Pat Dudgeon was born in Darwin in 1959 and is descended from the Bardi people and the Gija people, north of Western Australia. Pat came to Perth to study psychology and, after graduation, joined the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University as a lecturer. She later became the head of the centre in 1990. Pat was the Chair of the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association and is a Doctor of Philosophy. Her thesis was completed in 2008 and is called Mothers of Sin: Indigenous Women’s Perceptions of Identity and Sexuality/Gender. She was also an Associate Professor and research fellow at the UWA School of Indigenous Studies, where she researched Aboriginal women and leadership.
