Nova Maree PerisOAM (born 25 February 1971) is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician. As part of the Australian women's field hockey (Hockeyroos) team at the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal. She later switched sports to sprinting and went to the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 2000 Olympic Games. She was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2013 federal election, after then Prime Minister Julia Gillard named her as a "captain's pick", installing her as the preselected Labor candidate over incumbent Labor senator Trish Crossin. She retired from the Senate in 2016.
Early life and education
Peris was born in Darwin, Northern Territory.[1] Her biological father was Indigenous rights activist John Christophersen, although she had no contact with him between the ages of 2 and 16.[2] Her mother, Joan, had been removed from her own mother, and raised in the Catholic mission on Melville Island, as one of the Stolen Generations.[3] She lived with her family in a Housing Commission unit in Fannie Bay, an inner northern suburb; though her family descends from the Gija people people of East Kimberley, the Yawuru people of West Kimberley and the Muran Clan of the Iwatja people of West Arnhem Land.[2][4][5] She is said to have frequently ran away from school, with sport being her main interest.[2] At age 13, she gave ups athletics when she was selected for the national schoolgirl hockey team.[6]
Sporting career
The Gold Medal of Nova Peris, from the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta
Peris was chosen for the Australian Women’s Hockey Team, the Hockeyroos, in 1992.[6] By that time she already had a young daughter, Jessica. She remained in this highly successful team until 1996 when they won the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games.
Peris continued to represent Australia on the athletics track, running over 200 metres at the 1999 World Athletics Championships and 400 metres at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She made the Olympic semi-finals in her individual event and ran in the Australian 4 × 400 metres relay team, which made the final, finishing fifth.
In the Olympic year of 2000, a portrait of her was hung in the Sporting Archibald Prize, painted by Glenda Jones.[9]
In 2005, she sold her Olympic memorabilia to the National Museum of Australia for $140,000.[10] It included her gold medal, hockey stick, Sydney Olympic torch and the running shoes she wore in the Sydney Olympics.[11]
Political career
With Governor General Quentin Bryce, shortly before joining Parliament
On 22 January 2013 the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she would invite Peris to join the Australian Labor Party and stand as a candidate for the Senate in the Northern Territory at the 2013 election.[12] On 29 January 2013 her preselection was endorsed by the ALP executive 19 votes to 2, meaning her name was placed first on the ALP's senate ticket in the Northern Territory, supporting the likelihood that she would become Australia's first female Indigenous federal parliamentarian.[13]
On 7 September 2013 Peris became Australia's first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament.[14] Peris was sworn into parliament on 12 November, and noted the apology to the stolen generation in her maiden speech.[15][16]
The Northern Territory News obtained, what they claimed were private emails of now Senator Peris, in October 2014.[17] The newspaper claimed she was conducting an affair with another athlete, and had had sought government funding to arrange a trip together.[18] No evidence was ever produced for the allegations and claims about hacked emails were later dismissed by Federal Police.[19]
Peris announced on 24 May 2016 that she would not nominate to re-contest her Senate seat at the 2016 federal election.[20][21] Fairfax and the ABC reported that Peris was one of the frontrunners being considered to replace Jason Mifsud as head of diversity for the Australian Football League (AFL).[20]Malarndirri McCarthy announced on 25 May 2016 that she had been invited by Labor to nominate herself as Peris' Senate replacement and that she would do so.[22] Nova Peris's Senate term ended at the double dissolution of 9 May 2016.
Post political life
Although she has left Parliamentary politics, Peris has stayed involved in several high-level political causes, such as the 2023 Voice to Paraliament referendum.[23] In speeches and in an opinion piece, she argued the reform would include Indigenous Australians in national life more.[24][25] In 2023, she was one of several high-profile Indigenous Australians calling for reparations.[26]
She is a strong advocate for education. In 2012 she became the founder and Patron of the Nova Peris Girls' Academy at St Johns Catholic College, in Darwin.[27] As of November 2020[update] Peris is an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.[28]
Peris has actively supported the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) since 1999, serving as one of its two Deputy Chairs by 2022, and its co-chair from March 2023.[29][30][31] However, by May 2024, she had resigned from the role, saying it had become untenable whilst co-chair, footballer and human rights activist Craig Foster, was making "inaccurate and divisive public statements" regarding Israel and Gaza.[32] She has been a vocal supporter of Israel, of the Australian Jewish Community, and has been recently noted for her public advocacy against antisemitism.[33][34]Peris also argued that the Australian Aboriginal flag has been "misappropriated" by Palestine supporters in the Israel–Hamas war protests, a claim challenged by indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe and indigenous academic Chelsea Watego, who noted the history of Aboriginal-Palestinian solidarity in the framework of understanding settler colonialism.[35] In a 2024 interview with Sky News Australia, she defended her decision to resign from ARM by saying:
"I have a duty I feel as an Aboriginal person who has always stood against all forms of racial discrimination, and I hate the rise of anti-Semitism in this country and I feel for the Jewish people and everyone who has been affected..."[36]
Scott Appleton proposed to Peris in South Africa in March, the couple have been married since 2012.[39]
She had previously been married to Daniel Batman.[40] The couple had two children, though they separated in 2010; with Batman later dying in a car accident.[41][42] Previous to that she had been married to Sean Kneebone, who she had met when she was 17 and married in 1995. While married to Kneebone, she adopted the surname Peris-Kneebone but reverted following their divorce in 2001.[43][40] From this time, Peris has three children: Jessica (with Kneebone) and Destiny and Jack (with Batman). She became a grandmother at the age of 40.[44] Her son Jack is a footballer for the Essendon Football Club.[45]
As a child, her family attended St Martin De Porres Catholic Community at Casuarina church regularly; she still considers herself a Christian, while keeping an active interest in Australian spirituality.[43]
Published work
Peris, Nova (2003). Nova: my story; the autobiography of Nova Peris (with I Heads). Sydney: ABC Books. ISBN0733311660. OCLC57206438.
Peris, Nova (1 August 2018). Finding my voice. Sydney: Wilkinson Publishing (published 2003). ISBN978-1925642506. OCLC57206438.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
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