Tania McLeod

Tania McLeod is a Senior Program Officer at the Fred Hollows Foundation and an experienced advocate for Indigenous peoples’ rights. Tania has worked in community services for over 10 years in Darwin and the Jawoyn region, working in the areas of health, housing, governance and human and Indigenous peoples’ rights awareness.

There is a significant health and life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffer undetected, treatable and preventable chronic conditions. Despite the Australian Human Rights Commission’s ongoing “Close the Gap” campaign, their life expectancy remains around ten years lower than that of non-Indigenous peoples.

Tania joined her first DTP program in 2007 and has since become a very active DTP partner, helping to deliver Human Rights and Advocacy Programs for Indigenous Australians in 2011, 2012 and 2013. She represented DTP alumni in establishing the Indigenous Human Rights Network of Australia, of which she later became chair.

“This is the most empowering course I have had the privilege of attending. Every day a light bulb would come on and I would think about how I could apply this information to my work and my local community activities. It was confirmed to me that I didn’t have a clear picture of what human rights was really about and how they came to be…. now I feel powerful and I am actively sharing my experience and knowledge gained with others in my community”.