QTU welcomes new First Nations Officer
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 129 No 2, 28 March 2024, page 4.
State Council has appointed Micheal Beale as the QTU’s First Nations Officer.
Micheal is a Wailwan man with cultural connections to the Gomeroi people and Wakka Wakka people. A former state school student, he completed his teacher qualifications at James Cook University through the Remote Area Teacher Education Program mode (now more commonly known as RATEP) and was awarded a Master of Indigenous Education in 2021. A QTU activist based in Townsville and teaching at Currajong SS and Kirwan SHS, he was previously a member of the QTU’s Gandu Jarjum and Professional Issues Committees and was our Project Officer – Voice Campaign in 2023.
Micheal is the second person to be appointed to the First Nations Officer position, succeeding Rachel Bos, who has taken up a role as First Nations Educator at the ACTU. Rachel did wonderful work to establish the QTU’s initial Reconciliation Action Plan, which Micheal intends to review and update, as well as developing a Stretch RAP.
One of Micheal’s priorities for the new role is to identify and empower QTU First Nations members to be more active in all of the QTU’s decision-making structures.
He is working closely with Gandu Jarjum committee members to advance the committee’s ambitious 2024 workplan. The committee is planning to hold the QTU’s Land, Language, Culture: Belonging, First Nations Conference in Townsville in September of this year.
We warmly welcome Micheal into the role.