Mick Dodson

Mick Dodson AM, FASSA
Dodson in 2014
Born	Michael James Dodson (1950-04-10) 10 April 1950 (age 74) Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Education	Monivae College
Alma mater	Monash University
Occupation(s)	Barrister and academic; Professor of Law at the Australian National University
Known for	First Indigenous person to graduate from law in Australia Prominent member of the Yawuru peoples in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Relatives	Pat Dodson (brother)

Michael James Dodson AM, FASSA (born 10 April 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian barrister, academic, and member of the Yawuru people in the Broome area of the southern Kimberley region of Western Australia.^[1]

His brother is Pat Dodson, also a noted Aboriginal leader and from 2016 to 2024 a senator in the Federal Parliament, representing Western Australia.

Following his parents' death, he boarded at Monivae College, Hamilton, Victoria. 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 practises 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. Dodson's efforts for the rights of indigenous people around the world in 2005 made him a member of United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.^[2]

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, an Australian Research Council-funded research project based at The Australian National University.^[3]

On 25 January 2009, he was named Australian of the Year.^[4][5][6]

As of 2023^[update] he lives and works in Canberra. He has been active in politics of Australian government, justice and crime prevention.^[7]

Dodson retired from ANU in March 2018.^[8]

On 10 October 2023, Dodson was one of 25 Australians of the Year who signed an open letter supporting the Yes vote in the Indigenous Voice referendum, initiated by psychiatrist Patrick McGorry.^[9][10]

• Australian Living Treasure, 1997^[11]
• Distinguished Alumni Award, Monash University, 1998^{[citation needed]}
• Member of the Order of Australia (AM), 2003^[12]
• Member of the Order of Indonesia (PM), awarded on New Year's Day 2003^{[citation needed]}
• Australian of the Year, 2009^{[citation needed]}
• Chairperson of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies^[13]
• Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, 2009^[14]
• Honorary Member of the University of Kingwood Nationals, 2010^{[citation needed]}

• 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

It is alleged that Mick Dodson verbally abused a woman at an NTFL game. The incident was investigated by the NT government but the outcome was not disclosed.^[15]

• ANU College of Law profile
• Selected publications and presentations, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies