Jackie Huggins, has maintained a lifetime commitment to Reconciliation in Queensland and across Australia. Reconciliation Queensland is honoured to have Jackie as a patron and acknowledges her tireless work and advocacy in eradicating injustice and educating non-Indigenous peoples through an action-based reconciliation process.

Jackie Huggins AM FAHA, is a member of the Bidjara and Birri-Gubba Juru peoples. Jackie holds many leadership positions in organisations across the country. She is the Co-Chair of the Treaty Advancement Commission (Qld). She is a Director of the Telstra Foundation; Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Work and Applied Human Sciences, University of Queensland; Member of the Indigenous Advisory Board of the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, Central Queensland University; former Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia; former Chair of the Queensland Domestic Violence Council (2001); former Commissioner for Queensland for the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families (1997); and former member of the ATSIC Review Panel (2003).

Jackie authored Auntie Rita (with Rita Huggins 1994) and Sister Girl (1999). In 2000 she received the Premier’s Millennium Award for Excellence in Indigenous Affairs; in 2001 she was awarded an Australia Medal (AM) for her work with Indigenous people, particularly reconciliation, literacy, women’s issues and social justice; and in 2007 Jackie was named University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year. In 2022, Jackie released a new edition of Sister Girl: Reflections on Tiddaism, Identity and Reconciliation.

Quentin Bryce has enjoyed a rich and distinguished career as an academic, lawyer, community and human rights advocate, senior public officer, university college principal and vice-regal representative in Queensland and for Australia. Reconciliation Queensland is honoured to have Quentin as a patron.

Quentin Bryce’s contribution to advancing human rights and equality, the rights of women and children, and the welfare of the family was recognised in her appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 and a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2003. Also in 2003, she was invested as a Dame of Grace of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. On 25 March 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that Ms Bryce had become a Dame in the Order of Australia.

In her civic role as Governor of Queensland, Ms Bryce continues her work with women, families and young people while extending her influence across the State’s broad and diverse spectrum, including the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, rural, regional, aged, migrant, and disability communities.

On 5 September 2008 Quentin Bryce was sworn in as Australia’s twenty-fifth Governor-General. As the first woman to take up the office, she was a pioneer in contemporary Australian society, and yet one who brought more than forty years of experience in reform, community building and leadership to the role. Her term concluded in March 2014.