John Kundereri Moriarty AM is Chairman and Co-owner of the Jumbana Group, Australia’s leading indigenous art, design and brand strategy entity, operating domestically and internationally since 1983. He is also the Principal of John Moriarty & Associates, an Indigenous communications and facilitation practice. Born at Borroloola in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory, John was taken from his mother at the age of four and brought up in a number of boys’ homes in Sydney and Adelaide under the then government’s assimilation policy. This motivated a lifelong commitment to advocacy for Aboriginal equality, reconciliation and cultural preservation. Today a full member of the Yanyuwa people of his birthplace and belonging ceremonially to the Rainbow Snake and Kangaroo Dreaming, John has held senior and executive positions in Departments of Aboriginal Affairs at both Federal and State Government levels (see: http://www.celebrityspeakers.com.au/brspeaker_bio.asp?Speaker_Index_Text=186 ).
John Kundereri Moriarty AM on the PM Kevin Rudd “Sorry”, the National Apology to the Stolen Generations (February 2008): “It doesn't tell what the Stolen Generation really is. I'm questioning the cultural genocide aspect. I think it's an appeasement in the sense that it's saying sorry, but it doesn't get down to the real crux of the issue, in my view, that people like me were taken away from their full-blooded mothers to breed out the culture. It doesn't come to that. It doesn't hit home with me.” [1].
[1]. John Kundereri Moriarty quoted in “Kevin Rudd’s national apology to Stolen Generations”, News.com, Febraury 2008: http://www.news.com.au/national/pm-moves-to-heal-the-nation/story-e6frfkw9-1111115539560 .