Nova Peris
| Senator Nova Peris OAM |
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| Senator for the Northern Territory | |
| Assumed office 7 September 2013 |
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| Preceded by | Trish Crossin |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nova Maree Peris 25 February 1971 Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia |
| Political party | Australian Labor Party |
| Spouse(s) | Sean Kneebone (1995–2001) Daniel Batman (2002–2010) Scott Appleton (2012 – ) |
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| Full name | Nova Maree Peris | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Australian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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| Updated on 22 January 2013. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nova Maree Peris OAM (born 25 February 1971) is an indigenous Australian athlete and politician. As part of the Australian women's hockey (Hockeyroos) team at the 1996 Olympic Games, she was the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal. She later switched sports to sprinting and went to the 1998 Commonwealth Games and 2000 Olympic Games. She was elected to the Australian Senate at the 2013 federal election, after then Prime Minister Julia Gillard named her as a "captain's pick", installing her as the preselected Labor candidate over incumbent Labor senator Trish Crossin.
Sporting career
Peris was a representative in the Australian Women's Hockey team at the 1996 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.[1]
In 1997, she switched sports and a year later she became a double gold medalist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games (Kuala Lumpur) winning the 200m sprint with a time of 22.77 seconds and sharing in Australia's 4 × 100 metres relay win. Peris was named Young Australian of the Year in 1997.[2]
Peris continued to represent Australia on the athletics track, running over 200 metres at the 1999 World Athletics Championships and 400 metres at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She made the Olympic semi-finals in her individual event and ran in the Australian 4 × 400 metres relay team, which made the final, finishing fifth.
In the Olympic year of 2000, a portrait of her was hung in the Sporting Archibald Prize, painted by Glenda Jones
In 2005, she sold her Olympic memorabilia to the National Museum of Australia for $140,000.[3] It included her gold medal, hockey stick, Sydney Olympic torch and the running shoes she wore in the Sydney Olympics.[4]
Personal life
Peris was born in Darwin, Northern Territory. She met Sean Kneebone when she was 17 and they had a daughter in 1990. They married in 1995, after which she adopted the surname Peris-Kneebone. Following their divorce in 2001,[5] she returned to using her maiden name, and in March 2002 married Daniel Batman;[5] they separated in 2010.[6] Batman died in a car crash in June 2012.[7]
Peris married Scott Appleton on 12 August 2012. She has three children: Jessica (with Kneebone), and Destiny and Jack (with Batman), and became a grandmother at the age of 40.[8]
In October 2014, while Peris was involved in a child custody case, private emails between Peris and athlete Ato Boldon were leaked to the press.[9] The emails were used as the basis for allegations that Peris had used her role as an ambassador for Athletics Australia to organise a trip to Australia for Boldon as part of the "Jump Start to London" athletics program, during which she intended to engage in an affair with the athlete.[10] Boldon subsequently described the accusations as containing "gross fabrications" and threatened legal action.[11] Speaking in Parliament on 30 October, Peris denied wrongdoing, and alleged that the release of the emails was part of a blackmail attempt in regard to the child custody battle.[9]
Peris' autobiography, Nova: My Story was released on 4 April 2003.[5][12]
Politics
On 22 January 2013 the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she would invite Peris to join the Australian Labor Party and stand as a candidate for the Senate in the Northern Territory at the 2013 election.[13] On 29 January 2013 her preselection was endorsed by the ALP executive 19 votes to 2, meaning her name was placed first on the ALP's senate ticket in the Northern Territory, supporting the likelihood she would become Australia's first female Indigenous federal parliamentarian.[14]
On 7 September 2013 Peris became Australia's first indigenous woman elected to federal parliament.[15] Peris was sworn into parliament on 12 November, and noted the apology to the stolen generation in her maiden speech.[16][17]
See also
References
- ↑ Nova Peris entry on The Australian Women's Register
- ↑ Territory Women, Northern Territory Library
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Nova Peris collection at the National Museum of Australia
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ "Like a bat outta hell for London". Canberra Times, 16 December 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2012
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Farr, Malcolm. (30 October 2014). "Senator Nova Peris breaks silence over Ato Boldon sex email scandal", Herald Sun. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ Levy, Megan. (29 October 2014). "Bill Shorten backs Nova Peris despite rort allegations". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ "Senator Nova Peris scandal: Ato Boldon responds to claims", (29 October 2014). News.com.au. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
- Athletics Australia profile
- Nova Peris at the Internet Movie Database
- Transcript of Nova Peris interview on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton, 31 March 2003
- Peris, Nova in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia
- Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Nova Peris on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by | Young Australian of the Year 1997 |
Succeeded by Tan Le |
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- EngvarB from May 2015
- Use dmy dates from May 2015
- Articles which use infobox templates with no data rows
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- 1971 births
- Living people
- Australian female field hockey players
- Olympic field hockey players of Australia
- Australian sprinters
- Olympic athletes of Australia
- Olympic gold medalists for Australia
- Field hockey players at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
- Indigenous Australian Olympians
- Indigenous Australian track and field athletes
- Indigenous Australian field hockey players
- People from the Northern Territory
- Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia
- Olympic medalists in field hockey
- Australian Institute of Sport field hockey players
- Sportspeople from Darwin, Northern Territory
- Australian sportsperson-politicians
- Members of the Australian Senate
- Members of the Australian Senate for the Northern Territory
- Women members of the Australian Senate
- Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia
- Indigenous Australian politicians
