Megan Davis

Biography

Scientia Professor Dr Megan Davis grew up in Eagleby and Hervey Bay, Qld and is a Cobble Cobble woman of the Barunggam Nation. Prof. Davis is the Pro Vice-Chancellor Society (PVCS) at UNSW Sydney. Professor Davis is also a UNSW Scientia Professor, the Balnaves Chair in Constitutional Law, a Professor of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law Centre UNSW Law.

She is a renowned constitutional lawyer and public law expert, focusing on the human rights of First Nations peoples. She has been the leading Australian lawyer on constitutional recognition of First Nations peoples for two decades and designed the Referendum Council’s deliberative process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Prof Davis was a Commissioner on the QLD Commission of Inquiry into Youth Detention Centres in 2016 and was the Chair and author of ‘Family is Culture’, an inquiry into NSW Aboriginal Out of Home care (2017-2019).

She is a globally recognised expert in Indigenous peoples rights and was elected by the UN Human Rights Council to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples based in Geneva in 2017 and again in 2019 (2017-2022) and was previously elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to the role of expert member and Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, UN Headquarters in New York (2011-2016).

Prof Davis is an Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court. She is a Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission, a director on the North Qld Cowboys Community Foundation Board, a Commissioner for Western Australia Rugby League Commission.

She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.

In 2023 Prof Davis was named on TIME Magazine’s TIME NEXT100 list of the Next Generation of Global leadership under the category of “Leaders”.