Djaru Elder and Australian academic
MaryAnn Bin-Sallik (born 1940) is a Djaru Elder and Australian academic, specialising in Indigenous studies and culture. She was the first Indigenous Australian to gain a doctorate from Harvard University.
Early life and nursing.
Bin-Sallik was born in Broome, Western Australia, on 2 November 1940. She moved with her family to Darwin, Northern Territory, at age nine. On leaving school she trained as a nursing sister at Darwin Hospital, where she was the first Indigenous person to graduate in 1961. She then spent 17 years nursing in Aboriginal settlements in the Northern Territory.
Academic career.
In 1975 Bin-Sallik was appointed student councillor to the Aboriginal Task Force (ATF) Program at South Australian Institute of Technology, Adelaide South Australia; becoming the first Indigenous Australian to work in the higher education sector. In 1979 she also completed an associate diploma of social work whilst working as student councillor. She then became coordinator of the ATF from 1980 to 1985. In 1985 she left to study at Harvard University, where she completed both a master's degree in education administration (1986) and a doctorate in teaching and learning (1989).
Returning to Australia, she became senior lecturer in Aboriginal studies at South Australian College of Advanced Education from 1989 to 1990. Bin-Sallik was then made head of the school, Aboriginal studies and teacher education at the University of South Australia in 1990. Eight years later she became its dean of the College of Indigenous Education and Research.
Bin-Sallik delivered the 8th Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture on “Aborigines and Universities : Are They Compatible?” at the University of New England in 1993.
In 2001 she returned to live in the Northern Territory and was appointed Ranger Chair and dean of faculty of the Faculty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at Charles Darwin University. She retired in 2008 and was awarded the title emeritus professor "for services to Indigenous Higher Education in Australia".
In retirement, Bin-Sallik became chair of the Vice Chancellor's Indigenous Advisory Council at Charles Darwin University from 2013 to 2015. She was appointed pro vice-chancellor, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership at the University of Western Sydney in 2015 and has been a member of its board of trustees since 2016.
In March 2016 Bin-Sallik was appointed a non-executive director of Aboriginal Hostels Limited, a not-for-profit organisation which provides temporary accommodation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are away from home. She has also served as co-commissioner of the Australian Human Rights Commission's Enquiry into the Forced Removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children.
References.
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