John D Anderson is a Traditional Owner from the Nywaigi People around Ingham and Mamu People around Innisfail in North Queensland with traditional owner connections to the Central West and Central Highlands regions of Central Queensland.

John has over 40 years of Government, corporate and community sector experience both domestically and internationally, where he’s earned a well-respected reputation for cultural and moral integrity – a sought-after quality in establishing Queensland as the premier Australian destination for authentic First Peoples cultural tourism experiences and services.

He is an active domestic and international traveller with professional and customer experience with First Peoples’ cultural tourism products and services and with tourism focusing on health and wellbeing, music and cultural festivals.

Key Attributes and Roles:

• Represented Indigenous worker rights including keynote addresses to international forums in Yokohama, Japan; Ottawa, Canada; and in Perth, Cairns, Brisbane, Toowoomba and Melbourne, Australia.
• Highly skilled cross-cultural corporate governance specialist including Trustee, Chair and Director roles of numerous Indigenous economic, social, cultural and native title organisations plus a term as a Council Member of Central Queensland University - Queensland’s first dual-sector University. 
• Various appointments including to the Queensland Government Stolen Wages Reparations Taskforce 2015-2018; one of two community representatives to the Crime Reference Committee of Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission in July 2018, and to the Queensland Tourism Industry Council to help lead the development of an Indigenous Tourism Strategy for Queensland.
• Holds Social Science, Civil Engineering Design, Communications and Journalism tertiary qualifications and is a member of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Grants Management.
• Currently providing advocacy services to ChangeFest in growing a National Network of Communities who actively model the transformative social principles of community-led decision-making and place-based development consistent with the elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.