Dr Emily Poelina-Hunter is an academic and Lecturer in the Monash Indigenous Studies Center at Monash University in Melbourne where she coordinates and teaches several undergraduate subjects that are core to the Major in Indigenous Studies.  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 First Nations 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).