Our People

Clare Martin was the first Labor Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and its first female Chief Minister.

Clare led the Labor Party to victory in the Northern Territory in 2001 and then a second time in 2005. Clare was Chief Minister for more than six years, from 2001-07 and during that time held a number of ministerial portfolios, including Treasury, Major Projects, Tourism, Police, Arts and Indigenous Policy. Clare was the member for Fannie Bay in the NT Parliament from 1995 to 2008.

Before politics, Clare spent almost two decades as an ABC journalist and broadcaster, working in radio and TV in Sydney, Canberra and Darwin.

Following politics, Clare was the Chief Executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, and then a Professorial Fellow at Charles Darwin University, where she co-authored a book about Territory politics called Speak for yourself.

Clare is currently the Co-Chair of Team Territory; Chair of the Darwin Entertainment Centre; and Deputy Chair of NT Cricket.

Steve is an Honorary Professorial Fellow with Charles Darwin University. He studied at the Universities of Melbourne, California, and Sydney. He joined CSIRO in Alice Springs to work in the desert environment that has long been his focus.

​From 2000 until 2011 he helped lead CSIRO as Chief of Division and Executive Team member. In 2011 he returned to Alice Springs, from where he serves on committees around Australia relating to environmental science. He is writing a book about the ecology of the Australian deserts.

Wendy is a Darwin born and raised Kungarakan and Gurindji woman who has considerable executive leadership experience in the tertiary education, training and employment sectors as a lecturer, administrator and manager across a broad range of agencies over the past 40 years.
Wendy has had a long career of involvement on community committees and boards of management.
Dr Ludwig’s previous roles include Deputy CEO - Vocational Education and Training at Batchelor Institute; Director of Operations in the Office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor Indigenous Leadership at Charles Darwin University (CDU); Acting Pro-Vice Chancellor at CDU from August 2016-July 2017; Head of Faculty - Faculty for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies - Tropical Nth Qld Institute of TAFE; and many years of teaching in the Adult Education and Training sector.

Dr Ludwig’s extensive governance experience includes: Current member of the Kungarakan Cultural and Education Association; Darwin Entertainment Centre Board of Directors since 2016: Board Director Literacy for Life Foundation since 2018; Foundation Board member and Deputy Chairperson of the Centre of Contemporary Arts (COCA) Cairns between 2003 – 2006 and Board of the Museum and Art Gallery of the NT (MAGNT) which she joined in May 2021.

Wendy completed Diplomas of Community Work and Welfare Work at Darwin Community College in 1979 and gained a Bachelor of Arts (Anthropology and Australian History) from the Darwin Institute of Technology (now known as CDU) in 1988. She completed a Masters of Education (Aboriginal Studies) from the University of New England (Armidale, New South Wales) in 1995.

In 2017 Wendy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by WINU (World Indigenous Nations University - Canada) in recognition of her contributions to Indigenous education and training.

Wendy has a strong commitment to training, education and employment and has been an active and strong advocate for the Creative Arts industry and various community organisations in the Northern Territory, Queensland and nationally.

She continues to participate on local, regional and national Indigenous advisory and management boards that are committed to the strengthening, revitalisation and growth of social, economic, political, and cultural well-being of communities and regions.

Ray is an Environmental Professional with 30 years’ experience in Northern Australia. After studying Geology his career has evolved through working as a wetland ecologist in Kakadu to developing the pioneering Djelk Indigenous Ranger Program at Maningrida involving innovative Natural Resource Management based business opportunities, through to now owning and building his business EcOz into the Northern Territory’s largest environmental consultancy business.
As a scientist, Ray is a strong supporter of the scientific value of the Museum and also the Art Gallery aspects of the institution. Indigenous art in particular is one of the few employment/income generating activities that support people to live and thrive on homelands where they are instrumental in and essential for the maintenance of healthy country and culture.
Ray is also an Independent Director of Injalak Arts at Gunbalanya and Laynhapuy Homelands Aboriginal Corporation in Yirrikala. Ray is the President of Surf Lifesaving Northern Territory and the state representative on the Surf Lifesaving Australia Board.

John Cossons is Northern Territory born and resident, retired as the Chair of People's Choice Credit Union Board in 2019, having served on that board since 1981. He was the Independent Chair for Developing East Arnhem Limited from 2014-2021, a not for profit company established by Rio Tinto Aluminium Limited and the Northern Territory Government in 2014 to undertake activities that encourage and facilitate the creation, diversification and sustainability of businesses in that region.

