Jackie Huggins

Jacqueline Gail "Jackie" Huggins (born 19 August 1956) is an Aboriginal Australian author, historian, academic, and advocate for the rights of Indigenous Australians. She has been active in the reconciliation movement, and was co-commissioner for Queensland for the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families from 1995 to 1997. Until 2017, she was deputy director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland. She co-chaired the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples until 2019, when she was appointed co-chair of Queensland Government's Treaty Working Group and Eminent Treaty Process Panel. She has also served on many other boards and organisations in various capacities, and published several books. In April 2025, Huggins was appointed as the inaugural Elder-in-residence at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Early life and education Jacqueline Gail Huggins was born in Ayr, Queensland, on 19 August 1956, the daughter of Jack and Rita Huggins. She is an Aboriginal Australian woman of the Bidjara/Pitjara, Birri Gubba, and Juru peoples of Queensland. Her family moved to Inala in Brisbane when she was young and she attended Inala State High School.

Huggins left school at age 15 to assist her family worked as a typist with the Australian Broadcasting Commission at Toowong, Queensland, from 1972. She earned a Diploma of Education (Aboriginal Education) in 1988. Part of her practical training included eight weeks teaching in Ti-Tree, north of Alice Springs. Huggins completed an honours degree in history/women's studies (1989) from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. She was appointed head of the first women's unit when she was 28 (around 1984), overseeing around 50 women. She has also served on many other boards and organisations in various capacities.

Huggins was a member of the working party involved in the creation of the First Nations Australia Writers Network (FNAWN) in 2012, and remains patron of the organisation.

Huggins was deputy director of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit at the University of Queensland until 2017, and then co-chaired the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples with Rod Little until 2019.

In 2019, after the Queensland Government announced its interest in pursuing a pathway to an Indigenous treaty process, the Treaty Working Group and Eminent Treaty Process Panel were set up, with Huggins and Michael Lavarch co-chairing the Eminent Panel. Their Path to Treaty Report was tabled in Queensland Parliament in February 2020. Huggins said that a process of truth-telling, acknowledging the history of Australia, is a "vital component to moving on". On 13 August 2020, the government announced that it would be supporting the recommendation to move forward on a path to treaty with First Nations Queenslanders.

In April 2025, Huggins was appointed as the inaugural ABC Elder-in-residence. In this role, she will mentor Indigenous staff members and stand up for them.

Personal life Huggins' son was born in 1985. )