Traditional Opening Ceremony
In acknowledgement of the Wurundjeri people, traditional owners of the land on which the conference will take place, the opening ceremony will be conducted by Joy Murphy. Fay Marles, the Chancellor of the University and Di Bretherton, the Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre will then welcome participants from Australia and overseas.
After a brief interlude Jose Ramos Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate and Minister of Foreign Affairs for East Timor will give an address, setting the key themes and issues of the conference.
Speakers include:
- Joy Murphy - Welcome Ceremony
- Fay Marles
- Diane Bretherton
- Jose Ramos-Horta - Opening Keynote
Joy Murphy Wandin is an Aboriginal Elder of the Wurundjeri people. Joy has been involved with Aboriginal issues for 30 years and is Chairperson of the Australian Indigenous Consultative Assembly. She has held executive positions across the sectors of Government.
Joy is an honorary Professor of Swinburne University, a Trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria, a member of the Victoria Police Ethical Standards Consultative Committee and the Equal Opportunity Commission, she also operates her own business Jarlo Visions.
Her election as the 18th Chancellor of the University of Melbourne in February 2002 marked a new opportunity for Fay Marles to demonstrate her commitment to the University's life. She has had past involvement in the University Council, several committees and task forces as well as the Equal Opportunity policy, for which her personal interest and solid experience in the areas of workforce equity or efficiency and dispute resolution - in both public and private sectors - were solicited and appreciated. During her present term of office, she will encourage the increasing in the number of indigenous graduates as well as the graduate and Alumni support in preparation of the University's 150th Anniversary Celebrations in 2003.
Diane Bretherton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Melbourne, where she also serves as the Director of the International Conflict Resolution Centre (ICRC). She is an active member of several prestigious associations or committees, such as the Australian Council of Foreign Affairs, the Committee for the Psychological Study of Peace of the International Union of Psychological Science (chair), the division of Political Psychology of the International Association of Applied Psychology (President elect), inter alia.
Dr Bretherton has extensive experience in the theory and practice, and the teaching and research of conflict resolution. Her expertise and commitment were enhanced by practical experience in China, South Africa, Sri Lanka (1991-95), or Vietnam, among others. Her standing as a peace educator and a psychologist genuinely committed to the values of peace was attested to by the invitation to join the Culture of Peace Program at the Headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, with the task of implementing the International Year for Culture of Peace (1998-99). As the Director of the ICRC, she conducted or was associated to numerous action research projects, including investigations into the cultural dimensions of conflict resolution; a comparative study of the experience of racism by Aboriginal and Vietnamese Australians; gender, power and participation in modern societies; research on the integration of history and memory into conflict resolution mechanisms
Opening Keynote Address
Experience With the United NationsTBA
Jose Ramos Horta was born in East Timor to an East Timorese mother and a Portuguese father. He was exiled in 1970-1971 to Mozambique by the Portuguese administration. A radio and television journalist from 1969 until 1974, he was appointed Minister for External Affairs and Information in the first Transitional Government of the Democratic republic of East Timor. He was the permanent representative of FRETILIN at the UN from 1976 until 1989 and has been a tireless advocate for a free and independent East Timor, to governments, the media and at international fora such as the UN Security Council, the General Assembly Decolonisation Committee and the Commission on Human Rights of the European Parliament. His work on behalf of the people of East Timor saw him awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace prize, as a joint recipient with Bishop Belo. The Committee considered him "the leading international spokesman for East Timor's cause since 1975." His Excellency Dr Jose Ramos-Horta is Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation for East Timor.