Franchesca Cubillo is a Larrakia, Bardi, Wardaman and Yanuwa woman from the Northern Territory. She was Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia (2009–18) where she was responsible for the development and management of eleven permanently dedicated Indigenous Australian art galleries, the largest display of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in the world.

In 2006, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to investigate international responses to the repatriation of ancestral remains of indigenous nations worldwide. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Aboriginal Affairs and Honours in Anthropology from the University of Adelaide.​

Franchesca was senior curator of Aboriginal Art and Material Culture at the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, held positions at Tandanya, National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, and was the Manager Repatriation Unit at the National Museum of Australia. Franchesca was the inaugural curator of Aboriginal Anthropology at the South Australia Museum, where she assisted in the redevelopment of the Australian Aboriginal Cultures Gallery.

Franchesca has been the Inaugural Chair of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair since 2012, overseeing its phenomenal growth in both scale and reputation.

Philip was born and raised in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, and is part of large extended Arrernte and Larrakia families.

In August 2011, Philip was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Desart. Prior to his appointment at Desart, Philip was employed as the Artistic and Cultural Director of the National Aboriginal Cultural Institute – Tandanya (2006-2011).

Philip is currently a Board Member of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) and the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation; and is a member of the Ministerial Creative Industries Advisory Council (NT).

Barry commenced in the position of Professor and Director of Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne in February 2020.

Prior to this Barry was based at Charles Darwin University in Alice Springs.

Barry is committed to the research of issues that impact Aboriginal peoples who live in the arid inland. Barry acted as Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Leadership for CDU from June to December 2018. Barry has worked in Higher Education since 1989. He commenced employment at The University of Melbourne as an Aboriginal cadet as a member of administrative staff in January 1990.

Barry Judd is a descendent of the Pitjantjatjara people of north-west South Australia, British immigrants, and Afghan cameleers. He is a leading Australian scholar on the subject of Aboriginal participation in Australian sports. Barry's main research interest is in issues about identity – what kind of Australian identities have been formed out of the colonial contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Australia. His research focuses on Aboriginal people in sport as a way of engaging the broader population in difficult questions around the place of indigenous people in Australian society.

Barry was a foundation CI and member of the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN), the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA). He is a foundation co-Editor of ab-Original published by Penn State Press and formerly an Honorary Fellow of the University of Western Australia.

He is interested in the social impact of Australian Football on Indigenous Australia; explorations of Australian identity and the process of cultural interchange between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples; constructions of Australian citizenship and Australian nationalism; Aboriginal affairs policy and administration.

Barry is a well-published author in the areas of sports history and the field of Australian Indigenous Studies and has held several research grants funded by the Australian Research Council.

Angela is second generation Greek Australian business leader, advisor and community advocate. A banking and finance professional of 28 plus years, Angela’s current leadership role at National Australia Bank is Business Bank Executive for Northern Territory. Her advocacy roles are Director of Policy & Vice President of the Australian Federation of Business & Professional Women and founding member and Chair of Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NT) Inc. Angela has previously served on advisory groups for Northern Australia Ministerial Forum and Northern Territory Government Team Territory.

Brenda L Croft is from the Gurindji/Malngin/Mudburra peoples from the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory of Australia, and has Anglo Australian / Chinese / German / Irish / Scottish heritage. Brenda’s skin is Nangari, her totems are Ngarlu (‘sugarbag’ or native honey) and Tikirrija (red-backed kingfisher).
Since the mid-1980s Brenda has been a leading member in Australian and international First Nations and broader contemporary arts/cultural sectors as a multi-disciplinary creative practitioner (artist, curator, educator, scholar).
Brenda is Professor of Indigenous Art History and Curatorship, based at the Australian National University on unceded Ngambri/Ngunawal lands, since 2018.

She has longstanding connections with First Nations communities in Canberra and surrounding regions, following her father, Joe Croft (c. 1925 – 1996)’s work with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Aboriginal Development Commission 1975 – 85.

From 1999 – 2001 Brenda was Curator of Indigenous Art at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. She returned to Canberra in 2002 as Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art at the National Gallery of Australia (2002 – 09), where she worked closely with MAGNT Director Adam Worrall.

From 2009 – 11 Brenda was Senior Lecturer at the University of South Australia; then Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Art + Design Australia (2012 – 16). In 2017 Brenda returned to Canberra (again) as Senior Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs, National Museum of Australia, before being recruited by the Australian National University.

In 2024 Brenda is based at Harvard University, living and working on the Ancestral Homelands of the Massachusett as the 2023-24 Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Visiting Chair of Australian Studies.
Additionally in 2024 Brenda returned as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Kluge Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, University of Virginia, having previously been a committee member from 2011 – 15.