Tjanara Goreng Goreng

Tjanara Goreng Goreng is a Wakka Wakka Wulli Wulli traditional owner from Central Queensland who was born in the outback at Longreach in central western Queensland. She has spent a total of 40 years as a public servant at Commonwealth and state levels and in academia, and was one of the bright young people taken on by Charlie Perkins, the first Indigenous person to head up the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

In 2006, she was suspended and later, resigned, from her position in the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination in the Prime Minister’s Department after she turned whistleblower and helped expose the Howard government’s fraudulent claims leading up to the intervention (NT Emergency Response) into Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Tjanara moved to academia, and is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Indigenous Studies at the University of Canberra while completing her PhD at the Australian National University. Tjanara is the founder of The Foundation for Indigenous Recovery and Development Australia, and is also a Member of the National Indigenous Research Knowledge's Network based at Queensland University of Technology.

She is a mother of one daughter, and has recently become a grandmother. In her spare time she meditates, paints; and plays, sings and composes music with her brothers. She lives in Canberra.