One of Australia's leading Indigenous rights advocates Professor Mick Dodson AM has delivered a farewell lecture ahead of his retirement as Director of The Australian National University National Centre for Indigenous Studies (NCIS).
Professor Dodson has been a tireless campaigner on Indigenous issues from land rights to reconciliation and he has led the NCIS since it was formed at ANU 16 years ago.
In his farewell lecture as NCIS Director, Professor Dodson talked about the need for high-quality and ethical research which has the full and informed consent of the Indigenous people and communities involved.
He also issued a plea for Australia to resolve the outstanding issues affecting Indigenous Australians.
"We must be vigilant in providing training to our researchers, not just the emerging researchers but the long established, on what good ethical practice means in the Indigenous studies space," he said.
"We must be sure that the research used in publications has been undertaken with the full, prior and informed consent, and will benefit Indigenous peoples in a way Indigenous peoples value, and that the subsequent publishing practices share those philosophical underpinnings."
The farewell lecture is available on https://youtu.be/PIHAq4N5iY0.
Professor Dodson started at the ANU as a professor in the ANU College of Law.
He has previously served as Counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and conducted hearings in the Bringing them Home report - the National Inquiry into the Stolen Generation.
Professor Dodson was Australia's first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, and he was Australian of the Year in 2009.
He will now join the ANU Emeritus Faculty, where he will mentor Indigenous students and do some teaching at the ANU College of Law.
He will also lead an ANU First Nations Forum in July.
