PROFESSOR ANNE POELINA

Professor Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa and Warlunguru woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is Professor, Chair and Senior Research Fellow in Indigenous Knowledges at the Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame Australia, an Adjunct Professor in Indigenous Education Futures, Arts & Society at Charles Darwin University, and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Western Australia. Anne is an active community leader, human and earth rights advocate, filmmaker and respected academic researcher whose work is grounded in First Law, Indigenous knowledge systems and environmental justice.

In 2025, Anne was appointed a Global Commissioner for the World Health Organization (WHO) Lancet Commission on Sea Level Rise, Health and Justice (2025–2028). She also serves as Commissioner (Water) for the National Water Initiative with the Productivity Commission (2024), is a member of the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Indigenous Advisory Committee (2024), a Visiting Fellow with the Water Justice Hub at The Australian National University, and the inaugural Executive Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council.

Anne's leadership and advocacy have been recognised nationally and internationally. She was awarded the 2024 Geoethics Medal by the International Association for Promoting Geoethics and the 2024 Bessie Rischbieth Conservation Award from the Conservation Council of Western Australia. She is also the inaugural First Nations member of the Murray–Darling Basin Authority's Independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences, a Peter Cullen Fellow for Water Leadership, and a Laureate of the Women's World Summit Foundation. Her research, leadership and advocacy continue to advance Indigenous-led approaches to water justice, environmental stewardship and the wellbeing of Country and communities.

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