Board of Directors
John Harding
John (he/him) is a proud Meriam/Gu-Gu Yulangi man, born and bred in Melbourne. John has written in theatre, television series, documentaries, dramas, films, and poetry for over 35 years. John has won several State and National awards, including the Human Rights Drama Award. He specialises in creative writing and has held positions on Indigenous Advisory committees for the Melbourne Arts Festival and Australian Arts Law Centre. John is a founding member of Ilbijerri Aboriginal/TSI Theatre Company, and the First Nations Writers Network (FNAWN).
John's previous roles include; a National consultant for the Australian Red Cross in Diversity and Inclusion and the Chief Executive Officer of Barmal Bijiril. He is currently the First Nations Practice Lead at Social Ventures Australia and is a board member at the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP).
Tom Smith
Tom Smith is a proud Wiradjuri man and experienced community development strategist from Cowra, who has lived in Redfern, Fitzroy and Canberra most of his life. Tom has spent his life pioneering self determination for First nations peoples in many areas. A qualified school teacher, in 1983 Tom was an adviser to the Victorian Education Dept, and the Victorian Aboriginal Education Consultative Group Secretariat in the establishment of VAEAI.
Tom also established the first Koorie Housing Construction (KHC) companies in Australia, based in Collingwood. Recently retired, Tom’s last post was to manage the National Indigenous Ranger Program for National Dept of Environment and Heritage, under three Prime Ministers, looking after over 200 First Nations rangers across the country, treating caretakers with cultural respect and acknowledgement.
Rod Williams
Rod Williams (He/him) is a proud Bundjalung man. Over the past 40 years, Rod has cultivated an extensive national network spanning Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations, corporations, not-for-profit entities, universities, industries, and government sectors. Rod has experience in social enterprise, employment and training, and enterprise development. Rod provides consultancy to government, First Nations organisations, and non-profit organisations. Rod is currently completing his Doctorate of Philosophy at the Business School, University of Queensland and is the founder and Managing Director of Gongan Consultancy, a business consultancy service.
Our CEO
John Harding (Kuku Yalangi/Meriam Mer)
John has been actively involved in Indigenous Affairs for forty years, and has managed Programs as diverse as Film/Television, Employment/Training, Disability Access, Local government, Education, Tutoring, and the Arts.
He has had extensive experience in translating government policies into a structure a team can understand and implement, and always established formal links with the First Nations stakeholders. He considers this aspect of community involvement as the key to the success he has had in his long and varied career.
John's work in policy development and analysis has impacted across several sectors. This included establishing the first Indigenous Employment and Training Strategy for a tertiary institution, for which he was also the Coordinator for three years at The University of Melbourne. The success of this Strategy became the blueprint for several other universities throughout the 90’s.
John is also a critically acclaimed Playwright/Director and received many State and National Awards, including The Australian Human Rights Award (Drama) alongside Faith Bandler (Human Rights Medal) in 1997
John also founded The Ilbijerri Theatre in 1991, the oldest continuous First Nations theatre company in existence, for which he was made The National NAIDOC Artist of the year in 1992
Johns professional motto has always been a simple one;
“When the rules aren’t working for us as First Nations peoples, we need to challenge them, and create our own”
