Dr Jeff McMullen
Journalist, author and film-maker for over fifty years, Dr Jeff McMullen AM has been a foreign correspondent for Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a reporter for Four Corners and Sixty Minutes, anchor of the 33-part issue series on ABC Television, Difference of Opinion and host of forums on National Indigenous Television.
Recent documentaries have focussed on the human rights of Australia’s First Peoples, the impact of the Northern Territory Intervention on Aboriginal wellbeing and the pattern of chronic illness taking many lives.
Articles and speeches on the global pattern of chronic illness, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, malnutrition and other conditions of poverty impacting maternal and infant health, the links between low birth-weight and renal illness, education as a preventative health measure and new approaches to wellness can be found at www.jeffmcmullen.com.au
As a foundational director of Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) Jeff McMullen has worked closely with Jack Manning Bancroft and other Indigenous educators in growing the most successful Australian mentoring program for more than 10,000 Indigenous students with 93% of them completing Year 12 and 34% entering tertiary education. AIME has seeded this Aboriginal education initiative in South Africa, Uganda and Canada.
McMullen is also a director of the Engineering Aid Australia Indigenous Summer School program, building a growing number of Indigenous engineers. For fourteen years McMullen served as Honorary CEO of Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth, establishing early learning support for young mothers and the Literacy Backpack program in 22 remote communities. He was a foundational Trustee of the Jimmy Little Foundation, focussed on improving Aboriginal access to dialysis and promoting healthier nutrition.
Over the past two decades, McMullen has chaired forums for the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA), NACCHO and Aboriginal health organisations in NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria, as well as the Northern Territory’s first conference focussed on Indigenous suicide prevention. He worked closely with the Sunrise Health Service Aboriginal Corporation in the Katherine region, developing maternal and infant health programs.
A long-term patron of the Merry Maker’s Down’s Syndrome troupe and Mirabel, the foundation working to support the extended families caring for children who have died from drug overdose, McMullen also contributed to the University of Canberra’s Healthpact Center, promoting health and social equality for all Australian children.
In 2006 McMullen was awarded an Order of Australia (AM), for service to journalism and efforts to raise awareness of economic, social and human rights issues in Australia and overseas, as well as service to charity.
In “Dispossession: Neo-Liberalism and the Struggle for Aboriginal Land and Rights in the 21st Century” (IN BLACK & WHITE published by Connor Court 2013) Jeff McMullen analyses the ideology and market forces shaping Indigenous policy and impacting efforts to create wellbeing.
McMullen’s film, East Coast Encounter, is now travelling Australia as part of an exhibition by leading artists, poets and historians who explore Aboriginal perspectives on James Cook’s 1770 contact with Aboriginal people and the resulting history.
“A LIFE OF EXTREMES – JOURNEYS AND ENCOUNTERS” (HarperCollins Australia 2001) examines the global pattern of conflict, environmental degradation and species extinction, as well as sharing ideas from some of the world’s bravest individuals on a brighter future for the human family.
“INTERVENTION: An Anthology” (Concerned Australians 2015) edited by Rosie Scott and Anita Heiss includes Jeff McMullen’s essay, “Rolling Thunder – Voices Against Oppression” which argues that crushing Aboriginal control over community life has more than doubled the damage to child well-being, and contributed to escalation of illness, suicide and incarceration.
Dr Jeff McMullen AM’s “VINCENT LINGIARI MEMORIAL LECTURE of 2015.” at Charles Darwin University contends that recognition of Aboriginal sovereignty is key to improving Indigenous wellbeing.
Read about NOFASD’s other Australian Ambassadors and our International Ambassadors
