The Wheeler Centre

The inaugural Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People shares her powerful story of fighting systemic injustice. Proud Bundjalung and Widubul-Wiabul woman Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts has experienced the injustices of the Australian legal system firsthand. Forcibly removed from her family and community at age ten, she spent her adolescence in out-of-home care. She later became a human rights lawyer, and last year was appointed the inaugural Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People. For the 2024 E. W. Cole Lecture, Turnbull-Roberts shares how her personal experience led to a career spent advocating for and amplifying the voices of First Nations children. From the out-of-home care system in Australia to the practices of family policing, she will discuss the institutional structures that enable the removal and incarceration of First Nations children and young people. This annual lecture honours the legacy of E. W. Cole of Cole’s Book Arcade by inviting Australia’s brightest thinkers to deliver talks that spark progressive and future-thinking ideas for our society. A Q&A will follow the lecture with the host to be announced soon. Presented in partnership with Blak & Bright. Supported by the E. W. Cole Foundation.