Anne Poelina

Associate Commissioner

Professor Anne Poelina was appointed as an Associate Commissioner with the Productivity Commission in January 2024 to work on the National Water Reform 2024 inquiry.

Anne is a Nyikina Warrwa woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council and holds a number of academic positions, including Chair of Indigenous Knowledges at the Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, Adjunct Professor, College of Indigenous Education Futures, Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University, and Research Fellow at the Water Justice Hub, Australian National University.

Anne is an active community leader, human and earth rights advocate, film maker and academic researcher.

Anne is also the inaugural First Nations appointment to the Murray Darling Basin independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences (2022). Co-Winner of the Women Taking Climate Action Award, awarded by the Zonta Club of Melbourne on Yarra and the Zonta International District (2023). She was awarded the Kailisa Bhudevi Earth and Environment Award in 2022 in recognition of her global standing. Anne is also an Ambassador for the Western Australian State Natural Rangelands Management and a Peter Cullen Fellow (2011).

Anne has completed a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Master of Education, Master of Arts (Indigenous Social Policy), Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Health Science Scholar. Her enduring work is centred around her sacred ancestral being, the Martuwarra/Mardoowarra, Fitzroy River, and its right to live and flow.