Jackie Huggins

Jacqueline Gail "Jackie" Huggins AM FAHA (born 19 August 1956) is an Aboriginal Australian author, historian, academic and advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She is a Bidjara/Pitjara, Birri Gubba and Juru woman from Queensland.

Jackie Huggins

AM FAHA
Jackie Higgins (2018)
Born(1956-08-19)19 August 1956
NationalityAustralian
OccupationHistorian
Known forAuthor, Aboriginal rights activist
Parent(s)Rita Huggins

As of 2020 she is co-chair of the Eminent Panel advising the Queensland Government on the process truth-telling and future treaties with Indigenous peoples.

Early life and education

Jacqueline Gail Huggins was born in Ayr, Queensland on 19 August 1956, the daughter of Jack and Rita Huggins. She is of the Bidjara / Pitjara (Central Queensland) and Biri / Birri Gubba Juru (North Queensland) peoples. Her family moved to Inala in Brisbane when she was young and she attended Inala State High School. She left school at age 15 to assist her family and worked as a typist with the Australian Broadcasting Commission at Toowong, Queensland from 1972–1978. Thereafter she joined the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Canberra. In 1980 she returned to Brisbane and was a Field Officer in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.[1]

Huggins' son was born in 1985. Huggins enrolled at the University of Queensland in 1985, graduating with a BA (Hons) in History and Anthropology in 1987.[2] She earned a Diploma of Education (Aboriginal Education) in 1988. Part of her practical training included eight weeks teaching in Ti-Tree, north of Alice Springs. Huggins completed an Honours degree in History/Women's Studies (1989) from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia.[1]

Career

Huggins was co-chair of Reconciliation Australia (with Fred Chaney and Mark Leibler), the chair of the Queensland Domestic Violence Council, co-commissioner for Queensland for the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families (1995–1997) and a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the AIATSIS Council,[3] National NAIDOC Committee (1979-1983),[1] and the Review of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)[4] in 2003.[5] She has also served on many other boards and organisations in various capacities.[1]

She has published a wide range of essays and studies dealing with Indigenous history and identity. She is the author of Sistergirl (1998), and co-author, with her mother Rita, of the critically acclaimed biography Auntie Rita (1994).[3]

Huggins was Deputy Director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland until 2017, and then co-chaired the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples with Rod Little until 2019.[4]

In 2019, after the Queensland Government announced its interest in pursuing a pathway to an Indigenous treaty process,[6] the Treaty Working Group and Eminent Treaty Process Panel were set up, with Huggins and Michael Lavarch co-chairing the Eminent Panel. Their Path to Treaty Report was tabled in Queensland Parliament in February 2020.[7] Huggins said that a process of truth-telling, acknowledging the history of Australia, is a "vital component to moving on".[8] On 13 August 2020, the Government announced that it would be supporting the recommendation to move forward on a Path to Treaty with First Nations Queenslanders.[9]

Recognition

Selected works
  • "Always was always will be". Australian Historical Studies. Informa UK Limited. 25 (100): 459–464. 1993. doi:10.1080/10314619308595927. ISSN 1031-461X.
  • Auntie Rita. Aboriginal Studies Press. 1994. ISBN 978-0-85575-248-4.
  • Sister Girl: The Writings of Aboriginal Activist and Historian Jackie Huggins. UQP Black Australian writers. University of Queensland Press. 1998. ISBN 978-0-7022-2840-7.
  • Working the Walk: Activating Reconciliation. Frank Archibald memorial lecture series. University of New England. 2002. ISBN 978-1-86389-784-6.

As co-author

References
  1. Harrison, Sharon M. "Huggins, Jacqueline (Jackie) Gail (1956 - )". In The Australian Women's Archives Project (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. ISBN 978-0-7340-4873-8. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  2. "Dr Jacqueline (Jackie) Huggins AM". Alumni & Community. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
  3. Grossman, Michele (2003). Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians. Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522-85069-7.
  4. "Dr Jackie Huggins AM FAHA, Co-Chair Eminent Panel and Working Group, Pathway to Treaty QLD". Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  5. "Clark vows to fight as ATSIC scrapped". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 15 April 2004. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  6. Siganto, Talissa (14 July 2019). "'Long time coming': Queensland commits to Indigenous treaty process". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  7. Smith, Douglas (10 February 2020). "QLD Government receives treaty recommendations after months of consultations". NITV. SBS. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  8. "Truth-telling guides next steps on Queensland's historic Path to Treaty". Mirage News. 10 February 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  9. Palaszczuk, Annastacia; Crawford, Craig (13 August 2020). "Queensland Government's historic commitment to Treaty-making process". Queensland Cabinet and Ministerial Directory. Retrieved 14 August 2020. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Further reading
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