The ABC has announced lawyer, academic, land rights activist and Indigenous community leader Noel Pearson will deliver the 2022 Boyer Lecture series.
His series of four lectures, broadcast on ABC platforms, will provide key insights into the ideas, observations and experiences of one of our most recognised public intellectuals.
ABC Chair Ita Buttrose said it was a significant moment for an Indigenous leader of Noel Pearson's standing to accept the invitation given the national discussion about the referendum for an Indigenous voice to parliament.
"Noel has been an extraordinary force in representing our First Nations people and leading the conversation on issues that are relevant to all Australians," she said.
"He will deliver a thought-provoking lecture series that will challenge and encourage ideas about who we all are and how we see ourselves as a nation now and into the future.
"I am delighted he has accepted our invitation. This is an event not to be missed by anyone who cares about our development as a nation."
This series will mark a return to the Boyer Lectures for Noel who in 1993 delivered one of the five lectures along with Getano Lui, Dr Ian Anderson, Jeannie Bell, Mandawuy Yunupingu and Dot West. That lecture, titled Voices of the Land orTowards Respecting Equality and Difference was delivered in the wake of the Mabo decision in 1992, then Prime Minister Paul Keating's Redfern speech the same year and during the subsequent national debate about the Native Title Act.
"I will reflect on where we have come since W.E.H. Stanner's 1968 Boyer Lectures After the Dreaming, which I consider to be the greatest of the Boyers and still as vital today as they were when first delivered," Noel said.
"My lectures will look at where we are today and what lies in prospect, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and for Australians at large."
The four lectures will be broadcast on ABC RN and one on ABC TV later this year.
Noel Pearson comes from the Guugu Yimidhirr community of Hope Vale on the Cape York Peninsula. He is the Founder and Director of Strategy of the Cape York Partnership a non-profit organisation that works to empower Indigenous families and communities in Cape York and Cairns to break the cycle of disadvantage.
He is Founder and Co-Chair of Good to Great Schools Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to support Australian education systems and communities to help their schools successfully deliver 21st century programs.
Noel also co-founded the Cape York Land Council, and helped to establish Apunipima Health Council, Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation and Indigenous Enterprise Partnerships.
He has served as a member of the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians and the Referendum Council. The panel investigated changing the federal Constitution so that Australia's Indigenous peoples would be recognised in it. The panel delivered its report titled Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution to then Prime Minister Julia Gillard in January 2012.
The Boyer Lecture series, named after former ABC Chairman Sir Richard Boyer, is a series of radio lectures from a prominent Australian invited to express their thoughts on major social, cultural, scientific or political issues.
