Prof. Lester-Irabinna Rigney from the Narungga, Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri nations is a prominent Indigenous educationalist and commentator. He grew up at Point Pearce Mission on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, and on leaving school initially completed an apprenticeship as a diesel mechanic. He then studied for a B.Ed. and later went on to obtain a M.Ed. and a Ph.D. He has worked as a secondary school teacher and as a university lecturer and researcher, and was for many years Director of the Yunggorendi First Nations Centre for Higher Education and Research, at Flinders University. He is Dean of Aboriginal Education and Director of the Wilto Yerlo Centre at the University of Adelaide. Within academia, Rigney has gained widespread recognition for his work on Indigenous education and research methodologies. He has been a visiting research fellow at a number of overseas universities, including Cambridge University, Fort Hare University, and the University of British Columbia. He has served on the editorial board of several national Indigenous Studies journals, and has been regional editor of the International Journal of Post-Colonial Studies. He was inducted into the Australian College of Educators (ACE) in 1998, and was elected to the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Research Advisory Committee in 2002. In 2009 he received an honorary United Nations award for his work on Indigenous Education. In the public sphere, Rigney has been a prominent spokesman on Indigenous matters, and has served as a committee member and adviser to a number of government agencies.
