Keynote speaker: TEAGAN SHIELDS

‘Empowering Aboriginal-led Traditional Knowledge for biodiversity conservation in Australia’ 

Teagan Shields is a proud Arabana descendant, her family are displaced people as a result of stolen generation and have lived off Country for three generations. She grew up in Newcastle (Awabakal country) and has worked in the public sector across three states. Teagan has worked in the community engagement and environmental sector for over 15 years including in NSW, QLD and WA as well as at an international level as an ambassador to the World Indigenous Network. She managed and developed the stakeholder engagement strategy for service reform and redesign coordinating the community engagement across WA, with regional and remote Aboriginal communities.

Teagan is currently undertaking a PhD with the University of Melbourne; Investigating systemic changes to empower Indigenous Land and Sea Managers in biodiversity conservation. Currently serving as Deputy Chair of the federal Minister for the Environment’s Indigenous Advisory Committee, Teagan also serves on several committees and boards, including the Biodiversity Council, the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance and the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. Teagan is an Indigenous Research Fellow at Curtin University, working under the Resilient Landscape Hub of NESP.