Membership open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people

“I was born in 1973 with strong ancestral ties to Pooncarie of the Southern Barkindji Peoples through my great grandmother and Afghan, Irish, Scottish and English heritage. I’m now living, creating , working and studying in Naarm, Melbourne, as an Aboriginal Heritage Guide. I’m passionate about Bio-cultural conservation. My main agenda is sovereignty rights to water.”

Laylah is a young proud Barkindji woman who grew up in Mildura in regional Victoria and has been the youth spokesperson for the Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia from the very start.

Laylah wanted Indigenous youth to have a say in issues which affect them and still does. Laylah has been spurred to run in that election and this federal contest for many of the same reasons we became a political party.

"I was born in 1955 in Wilcannia on the Darling River in New South Wales. I was the first born of ten Wilson kids. My dear old Mum and Dad raised us kids under the gum trees on that river. My Dad is from the Dunghutti tribe from the east coast NSW and Mum was from the Barkindji tribe and we originated from the Lake Mungo tribe. Back then, my parents and grandparents were not recognised as Australians. Or even as people.”

Things have improved, but not enough. That’s why in retirement, Bob wants to use his varied experience and knowledge, including with ATSIC, to give back to the people of Parkes, and especially to his people who are yet to take their rightful place in their own land, where they should be thriving and prospering secure in culture.

Uncle Owen Whyman, a proud Barkandji/Malyangapa man from Wilcannia, is the co-founder and Convenor of the Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia.

An outspoken and active community leader for many years, it was the degradation of his ‘mother’, the sacred Baaka (Darling River) that spurred Uncle Owen into political action. Baaka means ‘river’ and Barkindji means ‘people of the river’.

“We are river people, I am a river man. When our river is in trouble, we all are in trouble.”

Lawrence Brooke is a Kamilaroi man, raised in Wilcannia but now living in Newcastle and working as a self employed builder. He is the Indigenous - Aboriginal Party of Australia's No.2 NSW Senate candidate at this election as he was at the last general election. Lawrence is a stolen generation survivor, having been taken from his mother when he was 18 months old. Like Uncle Owen, he is keenly concerned about environmental issues, especially the protection of the Baaka. Indigenous controlled alternative education for Aboriginal kids failed by the mainstream system is also a major concern for Lawrence, as are a variety of job opportunities for his people.

“I am Peltherre Agnillinga Agkmoura, one of the most ancient names on the planet.”

Uncle Chris has been involved in the land rights movement since the early 80s and was instrumental

in establishing and running Yipirinya, a bilingual, two-way learning primary school for bush kids in

Alice Springs. “I took my activism skills out of politics and legalities, into the healing and the people movement, the people’s healing.”

Prominent Indigenous activist WAYNE (Coco) Wharton has joined the campaign as an Indigenous Aboriginal Party of Australia (IAPA) candidate for the Queensland Senate at the upcoming Federal Election.