Susan Moylan-Coombs has extensive experience of working within Aboriginal Affairs in government and non-government organisations. She has over two decades of experience as a Producer and Director for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), with notable moments including directing the outside broadcast of Paul Keating’s Redfern Park Speech at the Australian Launch of the International Year for the World’s Indigenous People, and being Co-Executive Producer of the broadcast of Kevin Rudd’s National Apology to Stolen Generations. She has carried out influential policy research whilst working in government, and is Creator & Chair of the Guringai Festival, which celebrates Australia’s First Peoples’ culture in the Northern Sydney Region.

Moylan-Coombs began her career as a Producer and Director at the ABC, working on mainstream programs and in the Indigenous Programs Unit, on programs such as BlackOut, Play School, Backchat and Message Stick. In 2003, she moved to become a Project Officer, researching and writing the 2005?Northern Sydney Aboriginal Social Plan, which was to become a blueprint for service delivery by Government Departments within the region. She became a Senior Policy Officer at the Department of Human Services in the Aboriginal Unit and assisted the Policy Unit Manager to write state-wide policy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living within NSW. The position also oversaw the Dementia Project; her work at the Department of Human Services resulted in the creation of resources and informed policy.

In May 2006, she returned to work as a series producer on ABC television on the award-winning series Message Stick. This lead to her promotion to Executive Producer of the Indigenous Programs Unit, making her the unit’s first Aboriginal Executive Producer. In August 2010, Moylan-Coombs left the ABC to become Strategy and Stakeholder Manager for National Indigenous Television (NITV), where she worked closely with the CEO to lobby the Federal Government to ensure the longevity of NITV. In 2011, she became Head of Production; she then moved on to working for NITV within a division of SBS until August 2013.

Moylan-Coombs currently works as an Australia’s First Peoples Wellness Consultant, through which she works with the community care sector towards better engagement with others from culturally diverse backgrounds, using the principles and ideas from the oldest surviving living culture on the planet, Australia’s first people.

Ms Susan Moylan-Coombs

Chairperson, Guringai Festival

• Australia’s First Peoples Wellness Consultant, Community Care Northern Beaches (2013-2014)
• Executive Producer, IPU ABC TV (2007-2010)
• Project Officer, Northern Sydney Aboriginal Social Plan (2003-2005)