Paul Briggs OAM

Fellow 2003 - 2007 & Senior Fellow 2014 - 2016

Paul Briggs OAM

Paul Briggs OAM has a wealth of experience across a vast range of sectors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community development.

In addition to being the founding Chairman of the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO), Paul is a member of the Northern Victorian Aboriginal Partnerships Committee and a founding member of the Koori Economic Employment and the Training Agency Committee.

Paul Briggs OAM
He is also the founding Chairman of the First Nations Australian Credit Union -the first Indigenous credit union offering national access to financial services.

Paul is best known as the founding president of the Rumbalara Football and Netball Club in northern Victoria and is a man of vision who has the wellbeing of his community at the core of everything he does. He is currently focusing on:

  • Continuing the strategy on social inclusion, cultural celebration and affirmation, as well as the approach to cultural reform in the Goulburn Valley
  • Develop and imbed an approach to education stimulus, and to strategise the approach to cultural competency across the different sectors
  • Design and deliver the 7th Dungala Kaiela oration
  • Further imbed the successful approach to employment and wealth creation, which includes financial literacy through the First Nations Foundation
  • Design and secure an approach to building a regional knowledge centre, The Munarra Regional Centre of Excellence
  • Build the sustainability of the Rumbalara Football Club, which is in its 18th year of operation
  • At a national level, he is contributing to the design and implementation of “Empowered Communities,” which is an eight region collaboration that includes the Goulburn-Murray region. The other seven regions are North East Arnhem Land, Cape York, APY Lands, Central Coast NSW, Redfern and East and West Kimberly. This is an approach to reform which is based on responding to regional priorities and associated funding allocations, and is supported by the Commonwealth Government
  • Develop strategies to better use the corporate partnerships and staff secondments into the First Nations community
  • Further design and community consultation around governance and structural reform internal to the First Nations community
  • Develop a regional agreement between First Nations organisations and State Regional Government instruments for the purpose of sustaining and prospering the future of First Nations people

Chair and Guidance Obligations:

  • Rumbalara Football and Netball Club (RFNC)
  • Kaiela Institute (Executive Chair)
  • Yorta Yorta Nations Corporation
  • Appointed in 2015 as the Inaugural Chair of the National Indigenous Advisory body to the AFL
  • Member Gana Burrai Steering Committee
  • Member of the Victorian Aboriginal Treaty Working Group
  • Co-Chair of the AFL National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council 2021

Board Participation:

  • Murrup Barak
  • Short Black Opera
  • Melbourne University Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Committee
  • Onemda Health Research
  • Goulburn Murray Health Alliance
  • Murray Football League
  • Goulburn Regional Partnerships Board

The Social Value of an Aboriginal Run Sporting Club:  Paul Briggs launched the report by the Centre for Sport and Social Impact on 7 June 2016 on the social value of an Aboriginal run sporting club.  For photos and more information, please refer to the Gallery section of the website.

In 2022 Paul was honoured by the AFL for the Jack Titus Award for his endless drive to levelling the playing field for First Nations people.