Dr Emily Poelina-Hunter is an academic living in Melbourne. 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.

Emily is currently a Lecturer in the Aboriginal Studies discipline at La Trobe University in Melbourne where she coordinates and teaches several undergraduate subjects that are core to the Major in Aboriginal Studies. She is also co-Chair of La Trobe University’s First Nations Research Cluster. Her current research project ‘Ngayoo Wiliyanoo: I am the freshwater mussel’ investigates the ways Nyikina people use freshwater mussels (her personal totem).

A supporter of decolonisation and the reconciliation movement, Emily has volunteered for Reconciliation Victoria since 2019, and joined the Board in 2022.