Olga Havnen

Olga Havnen is an Aboriginal leader, advocate and activist in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is currently the chief executive officer of the Danila Dilba Health Service in Darwin, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service.

Early life

Havnen is of Western Arrente descent and grew up in Tennant Creek. Her great-grandfather was Ah Hong, a Chinese cook who worked on the Overland Telegraph Line and her great-grandmother Ranijika was a Western Arrernte woman. Their daughter Gloria, Havnen's grandmother, was the first Aboriginal woman to own a house in Alice Springs. Havnen's father was a Norwegian sailor who jumped ship in Adelaide and her mother, Pegg, lived in Tennant Creek. Havnen went to boarding school in Townsville, Queensland.

Career Havnen has held positions as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Programs Co-ordinator for the Australian Red Cross, Senior Policy Officer in the Northern Territory Government's Indigenous Policy Unit, Indigenous Programs Director with the Fred Hollows Foundation, and Executive Officer with the National Indigenous Working Group.

Havnen was the Coordinator General of Remote Service Provision from 2011 until October 2012, when the Northern Territory Government controversially abolished the position.

She released one report which detailed deficiencies in Northern Territory and Commonwealth Government’s service provision to remote communities in the Northern Territory.

She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Danila Dilba Health Service in Darwin, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service.