Decorated First Peoples education leader Dr Harry Van Issum

Dr Van Issum is a Woppaburra man and Traditional Owner of the Keppel Islands with over 23 years’ experience in secondary and tertiary education.  

Harry is currently Senior Lecturer at Griffith University in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, leads the Indigenous Field of Study group, and for his continuing work in repatriating Aboriginal skeletal remains won the 2019 Inaugural Mulvaney Indigenous Fellowship.  

Harry completed his PhD (summa cum laude) at Australian Catholic University in 2018 discussing the cultural and historical identity of the Woppaburra people of the Central Queensland region.  

Dr Van Issum has also been involved in many grassroots Indigenous organisations such as the Woppaburra Land Trust, the Woppaburra Traditional Use of Marine Resources Committee (constituted through the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority), Bayside Community Justice Group (Murri Court) and Cooee Indigenous Family and Community Education Centre.

He served for three years on the Queensland Indigenous Education Consultative Committee, advising state and federal ministers on Indigenous educational issues.