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Tom Calma, AO Kungarakan Tribal Group and Iwaidja Tribal Group

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Tom Calma, AO Kungarakan Tribal Group and Iwaidja Tribal Group Tom Calma, AO Kungarakan Tribal Group and Iwaidja Tribal Group Professor Tom Calma AO is an Aboriginal elder of the Kungarakan tribal group, a member of the Iwaidja tribal group and a tireless champion for the rights, responsibilities and welfare of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Professor Calma is the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander man to hold the position of Chancellor of any Australian university. For the majority of his working life Professor Calma has been a career Commonwealth public servant responsible for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous policy and programs. Professor Calma has been involved in and with the tertiary education sector since 1980 as an academic, in representing Australia’s interest in all education sectors internationally, on research grants, in reviewing administrative and academic structures and on advisory boards and committees at eight universities. Professor Calma has been a member of the University of Canberra Council since 2008 and was appointed as Chancellor by Council, commencing on 1 January 2014. He was reappointed to the role in 2017 and 2019 and will continue in the role until December 2022. Professor Calma is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Australian National University. Between 1995 and 2002, Professor Calma represented Australia’s education and training interests as a senior diplomat in India and Vietnam; and in 2003, he served as Senior Adviser for Indigenous Affairs to the Honourable Philip Ruddock MP in his capacity as the Minister of Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs. Professor Calma served as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2010 and as the Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2004 until 2009. Professor Calma’s 2005 Social Justice Report – focusing on Indigenous health equality – was the catalyst for the Close the Gap campaign. The report called on Australian governments to commit to achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the areas of health and life-expectancy within a generation (25 years) and advocated embedding a social determinants philosophy into public policy around health, education, employment, housing and behaviours in order to address Indigenous inequality gaps. In 2012, Professor Calma was awarded an Order of Australia; Officer of the General Division (AO) and named ACT Australian of the Year 2013 for his service and commitment to the Indigenous community as an advocate for human rights and social justice. In October 2015, Professor Calma was awarded one of four inaugural University of South Australia Alumni Awards for his service to society and in November 2015 was awarded the Public Health Association Australia’s pre-eminent Sidney Sax Public Health Medal for notable contribution to the protection and promotion of public health, advancing community awareness of public health measures and advancing the ideals and practice of equity in the provision of health care. In July 2016, Professor Calma received the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Flag Award on the 240th anniversary of the United States of America’s independence. Professor Calma is Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia (on leave of absence for 2020), Chair of the not-for-profit organisation Ninti One Ltd and Patron and Chair of the Poche Centres for Indigenous Health Network. Professor Calma was appointed a Professor with the University of Sydney’s Medical School to Chair the Poche Indigenous Health Network on 1 January 2015. In 2008, Professor Calma delivered the formal response to the government’s National Apology to the Stolen Generations. Since March 2010, Calma performed the role of National Coordinator Tackling Indigenous Smoking to lead the fight against tobacco use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In July 2016 (to October 2019) Professor Calma was appointed as an external member of the Australian Public Service Secretaries’ Equality and Diversity Council and in October he was appointed the inaugural Chair of the Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity program led by the University of Melbourne. In July 2019 Professor Calma was appointed to the Australian Education Council’s Review of Senior Secondary Pathways. In October 2019 Professor Calma was appointed by Minister for Indigenous Australians, the Hon Ken Wyatt AM, MP as Co- Chair of Voice Co-Design Senior Advisory Group for 12 months. He has concurrently taken a leave of absence from his role as Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia. Professor Calma is an inaugural Trustee of the Charles Perkins Trust that funds scholarships for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Oxford and Cambridge universities in the UK. .
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