Join us at the annual talk and community gathering honouring one of Botany’s most fearless and visionary advocates for environmental and social justice.
Founder, Malima Indigenous Weaving and Education and Senior Policy Officer, NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group
Kodie Mason is a proud Dharawal woman from the La Perouse Aboriginal community, where she grew up on the former Aboriginal Reserve surrounded by family, culture, and strong community connections. Like many families in La Perouse, the impacts of government assimilation policies led to the loss of cultural knowledge, language, and traditional practices. However, Kodie is privileged that her family was able to retain and pass down significant cultural knowledge through generations.
As the founder of Malima, Kodie is dedicated to sharing her family's cultural teachings through art, weaving, cultural education, and community engagement. Her work strengthens connections to Country, culture, and identity, ensuring this knowledge is preserved, celebrated, and passed on to future generations so it is never lost again.
Through her work with Malima, Kodie has received significant recognition, including awards through the Local Business Awards, the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards NSW 2025, and being named Young Sydneysider of the Year 2025 by the Committee for Sydney. These achievements reflect her commitment to cultural preservation, community leadership, and empowering future generations through the sharing of Aboriginal knowledge and practices.
Artist and Project Officer, Yerrabingin
Jordan is a proud Dharawal woman from the Aboriginal community in La Perouse. She has over 10 years experience working in Aboriginal community development organisations, with expertise in Youth at risk, Aged Care, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Leadership and Organisational Development. Jordan has an incredible ability to engage with diverse groups, drive community initiatives, and maintains a record of creating meaningful impact.
Jordan is a renowned Artist and a qualified Graphic & Spatial Designer with over a decade of experience. Most known for her work seen within the NRL, AFL, Basketball NSW, Local Businesses, Government agencies and many organisations nationwide.
Jordan had her first solo exhibition ‘UNSEEN: My Mind’s Eye’ in 2024. Through her art practice Jordan explores the idea of 'The Unseen: Making Invisible Things Visible' reflecting sounds, movements and emotions of others and her own experiences from around her Aboriginal community, sparking internal and personal navigation of self-identity.
Jordan currently works at Aboriginal owned Designing with Country practice Yerrabingin, as a Project Officer. She has worked on dozens of projects, facilitating deep connections between design practitioners and First Nations communities to achieve Country centred design outcomes throughout NSW and VIC.
Project Manager Gujaga Foundation
David Johnson is a proud Aboriginal leader from the Gweagal Clan of the Dharawal Nation and a Project Manager with the Gujaga Foundation, the peak organisation leading language, cultural and research initiatives within the La Perouse Aboriginal community. Through his work, David is dedicated to preserving and celebrating Aboriginal culture, history and heritage, while strengthening cultural identity for future generations.
David has extensive experience in the repatriation of ancestral remains and culturally significant materials and has played an important role in community-led heritage projects across Coastal Sydney. He was the lead curator of the Mungari Exhibition, a partnership between the Gujaga Foundation and the La Perouse Aboriginal Land Council that shares the stories, resilience and living culture of the local community.
As a cultural educator, storyteller and advocate, David is passionate about truth-telling, environmental stewardship and Aboriginal heritage protection. Hes also a Gamay Ranger, which focuses on environmental and marine mammal protection and Aboriginal heritage.
Indigenous Engagement Officer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Cianna Walker is a proud Walbunja and Gumbaynggirr saltwater woman, musician and Indigenous engagement professional living and working on Gadigal Country. She currently serves as the Indigenous Engagement Officer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she also graduated with First Class Honours in 2025.
Her experience spans higher education, the creative industries and community engagement, with a focus on the intersections of education, culture, policy and social impact. Through her work, Cianna is committed to strengthening educational pathways, advancing equity, and creating spaces where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples feel a genuine sense of belonging.
Working across education, advocacy and the arts, Cianna is passionate about supporting First Nations students, artists and communities, strengthening meaningful relationships and challenging systemic barriers. Her practice is grounded in the importance of cultural identity, representation and self-determination, and the responsibility to create more inclusive, culturally responsive institutions and opportunities for future generations.
(MC)
Chris Mercer has extensive experience working across arts, culture, sustainability and the built environment. He is currently Managing Director of Yerrabingin, a 100% Aboriginal-owned design and advisory practice, and co-founder of Theatre Green Book Australia alongside Dr Grace Nye-Butler.
Previously, Chris was Chief Experience Officer at the National Film and Sound Archive, where he co-designed the institution's place strategy and led the renewal of its award-winning heritage building. His career spans leadership roles with global design and engineering firm Arup, alongside senior production roles at Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir and the National Theatre in London.
An alumnus of UNSW, Chris holds a Master of Environmental Management. Chris is passionate about the role of arts, culture and the built environment in bringing diverse communities together and fostering meaningful relationships between people, cultures and the more than human world. His work explores how these connections can strengthen belonging, reciprocity and shared responsibility for a more sustainable future grounded in care and trust.
Nancy Hillier is known throughout Botany and further afield, for her tireless activism and commitment to local environmental issues. Her campaigning began with protests about ICI’s (later Orica’s) groundwater contamination and chlorine leaks and continued during the expansion of Sydney Airport and Port Botany. She was passionate about reducing industry’s impact on the environment and local community, and earned the moniker ‘the Ratbag of Botany.’
A natural organiser, Nancy always led from the front, which did not go unrecognized. Named 1985 Botany Council citizen of the year, she worked tirelessly in her community, often challenging industry and governments at the highest levels. She received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2006.
Nancy was also tireless in assisting academics and students, many from UNSW, in their research and teaching projects. She also co-authored academic analysis, and wrote many reports, submissions and other public documents. Her own extensive archive is held by Bayside's local Library.
This lecture series acknowledges Nancy’s heritage, recalling her work and passion while providing an avenue for others to debate issues that resonate with Nancy’s work. Over several years, the annual event has helped to forge scholarly and broader community relationships and commitments, and is growing and expanding it’s reach and impact every year.
