Australian of the Year

Dr Joel Liddle is an Arrernte Australian academic, researcher and language advocate whose work has made profound contributions to Indigenous wellbeing and Indigenous language visibility. 

Working on the frontline of language and knowledge revitalisation in Central Australia, Joel addresses a problem with far-reaching consequences: the loss of Indigenous knowledge systems and the dilution of the languages that carry them. He builds the tools to reverse it, digital platforms like Indigemoji, and community projects like the Arrernte street signs, promoting language literacy, maintenance and transmission. 

In 2023, Joel published the first peer reviewed academic journal article written entirely in an Australian Indigenous language, an Arrernte translation of his co-authored research. 

His doctoral research found that the loss of Indigenous knowledge negatively impacts Indigenous mental health and wellbeing, and the consequences affect all Australians. 

His work now extends across the region: supporting language initiatives, repatriating knowledge held in ethnographic archives, and ensuring that Central Australia’s languages, and the intimate knowledge of this landscape they carry, remain strong, so that all Australians can come to appreciate the complexity, depth and richness of Indigenous societies.