Mick Dodson

Michael (Mick) Dodson AM (b. 1950) is a Yawuru man from the southern Kimberley in Western Australia. Orphaned at ten, he was educated by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Monivae College in Hamilton, Victoria. He studied law at Monash University and in 1981 became Victoria’s first Aboriginal barrister. In 1988 he gained national attention as counsel assisting the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. As Australia's first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner from 1993 to 1998 he co-authored the Bringing Them Home report that illuminated the history of the Indigenous people who became known as the Stolen Generations. Dodson is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University and was Director of the ANU National Centre for Indigenous Studies from its establishment in 2005 until 2018. 'Upholding human rights is about looking out for each other,' Dodson has stated, 'sometimes we don’t speak up when we should.'

Ricky Maynard is an Indigenous Tasmanian photographer who was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery to create this portrait of Dodson in 2010. 'I wanted the portrait to express a quiet strength and dignity. One thing that comes through in all of my work is the indomitable spirit of Aboriginal people. I do not strive for it, but it always presents itself in some way … Here you have two strong Aboriginal men involved in the picture-making act and as well as having culture as a bond we are both humanitarians.'

Commissioned with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 2010
© Ricky Maynard