Malpa

DIRECTORS

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR DON PALMER  ThL, MA

Don’s connection with aboriginal people goes back to the early days of the Land Rights movement when he produced some of the earliest television programs dealing with this fundamental issue. Since then he has been involved at many levels and travelled the nation in effort to support Indigenous Australians including acting as a consultant to a major Federal Government Indigenous men’s health project. He is a keynote speaker on Aboriginal kidney health in a wide variety of forums across.  He has worked on a range of projects with NSW Aboriginal Land Council in communities across the state. Don acts as a cultural advisor the Noetic Group and Equbed.

Don is a member of the advisory group for the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission and has worked in health promotion for the NSW Department of Health. He spent several years on the ABC’s NSW Advisory Board and as an academic training some of Australia’s most prominent media personalities and journalists.  He is a Winston Churchill Fellow and holds a Master of Arts in Mass Communication. As a documentary film maker he was winner of a United Nations Media Peace Prize and acts as a provider of media training to the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the board of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council.

He’s known in Central Australia as Tjungurrayi and Watama in recognition of his strong connection with Aboriginal people

DAVID PEAKE  ThL, Grad Dip Rel Ed,  OAM

David has more than twenty years working with disadvantaged and disengaged Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people in communities including Fitzroy, West Heidelberg, Braybrook and Broadmeadows. David is the CEO of E Qubed which creates educational and employment pathways for disengaged youth using social enterprise as a key model. He has been, variously, a probation officer, a youth liaison officer, counsellor, football coach, hospital chaplain, street worker for the homeless, a drug and alcohol worker, trauma consultant, counselling co-ordinator, grief consultant, family counsellor and industrial chaplain, not to mention an Anglican parish priest in some of Melbourne’s most disadvantaged areas.

As an industrial chaplain David provided trauma counselling after the Hoddle Street shooting, the Queen Street shooting, the explosion and fire at the Altona Petrochemical Company and at the Russell Street bombing. He was a Trauma Management Consultant to the Country Fire Authority and was awarded an Order of Australia medal for his community work with the disadvantaged.

MAJOR GENERAL (Retd) PETER DUNN, AO

Peter has had a considerable connection with Indigenous Australians including over-seeing a federal review of Indigenous men’s health.

Peter specializes in capacity building and the development of resilience in individuals, organisations and communities.  He has experience in the public sector as a very senior Army officer and as a civilian Agency Head.  Peter also has experience in the private sector as a CEO and has worked on capacity building projects in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand and has undertaken development work in the South Pacific.  He is currently delivering programs in AusAID preparing people for overseas deployments and is also developing sustainable small business in PNG. Peter is an experienced public policy developer at both the state and federal levels.

ANNIE VANDERWYK

We  are proud to announce that Annie Vanderwyk has joined the Malpa Project board.  Annie is a Ngarrindjeri woman with extensive experience working across Australia  and the USA. She is the Aboriginal Stakeholder and Program Development Manager  for Red Cross and is passionate about improving Indigenous health. She  holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Social Science (Hons), has published  widely and importantly has considerable hands on experience getting things  done. Annie  brings enormous experience and wisdom to our work.