Gary Foley

Gary Edward Foley (born 1950) is an Aboriginal Australian activist of the Gumbaynggirr people, academic, writer and actor.

As of August 2022[update] Foley is Professor, Moondani Balluk Indigenous Academic Unit, at Victoria University.

Gary Edward Foley was born in 1950 in Grafton, New South Wales, of Gumbaynggirr descent, and spent much of his childhood in Nambucca Heads.

[3] Foley played an active role in organising protests against the Springboks in 1971 as a result of the Apartheid policies in South Africa.

At one stage, Foley and fellow protester Billy Craigie were arrested for wearing Springbok jerseys outside the team motel in Bondi Junction with the police believing they had been stolen when they had been supplied by former Wallabies player Jim Boyce.

He was fired from the department after just six weeks, after three warnings, and then secretary Barrie Dexter urged ASIO to spy on Foley.

[citation needed] He ran as an independent candidate for the seat of Jagajaga at the 1993 federal election in protest against the closure of Northlands Secondary College.

[1] He featured in various documentary series and films, such as "Fair Play" in 2010 (episode 4 of Have you Heard From Johannesburg: Stories From the Global Anti-Apartheid Movement 1948–1990); The Redfern Story (2014), Persons of Interest (2014), an award-winning TV series on ASIO,[11] and the 2002 film The Foundation, which tells of Koori history between 1963 and 1977 in Sydney.

[1] In 2001, he was appointed senior curator at Museum Victoria, a position he held until 2005, when he became a lecturer in the Education Faculty of the University of Melbourne.