Lynette Riley

Background

Riley was born in 1956 in Dubbo, New South Wales.

Education

She completed her schooling at Dubbo High School before completing teacher training at Armidale College of Advanced Education in 1977.

Career

Lynette is a Wiradjuri and Gamilaroi woman from Dubbo and Moree and has seven children. Riley"s career has been varied with a strong focus on teaching, academia and making changes in the lives of Aboriginal people. She is well known for her promotion of Aboriginal culture, in particular her Kinship presentations and the associated online module.

Riley has education experience in a range of organisations including primary schools, high schools, Technical and Further Education and universities.

In addition to teaching and research, Riley has also been actively involved in state government policy, for example as Acting Director of Aboriginal Education and Training NSW DET in 2002-2005. From 1986 Riley became a research fellow at the University of New England.

She founded the Aboriginal Student Support Centre, "Oorala Centre" at the University and went on to establish the "Frank Archibald Memorial Lecture" series focusing on Aboriginal issues. By 2013 she was a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Studies at the University of Sydney.

Riley is currently finishing her Doctor of Philosophy.

In July 2014, the University of Sydney launched the online learning tool "" which aims to increase understanding of indigenous culture.

Riley has been conducting Kinship presentations for a variety of audiences for many years with great success.

Achievements

• As part of this research, she conducted comprehensive qualitative research into high achieving students in NSW, finding that the high achieving Aboriginal students in NSW surveyed have a strong and positive sense of their cultural identity.

Connections

colleague:

Janet Mooney