Dr Emily Poelina-Hunter is an academic and Associate Investigator in the Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (Monash University node).  Her community work on Birr Nganka Nyikina the first English-Nyikina dictionary (published in 2014) strengthened her connection to Country, and her language work continues to inform her teaching philosophy and community development perspectives. In 2019 she gained her PhD in Archaeology from The University of Melbourne and became the third Aboriginal Australian to receive a doctorate in this discipline.

Her current research project ‘Ngayoo Wiliyanoo: I am the freshwater mussel’ investigates the ways Nyikina people use freshwater mussels (her personal totem).