MEET THE PRESENTERS

An Arrernte/Luritja woman from Central Australia, Catherine is a leading advocate in upholding the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, influencing and driving positive change. As CEO of SNAICC – National Voice for Our Children, she works to strengthen, represent and amplify the voices of children and families. Catherine has held senior management positions in national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, leading teams, overseeing workplace transformations, and advocating for policy reform. She is a key member of the Coalition of Peaks and is involved in ongoing work under the National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap. Her leadership and commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-led partnerships and governance is critical to addressing the gaps and needs of the early years, particularly the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care and ensuring access to quality Aboriginal community-controlled early childhood education and support services.

Muriel is a Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung woman and one of Australia's leading experts on Aboriginal child welfare, particularly in the area of child and family services. Muriel has been the CEO of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) since 1999, and has returned as Chairperson for SNAICC after hold the position from 1998-2008.

Rob McPhee has been the Chief Executive Officer for Danila Dilba Health Service in Darwin since August 2021. Prior to this, he was Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services for six years. Rob’s people are from Derby in the West Kimberley and from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. He has an undergraduate degree in Aboriginal Community Management and Development and a Graduate Certificate in Human Rights. He has is passionate about social justice for Indigenous people, and has held a number of roles including teaching positions at Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, and has worked as a senior adviser in community relations and Indigenous affairs to the oil and gas industry.

The daughter of an Arrernte man and a Gurdanji woman, Pat was raised in Alice Springs. As CEO of NACCHO, she is at the forefront of community efforts to Close the Gap in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Pat has over 40 years’ experience in senior leadership positions in government, business, and academia including being the only Aboriginal person, only woman and longest serving CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC). Amongst her many appointments, she also spent 18 months as Monash Chair of Australian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC, and was inaugural CEO of NITV. Pat is the Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks and Co-Chair of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap. Pat holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Canberra where she was awarded the University prize for Development Studies.

Ben is a design leader known globally for his transformative work with brands and company culture. In 2020, he launched R/GA APAC’s Brand Design & Consulting Practice (BDC), a unit set up to develop, design and deliver meaningful brands for business and organisations. Cultivating a diverse and radical team of APAC’s best visual, verbal and strategy designers with an innovative, high-performing and collaborative culture, the practice has grown by over 80% year-on-year. BDC’s impactful and globally awarded work includes We Are Warriors, the award winning platform designed to spotlight Blak excellence and encourage the next generation to “see it to be it”.

24- year old J-MILLA is a proud member of the Mak Mak Marranungu people, who are the traditional landowners of the Litchfield National Park in the NT. Born in Darwin J-MILLA's life started hard from the get-go; yet he managed to find a way to stand outside the intergenerational trauma pathway that affects so many Aboriginal families. Losing himself in music and storytelling was what got him through and it was this part of his culture that he clung to. When he noticed the power of narrative and its influence on those around him; mainly his brothers and sister - J-MILLA’s passion for writing lyrics and telling his own stories began. J-MILLA used this passion like a weapon to maintain a healthy mental state for himself and his sibling. Committed to mob, 2022 and 2023 saw J-MILLA travel to Garma, Maningrida, Groote Eyelandt, Beswick, the APY Lands and Wadeye remote NT Aboriginal communities where he hosted motivational workshops and performed concerts. However, it was his mentor-work with troubled youth in the remote NT community of Maningrida that caught the attention of triple j UE who added a song called "No Problem" by Lil Youngins about the current system that stigmatised Aboriginal youth in Australia to their official playlist in April 2023.