The Wentworth Lecture is held in honour of the Honourable W C Wentworth AO. It was established in 1978 to pay tribute to Mr Wentworth's contribution to Indigenous studies in Australia and as a means to encourage all Australians to gain a better understanding of issues that go to the heart of our development as a nation.
Professor Peter Buckskin
Professor Peter Buckskin is a Narungga man from the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia and currently the Co-Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation. For over 40 years Professor Buckskin’s passion has been the pursuit of educational excellence for Aboriginal peoples. Professor Peter Buckskin has been a classroom teacher in Western Australia and South Australia and has been a Ministerial Adviser, Superintendent of Schools and Senior Executive at State/Commonwealth levels. Retiring as Dean: Aboriginal Engagement and Strategic Projects and was previously the Dean of Indigenous Scholarship, Engagement and Research, University of South Australia.
From 1984 – 1986 Professor Peter Buckskin was a member of the Australian National Commission to UNESCO and was an invited contributor to the Australian 2020 Summit.
In 2001, Professor Peter Buckskin received the Commonwealth Public Service Medal, Frank G Klassen Award for Leadership and Contribution to Teacher Education from the International Council on Education for Teaching, 2003 and in 2005 the National Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education. And was elected a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators in 2007.
In 2009, Professor Peter Buckskin, international work included participating in the Working Group of Experts to the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples that reported to the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
In 2010, Professor Peter Buckskin accepted four important appointments including:
- Board Member of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, inaugural (NCAFP) Board for one term
- Council Member of the Australian Research Council’s Advisory Council
- Board member of The Lowitja Institute
- Executive Member of World Indigenous Network of Higher Education Consortium
In 2012 Professor Peter Buckskin was appointed Convenor of the State’s Advisory Committee on the recognition of Aboriginal in the South Australian Constitution Act 1934.
Today, Professor Peter Buckskin is the current Chair of the South Australian Aboriginal Education and Training Consultative Committee and the Co-Chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation.
About William (Bill) Wentworth
William (Bill) Wentworth (1907–2003) played an important role in the establishment of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1961.
He had a long-term and intense interest in the origins, society and cultures of this continent’s First Peoples.
Dr Jacquie Lambert, in her excellent ANU doctoral dissertation on the history of the Institute, refers to Wentworth as its ‘founding father’.
He made a major contribution to what has become the world’s primary repository of knowledge concerning the cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
