Dr Debra Dank

I am Gudanji/Wakaja, and we are the people from the Barkly Tablelands in the Northern Territory.

For almost 40 years I have worked in various roles in primary, secondary, and tertiary education including class teacher (primary and secondary), special education teacher, senior teacher, regional consultant, regional manager, lecturer, senior lecturer, and Head of School (tertiary). I have worked in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and the Northern Territory in urban and remote contexts.

I worked to establish the Indigenous Literacy Foundation which included extensive work with remote communities to develop a robust but flexible service delivery model that supported place-based, community-identified responses to literary needs in early childhood education, provision of appropriate literature for remote communities, and the production of reading material for English as a Second language contexts. 

I am particularly interested in understanding more about how narrative, in its broadest sense, is practiced in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities and what role semiotics plays in that understanding. 

I am passionate about the environment. With my place located on the Beetaloo Basin, I work to protect Country and Aboriginal people's right to maintain our identity through our kinship with Country.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University

• Master of Education Deakin University