John Moriarty

Yanyuwa man John Moriarty AM is Moriarty Foundation's Co-Founder and Emeritus Co-Chair. John has had a lifelong commitment to advocacy for Aboriginal equality, reconciliation and cultural engagement. He was an active campaigner in the 1967 Referendum for Aboriginal people to become citizens of Australia, and formerly held executive positions in Federal and State Departments of Aboriginal Affairs. He is the recipient of the Order of Australia (AM), the St Peters Citizenship Award and the Advance Australia Award for Service to Industry and Commerce, a UNESCO Achievement Award, the Good Design Australian Design Prize, the Design Institute of Australia President’s Award, and a Northern Territory Pioneer of Sport. In 2022, John was a finalist in the NSW Australian of the Year Awards.

John is a hall of fame inductee of Football Australia, the Australian Institute of Design, and the Australian Graphic Design Association. He is a Churchill Fellow, a Convocation Medalist of the University of South Australia, and an Honorary Doctor of both the University of South Australia and Flinders University, SA. In 2018 John was named by Charles Darwin University as a Companion of the University.
John's Board appointments have included Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board of the Australia Council and Deputy Chair of Indigenous Business Australia (IBA).

John's autobiography, Saltwater Fella, (Penguin 2000) was Highly Commended in the Australian Human Rights Commission Literary Awards.