University academic, award-winning film maker and author, publisher and activist Stephen Hagan was named the 2006 NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) Aboriginal Person of the Year.
Stephen Hagan / Author biography
Stephen Hagan is a descendant of the Kullilli people of south west Queensland and has the totem of the boida (red kangaroo). Disillusioned with teaching, Hagan made a career move and in Canberra worked with various Indigenous organisations under charismatic leader Charles Perkins. Hagan subsequently worked in a string of public service roles including time as a diplomat in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Information / http://www.stephenhagan.net
Hagan has become known in recent years as a commentator on race relations and for his relentless legal battle to remove the word ‘Nigger’ from a sign; E.S. “Nigger” Brown Stand, at a sports ground in the Queensland town of Toowoomba resulting in the publication of his first book, The N Word, One Man’s Stand. Stephen has represented his people at several international forums in India, the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the U.S.A. and in 2006 addressed a United Nations (UN) conference on Urban Indigenous Peoples and Migration in Santiago, Chile.
