Overview
The AIATSIS Education Advisory Committee (EAC) provides expert advice and guidance to the AIATSIS CEO on the implementation of the AIATSIS Education Strategy.
The Committee comprises a diverse range of experts, including:
- Educators, education practitioners and researchers with knowledge and experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education.
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education authorities, peak bodies and advocacy organisations.
- Representatives from the National Cultural Institute and GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sectors.
Members are appointed via an Expression of Interest Process held every two years.
Members
Mr Adam Duncan
Adam is a proud Biripi man whose familial ties are to the coastal Manning River region of New South Wales including Taree and Purfleet. He has fostered a varied career in Education over the past 2 decades, including community-based and cultural education, formal Early Childhood Education and Care, Initial Teacher Education and graduate and proficient-level teacher training and development. Adam also contributed to the development and launch of Reconciliation Australia’s Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Education platform in 2015 and has continued to work in support of Reconciliation Australia and Narragunnawali as an advocate for school-based Reconciliation Action Plans. More recently Adam has taken a step back from face-to-face teaching and advocacy, instead working in the cultural sector in support of school-aged children and young people’s engagement with socio-cultural education in Museum settings. He also works as a visual artist, and is author of award-winning children’s book, The Bunyip and the Stars.
Miss Alanah Jack
Alanah Jack is a proud Gomeroi woman from the Piliga region of New South Wales. She is the Director of Learning and Wellbeing at Children’s Ground in Central Australia, working alongside Arrernte and First Nations educators to strengthen and deliver community led education. Her focus is on creating learning environments where First Nations languages, culture, and knowledge are central, supporting children to grow strong in identity and wellbeing.
Alanah is part of the Utyerre Apanpe Working Group, contributing to efforts for educational reform and self-determination. She has previously served as the inaugural principal of the first bilingual Aboriginal school in New South Wales. She has been featured in the Be That Teacher campaign, which encourages First Nations people to pursue careers in education.
Alanah is committed to building systems that centre, respect and celebrate First Nations voices, ensuring education reflects the aspirations of communities.
Ms Alinta Williams
Alinta Williams is a Walgulu (Ngambri), Ngunnawal (Wallaboola), and Wiradjuri woman, born in Sydney and raised on Ngambri and Ngunnawal Country in Queanbeyan and Canberra. She is currently a First Nations Organiser at the Australian Education Union (AEU), Victorian Branch.
Alinta brings over 15 years of experience as a primary school teacher, having taught across the ACT, New South Wales, and Victoria. Her career has also included roles in gallery education and curriculum development at the Yiribana Gallery, part of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
In her current role, Alinta campaigns for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators. She recently gave evidence to the Yoorrook Justice Commission, Victoria’s first formal truth-telling process, where she shared insights into the systemic challenges faced by First Nations educators. The Commission's work has informed a range of significant reforms, including a commitment to embed truth-telling in the Victorian school curriculum.
Alinta holds a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne, specialising in equity, diversity, and social change.
Dr Bianca Beetson
Dr Bianca Beetson is a Kabi Kabi, Wiradjuri woman and has been a practising artist for over 29 years. Bianca works across a broad range of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, fibre arts and public art. In 2018 Bianca was awarded a Doctor of Visual Art, from the QLD College of Art, Griffith University. Bianca is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor with Griffith University.
She is a former member of the seminal Aboriginal artists collectives Campfire group and Proppanow. Bianca also has a background in curation and community engaged and collaborative arts practice and has won awards for the guest curation of the “Myall Creek and Beyond” Bianca has lectured and directed the Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art (BCAIA) degree at the Qld College of Art, Griffith University from 2007-2019 and later went on to be the Director of Indigenous Research Unit at the same institution. From 2022 to 2024, Bianca was a member of the Interim Truth and Treaty Body QLD; and co-designed the ‘Path to Treaty Bill 2023’ In 2023, she became the inaugural Executive Director, First Nations at the QLD Museum.
Her current board and advisory group memberships include the board of trustees of the QLD Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art and its Audit and Risk committee and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory panel. She is the Chair of the Cairns Indigenous Art fair and a member of the Office of the Arts: Advisory Committee for Indigenous Repatriation.
Ms Jasmine Seymour
Jasmine Seymour is a Dharug woman from the Hawkesbury area in Sydney. She is a descendant of Maria Lock through the Lock, Morley, Douglas, and Seymour families. Jasmine is a Dharug language teacher, Dharug language activist, an award-winning children's book author-illustrator, a primary school teacher and a language researcher. Jasmine supports Australian language education for all and works towards advocating for and promoting multilingual Indigenous Australia.
Ms Natalie Taylor
Natalie Taylor is a Yuin descendant with more than 25 years of experience in education, working across the preschool, primary, tertiary, and museum sectors. She holds a degree in Early Childhood Education and is completing her Master of Education (Leadership in Aboriginal Education). Natalie has expertise in areas of First Nations education as well as High Potential and Gifted education. Leading a team of First Nations and Pasifika educators, Natalie is the Manager, First Nations Education at the Australian Museum, working to produce culturally responsive programs with First Nations content that centres First Nations peoples’ voices, agency, and truth-telling.
Professor Sandy O’Sullivan
Professor Sandy O’Sullivan is a transgender/non-binary Wiradjuri professor in the Centre of Critical Indigenous Studies and node leader in the Centre for Global Indigenous Futures at Macquarie University. They are a 2020-2025 ARC Future Fellow, with a project titled Saving Lives: Mapping the influence of Indigenous LGBTIQ+ creative artists. Since 1991 they have taught and researched across gender and sexuality, equity in higher education, museums, the body, performance, design, and First Nations’ identity across public education contexts.
Mx Sharon Davis
Sharon Davis (they/them) is a non-binary Bardi and Kija person from the Kimberley in Western Australia and the inaugural CEO of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation. With education degrees from the University of Notre Dame Broome and the University of Oxford, they have worked for more than a decade in First Nations education, leading key initiatives at both national and state levels. Sharon currently serves on the boards of Reconciliation Australia and the Aurora Education Foundation and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia.
For further information about the AIATSIS Education Advisory Committee, please email education@aiatsis.gov.au