Our People

Matthew Storey is a lawyer and academic with qualifications in law, economics and business. He has worked with and for Traditional Owners in the areas of native title and land rights, cultural heritage, business development and natural resource management for over 30 years.

Matthew is also an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School, and a University Fellow at the Asia Pacific School of Business and Law, Charles Darwin University (CDU) and has published extensively in the areas of land rights, Indigenous preferential procurement and cultural heritage law.

From 2019 until 2021 Matthew worked as the Director of the Office of the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council at the Victorian Department of Premier & Cabinet. Prior to working with the Aboriginal Heritage Council, he had the position of CEO at First Nations Legal and Research Services Ltd (formerly Native Title Services Victoria) from 2012 until 2019 and then as CEO of the National Native Title Council.

Born in Naarm, Matthew lived in the Northern Territory for nearly 25 years. While there he worked in Aboriginal land rights for many years as a Senior Crown Law Officer with the Solicitor for the Northern Territory. He also worked as Associate Professor and Head of Law at the Territory’s Charles Darwin University. He has been a Council member, then President of the Law Society of the NT and a Director of the Law Council of Australia. He returned to Naarm in 2012 to take up the position with Native Title Services Victoria.

Matthew completed a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours course at CDU in 1995. He was also awarded the Attorney General’s Medal and University Medal in that year. Matthew subsequently completed his Graduate Diploma Legal Practice from the ANU, and a Master of Law specialising in environmental law from Macquarie University for which he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s commendation. He holds post graduate qualifications in Adult and Vocational Education and has completed a Graduate Diploma in Energy and Natural Resources Law at the University of Melbourne. His Doctorate, in Business Administration, is from Deakin University.

John Hibble is the Centre Manager at the Mabo Centre. In this role, he leads the formative development of the Centre’s business model and operations, enabling its mission to support First Nations self-determination, leadership, capacity-building and systems change. 

An engineer by training, John brings over 20 years of experience as a practitioner and leader across banking, consulting, training, start-ups, transformation, and cross-sector collaboration in Australia and Canada. 

John is Indigenous Fijian and grew up in Naarm (Melbourne), where he now lives with his family. In Canada, he lived and worked on Treaty 13 territory (Toronto) for several years, where he designed and facilitated many cross-sector collaborations that brought together Indigenous communities, the mining and natural resources sector, NGOs, government, and academia.  

Through his work, he has learned the value of cultivating respectful relationships, focussing on outcomes not just activity, taking a holistic and connected approach to systems change, staying adaptive in the face of complexity, and practising humility and deep listening when working with Indigenous communities. 

Keeaira Aird is a Yugambeh, Birri Gubba and South Sea Islander woman with over a decade of experience in the First Nations arts and cultural sector.

Keeaira holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne and has held several roles across major cultural institutions in Australia. She specialises in culturally responsive program design and advocates for First Nations agency over cultural knowledge and expression.

Keeaira’s work is grounded in self-determination and the elevation of Blak voices. 

Beth Cesarin is a non-Indigenous woman currently living in Melbourne on Wurundjeri Country. She is a Communications and Marketing professional with several years’ experience in both the not-for-profit and private sectors. 

Beth holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Media and Communications, and Postgraduate qualifications in Public Relations. She has worked for close to a decade in communications in the child and family services sector, most recently working alongside Indigenous populations to protect and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families across Victoria.  

Beth is dedicated to elevating and amplifying First Nations voices through spoken, written, and visual mediums to advance the Mabo Centre’s vision of supporting and empowering Traditional Owners, First Nations youth, and community. 

Emma Starling was born on Wurundjeri Country and is a business operations professional with a strong office management and event planning background.

Emma has managed venues and events at some of Melbourne’s most renowned institutions, including the Melbourne Museum, Science Gallery, Royal Exhibition Building, and Scienceworks.

Before entering the creative sector, Emma worked in charitable organisations, spending time on the front lines of homelessness and foster care. These early experiences instilled a sense of humility and compassion that continues to underpin her approach to stakeholder management.

Emma’s career has evolved into logistics and high-level planning at Melbourne University, where she developed and coordinated visit programs for international research delegations within the Chancellery Research and Enterprise portfolio. From there she moved into the Indigenous Law & Justice Hub at Melbourne Law School as Hub Coordinator.

Emma holds degrees in business administration and project management, and her passion for good protocol and business processes help to strengthen the Centre’s operational foundations.

Dr Mahnaz Alimardanian is a social anthropologist, highly experienced in qualitative research and community engagement projects with Indigenous Australia spanning across academia, consultancy, government, and non-for-profit sectors since 2010.

She is a social researcher and practitioner expert in culturally responsive and sensitive, trauma informed and healing centred approaches to engagement and research across complex policy-legislation settings including native title, Indigenous land, water and cultural rights, social and restorative justice, redress, and compensation. She holds a PhD (La Trobe University 2013) and two master’s degrees (Australian National University 2008, University of Tehran 2005) in anthropology. 

Mahnaz’s publications sit in an intersection of social, philosophical, and psychological enquiries and appear in anthropology and interdisciplinary journals and edited volumes.