Education
He graduated with degrees in Jurisprudence and Law from Monash University in 1974, as the first Indigenous person to graduate from law in Australia.
He graduated with degrees in Jurisprudence and Law from Monash University in 1974, as the first Indigenous person to graduate from law in Australia.
Following graduation, he worked as a criminal solicitor for the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service, and later as a criminal defence barrister at the Victorian Bar, where he still practices as a barrister specialising in native title. He has worked extensively as a legal adviser in native title and human rights, and as an academic in Indigenous law. He is currently Professor of Law at the Australian National University, as the director of its National Centre for Indigenous Studies, and has lectured as a visiting academic at the University of Arizona and Harvard University respectively.
He has been a prominent advocate of land rights and other issues affecting Indigenous peoples in Australia and globally and has extensive involvement in the United Nations Forum on Indigenous Issues.
He is the Chief Investigator for the "Serving Our Country: a history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the defence of Australia" project which is an Australian Research Council-funded research project based at The Australian National University. On 25 January 2009, he was named Australian of the Year.
He now lives and works in Canberra. Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Technology Sydney, 1998 Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of New South Wales, 1999 Honorary Doctorate, University of Canberra, 2010.
Honorary Member of the University of Kingwood Nationals, 2010
Member of the Order of Indonesia (Prime Minister), awarded on New Years Day 2003.