the Desert Knowledge CRC bid.

Ms Ganter has qualifications in Social Anthropology, Public Sector Management and International Management. She worked in Central Australian remote communities with the former Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Alice Springs and conducted and applied anthropological research for the former Office of Aboriginal Development. She has also participated in a number of major NT Government initiatives including implementation of the Learning Lessons Indigenous Education Review with the Hon Bob Collins. She has an ongoing role in the Office of Territory Development advising Government in priority-setting for research and innovation in the Territory.

Ms Sharon Clark
Ms Sharon Clark was born in Babinda in North Queensland and moved to the Northern Territory in 1972. She joined the NT Department of Finance and Planning (now NT Treasury) as a Finance Officer in Training. She has also been the inaugural CEO of Ariginisle (National Employment & Training Taskforce Company) in Darwin and Cairns and the Systems Manager, Operations Manager and CEO of Careskills Group Training Company in Melbourne. Ms Clark was also the Managing Director of AAA Hire Power Recruitment and Management Consultancy Company in Melbourne as well as the State Director of the Office of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health NT in Darwin. She completed a Bachelor of Business at NTU majoring in Management in 1994, and a Day Trading course in 2000.

Mr David Coles
Mr David Coles is the Executive Director of the Local Government and Regional Development Division in the Department of Community Development, Sport and Cultural Affairs. This Division has been responsible for the development of the Stronger Regions – Stronger Futures strategy that is being implemented by the Northern Territory Government.

Prior to taking on his current role, Mr Coles was the Deputy Secretary of the then Department of Local Government. In his 20 years in the Northern Territory Public Service he has held senior positions in the Department of the Chief Minister, the Office of Aboriginal Development and the Department of Health and Community Services. He has also worked as a Senior Ministerial Officer to the Minister for Health and Community Services.