Emeritus Professor Jon Altman

Jon has an academic background in economics and anthropology and has undertaken research on Indigenous economic development challenges for more than 40 years since first moving to Australia from Aotearoa/New Zealand in 1976.

He has chaired reviews of the Aboriginal arts industry and new institutions created to manage mining royalties for the Australian government; and was the foundation director of the ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research 1990-2010.

Much of his research now focuses on land rights and native title; Indigenous conservation movements especially on Indigenous titled lands; the Indigenous carbon reduction economy; and the potential for Indigenous landowners to actively participate in the transition to a zero emissions economy.

Jon is a director of a number of not-for-profits including Original Power, the Karrkad-Kanjdji Trust, the Institute of Postcolonial Studies and the Arena Foundation. He has chaired the research committee of The Australia Institute for more than a decade. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and an Honorary Fellow of Te Aparangi The Royal Society of New Zealand; and a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies since 1978.