In Principio_S1 2018_WEB

I N P R I N C I P I O | 1 3 EXCEPTIONAL FIGURE AMONG FIRST NATIONS NAMED INTERNATIONAL WOMAN OF THE YEAR For the past 40 years Dr Anne Poelina has played an absolutely unique role in her country—the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia—as an actionist and educator leading ground-breaking efforts in Indigenous health, education, language maintenance, the environment, and cultural development. Currently a PhD researcher at Notre Dame’s Nulungu Research Institute in Broome, in October last year Dr Poelina was recognised as an International Rural Woman of the Year by the Geneva-based Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF*) for leadership in Aboriginal rights and cultural enhancement. Announced on the United Nations’ International Day of Rural Women, Dr Poelina was the only Australian—and the first since 1998—to be recognised for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life, which acknowledges rural women leaders and groups for their initiatives and ongoing work to end poverty, marginalisation and violence in rural communities around the world. In her early teens, Anne travelled over 2,000 kms to Perth where she lived in a small hostel so that she could attend high school before training as a nurse, becoming the first Indigenous Australian to graduate with a diploma in General Nursing. Following an absence from her homeland over a 10-year period, she returned to the remote community and continued to learn and achieve academic excellence, declining opportunities to move to a capital city to pursue her career. Instead, she chose to stay in her own region and establish a non-government organisation (NGO) so that she could concentrate on changing policy by demonstrating progressive action on the ground. Currently undertaking research on environmental sustainability, Dr Poelina’s work is focused on building culture and conservation economies on the national heritage-listed Fitzroy River in the West Kimberley. She has also been a strong advocate for the environmental protection of the Kimberley region – working to prevent the establishment of the gas-processing hub at James Price Point and thwart plans to mine coal in the floodplains of the Fitzroy River. Even closer to her heart, Dr Poelina is in the process of establishing theMardoowarra College – a residential Indigenous community college for 13–25-year-olds in the Kimberley. “This region has suffered some of the worst examples of conquest, colonisation, dispossession and continued subjection of the Traditional Owners in human colonial history and it continues to experience the worst youth outcomes in the world, statistically speaking, particularly in regards to suicide, incarceration rates, drug and alcohol misuse, homelessness, unemployment and extreme poverty,” she said. In naming Dr Poelina International Women of the Year, The WWSF citation described her as ‘an exceptional figure among the first nations of the world. Her work and values, the principles on which it is based, is a model of community service and advocacy that transcends culture, ethnicity and gender’. Responding to the honour, Dr Poelina said: “I’m grateful and delighted at receiving this international recognition by the WWSF, and I am confident that we can all achieve positive outcomes for Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley and across Australia". *The WWSF is a not-for-profit organisation that works alongside the United Nations to enhance women’s and children’s rights to equality and peace.