"Let's start to undo the wrongs with what is right and just."
Nova Peris OAM
Politician and Olympian
Specialty Areas
About Me
Nova Maree Peris OAM is an indigenous Australian of the Muran people from Kakadu and Arnhem Land as well as a champion athlete and politician.
As part of the Australian women’s hockey (Hockeyroos) team at the 1996 Olympic Games, Nova was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal and later became a dual gold medallist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in the sport of Track and Field.
She was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2013 federal election, after then Prime Minister Julia Gillard handpicked her as the preselected Labor candidate. Nova is the first Aboriginal female in federal politics as well as the Labor Party’s first Aboriginal member in Federal Parliament. Nova was sworn in to parliament on 12 November, and noted the apology to the stolen generation in her maiden speech.
Nova is currently working as a Principal Adviser at the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.
