senator Patrick Dodson Contact information

Patrick Lionel Djargun Dodson is an Australian politician and Yawuru elder known for his significant contributions to Aboriginal rights and reconciliation in Australia. He was born on 29 January 1948 in Broome, Western Australia to John “Snowy” Dodson and Patricia, an Indigenous Australian. When he was two, his family moved to Katherine in the Northern Territory to escape Western Australian laws prohibiting mixed-race families.

Tragically, Patrick and his brother Mick were orphaned at the age of 12, and they became wards of the state. Nevertheless, they were given a scholarship to study at Monivae College in Hamilton, Victoria, where Patrick excelled academically and became head prefect and captain of football. He then enrolled in Corpus Christi College, Melbourne, to study for the priesthood and became the first Aboriginal person to be ordained as a Catholic priest in Australia in May 1975.

Patrick Dodson served as a priest for several years but left the priesthood in the early 1980s due to his conflicting views about the balance and blend of Catholicism and Aboriginal spiritual belief. He then began to work in public service, where he held various positions, including Director of the Central Land Council and the Kimberley Land Council, Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, and Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1991 to 1997.

Dodson was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2008 and the John Curtin Medal in 2009 for his significant contributions to the field of Indigenous rights and reconciliation. He also served as Adjunct Professor at the University of Notre Dame Australia and Chairman of the Lingiari Foundation, an Indigenous non-government advocacy and research Foundation. In addition, he was the inaugural Director of the Indigenous Policy, Dialogue and Research Unit (IPDRU) at the University of New South Wales.

On 2 March 2016, Patrick Dodson was appointed as a Labor Senator for Western Australia to replace Joe Bullock, who had resigned. The Parliament of Western Australia appointed him to the Australian Senate on 2 May 2016. Dodson retained his seat at the 2016 federal election and has since served on various Senate committees, including as joint chair of the Joint Select Committee into Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Dodson was added to the shadow ministry in May 2016 and was later appointed shadow assistant minister for indigenous affairs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. He supported the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full, which called for constitutional recognition and a voice to the Indigenous people of Australia. Dodson also served on the “Inquiry into the destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia,” which delivered its interim report in December 2020.

Following the 2022 federal election, Patrick Dodson was appointed Special Envoy for Reconciliation and Implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Dodson has been recognized for his significant contributions to public service and holds an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Melbourne and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of New South Wales. In 2012, he gave the inaugural Gandhi Oration at the University of New South Wales.