Several family groupings will be among the 151 graduates expected for the CQU Bundaberg graduation ceremony this weekend (Saturday, 10.30am).

Family members graduating together include husband and wife Bill and Helen Keen (now working together at Tara Shire State College in south-western Queensland), mother Sharlene and daughter Deane Peterson (both working as teachers in Bundaberg region), husband Robin and wife Llewellyn Swallow (now both working in Canberra) and sisters Amy and Sally Barnett. Amy is now working in Brisbane as a nurse and Sally is also in Brisbane working as an accountant.

CQU Bundaberg Education lecturer Helen Huntly will be awarded with a Doctor of Education degree for her thesis on "Beginning teachers' conceptions of competence." Musical performances will feature from Bundaberg Youth Choir Vocal Ensemble, Shalom College String Quartet and vocalist Robin Edgar.

Guest speaker Lillian Holt (pictured), BA Qld, MA Colorado, has worked in Aboriginal education for the past 30 years and is a former Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Indigenous Education.

She is currently a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne, a position she has held since 2003. In 2004 Lillian was awarded a Gandhi/King/Ikeda Peace Prize by Morehouse College in the United States of America, for her work in peace and reconciliation and was also named in the top ten finalists of The Bulletin magazine’s Smart 100 Society section.

Over the last 20 years, Lillian has been a member of many committees, including the Catholic Education Commission’s Aboriginal Consultative Group and the Labour and Employment Aboriginal Reference Group on the Warren Snowden Committee. She has served as an Executive Member of the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education (Sri Lanka), the International Council of Adult Education (Canada), the State Ministerial Advisory Committee on Community Adult Education and the Australian Association of Adult and Community Education.

Her Ministerial appointments include the South Australian Aboriginal Education Training Advisory Committee and the Tandanya (National Aboriginal Cultural Institute). Between 1993 and 1996 Lillian was the Patron of the “Future of Work” Project conducted by the Brotherhood of St Laurence in Melbourne.Lillian is passionately interested in literature and language and has been a member of the Programming Committee for the Melbourne Writers Festival for the last three years.

She has travelled extensively throughout the world and has spoken at a diverse range of events in Australia, England, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines and Rio De Janeiro. She has also published several papers and is currently working towards her PhD on “Aboriginal Humour”. ENDS.

For details Sandy Lowien 4930 9093 s.lowien@cqu.edu.au or Ruth Haywood 4150 7038 or r.haywood@cqu.edu.au