One of Australia's leading Indigenous scholars will present the 2011 Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture at Charles Darwin University this week.
Foundation Chair of Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, Professor Marcia Langton will present the lecture entitled, “Culture, custom, modernity and health: a nexus of factors in the status of Aboriginal children,” on Thursday, 18 August at CDU’s Casuarina campus.
Professor Langton said the most vulnerable citizens of the Northern Territory continued to be Aboriginal babies.
“Unable to feed themselves and given insufficient nutrition for normal growth, at the very beginning of their lives they suffer hunger and they are unable to develop normally,” she said.
In her presentation Professor Langton will address the burning issue of how to best involve family and community members in health interventions so they take responsibility for their own health and that of their children.
An anthropologist and geographer, Professor Langton has made a significant contribution to Indigenous studies at three universities, and to government and non-government policy and administration throughout her career. Her work in anthropology and the advocacy of Aboriginal rights was recognised in 1993 when she was made a member of the Order of Australia.
The annual Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture commemorates the Wave Hill Station walk-off led by Vincent Lingiari with his Gurindji people and other groups in August 1966, marking a catalyst for Aboriginal people across Australia to have their rights to traditional lands recognised and for those lands to be returned.
The 2011 Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture will be held on Thursday, 18 August from 7-8pm at the Mal Nairn Auditorium on CDU’s Casuarina campus.
To register visit www.cdu.edu.au/indigenousleadership/lingiari-lecture2011.html