Sarah Maddison is one of Australia's foremost authorities on Indigenous–settler relations, treaty, and reconciliation. She is Professor of Politics at the University of Melbourne, and has spent more than two decades producing scholarship that shapes how Australia understands its colonial history and imagines its future.

Her work spans the full arc from theory to practice: she has advised state and federal governments, designed award-winning education programs, led major Australian Research Council-funded research projects, and built sustained relationships with Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, communities, and leaders across Australia and internationally.

Maddison Advisory draws on this expertise to help non-Indigenous institutions — governments, universities, corporations, and foundations — understand what genuine transformation requires and build the capacity to deliver it.

Working in this space as a non-Indigenous person

"I am a non-Indigenous Australian. That fact shapes how I approach this work, and I name it plainly rather than obscure it."

My view — drawn from more than two decades of research and practice — is that settler Australians have not only a right but a responsibility to engage seriously with the unresolved injustices of colonisation. Disengaging is not a neutral act. When non-Indigenous people step back from this work, the burden falls disproportionately on First Nations people to educate, advocate, and lead change in institutions that were built without them and continue to resist transformation.

At the same time, I hold this view with clear eyes about its limits. There is a meaningful difference between a non-Indigenous person doing work that supports Indigenous-led agendas and one who substitutes their voice for Indigenous voices, or profits from Indigenous knowledge and struggle without accountability to those communities. I take that distinction seriously.

In practice, this means I am most useful to clients who are themselves non-Indigenous institutions — governments, universities, corporations — that need to understand what is being asked of them and what genuine transformation requires. I do not speak for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. My work is directed at the settler side of the relationship: helping non-Indigenous people and organisations understand their responsibilities, build their capacity, and get out of the way of Indigenous leadership.

I work in close relationship with Indigenous scholars, leaders, and communities, and I am guided by those relationships. Where a client's needs are better served by Indigenous-led consultants, I will say so and, where I can, help facilitate that.