Professor Martin Nakata

2010 College Recipient. College of Arts, Society and Education

Prof Martin Nakata is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Education & Strategy) and Head of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre at James Cook University in Townsville.

He has worked in areas of Australian Indigenous education for thirty-six years, and in the higher education sector for the last 20 years. He has delivered keynote and plenary addresses in PNG, Malaysia, Taiwan, Sth. Africa, Norway, Scotland, Iceland, US, Peru, and across many cities in Australia, and has published extensively on Indigenous education issues in academic journals and books in Australia and internationally.

He is now one of the leading Indigenous scholars in Australia, and his book Disciplining the savages – Savaging the disciplines published in 2007 was recently published in Spanish by Abya Yala in Quito, Ecuador. He is a Torres Strait Islander, one of Australia’s first people.

Updated June 2016