Federation University Australia Professor Emma Lee awarded Order of Australia
Federation University Australia Professor Emma Lee has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM), General Division, for service to the Indigenous community in Tasmania, in the 2025 Australia Day Honours list announced on 26 January by the Governor General of Australia, Sam Mostyn, AC.
Professor Lee, a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country, north-east Tasmania, is a Professorial Research Fellow with Federation's National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice and a founding board member of the Land and Sea Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania (LSACT), a social enterprise comprised of multiple Aboriginal organisations that helped establish the first Aboriginal at-scale abalone fishery in Australia, and the first registered charity to hold commercial rights to abalone globally.
In 2021, Professor Lee became the first Indigenous Australian editor of a Best Practice Guideline for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and in 2022 Professor Lee was a finalist for Australian of the Year (Tasmania) for her body of work in Indigenous rights. In 2023 she became the first Indigenous woman to be a global recipient of a Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation and in 2024, Professor Lee chaired the Blue Economy session at ASEAN-Australia Special Summit, where experts gathered to enhance practical maritime cooperation and economic activities associated with the region's oceans and seas.
Quote attributable to Federation University Australia Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Duncan Bentley
“Congratulations to Professor Emma Lee on being awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her work in advocating for the rights of First Nation’s Peoples. Her research and social impact with Federation’s National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth and Justice is so valuable in ensuring the university is a culturally safe space for research, practice, learning and teaching.”
Quotes attributable to Federation University Australia Associate Professor Emma Lee
“This OAM is more a reflection of the incredible Aboriginal Elders and communities who have invested their cultural knowledge in me. I could not achieve social impact without the commitment and dedication of Aboriginal people and our cultures, together with allies and supporters, to increase Indigenous rights.”
“Federation University is the perfect place for me to continue my research and practice as our values of inclusion, excellence and empowerment are central to my work. I look forward to representing Federation University in new ways with this incredible honour of an OAM.”
Quote attributable to Federation University Australia Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Reconciliation, Professor Andrew Gunstone
“I am absolutely delighted that Professor Emma Lee has been awarded an OAM for ‘service to the Indigenous community in Tasmania’. I warmly congratulate Professor Lee on this richly deserved recognition of her wonderfully transformational work. We are honoured to have Professor Lee working with us at the National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice.”