About Dr. Stephen Hagan
Stephen Hagan, PhD, MBA, BA, is a descendant of the Kullilli and Kooma people of south-west Queensland. Born in 1959, his early years were spent living in a fringe camp on the outskirts of Cunnamulla. When he was seven, Stephen's father Jim and mother Jean moved their family, Pam, Stephen, Jimmo, Susan, and Lawrence, into their brand new house in town. This was a defining point in Stephen's life as he became conscious of the enormous socio-economic gaps between Aboriginal kids and white kids.
Dr. Hagan's achievements in high school led him to Marist College Ashgrove, a private boarding school in Brisbane, where he stood proud as one of only a few Aboriginal students. In 1979, he took up teacher training, but disillusioned with being forced to teach racist government-approved texts, Dr. Hagan made a career move. In Canberra, he worked with various Indigenous organisations under charismatic leader Charles Perkins, who left an indelible impression on him. He later moved to the Department of Foreign Affairs, where he was posted as a diplomat to Colombo. Returning to Australia, he worked in various public service roles and ventured into the private sector. Dr. Hagan represented his people at several international forums in India, Thailand, the United States, Chile, and the West Indies. He turned twenty-one in Mumbai and had the good fortune of spending time with Mother Theresa in Kolkata, working among the destitute.
In the past couple of decades, Dr. Hagan has been celebrated as a social justice advocate, most notably from his relentless legal battle to remove the universally offensive N-word from a sign E. S. N**g** Brown Stand on a sports stadium in the Queensland town of Toowoomba and to change the brand name of Coon Cheese. The former legal case was won at the United Nations CERD in Geneva in 2003, and the latter was changed in 2021 to Cheer Cheese by its Canadian owners, Saputo. Other legal successes included wins against Coles Express Service Station for racial profiling, Matel for endorsing the use of boong, abo and coon for their Scrabble board game, Krispy Kreme for their Coongratulations commercial, Sky TV Outsiders programme and Jacinta Price for defamatory remarks, Channel 9 Today Show for a racist campaign, Daily Mail for misinformation, to mention a few.
Dr. Hagan received the National NAIDOC Person of the Year Award for Outstanding Contribution to Indigenous Affairs at the National NAIDOC Awards in Cairns, July 2006. A year earlier, in September 2005, he received the Deadly Award at the Opera House, Sydney, for Outstanding Achievement in Literature for his published non-fiction book, The N Word, One Man's Stand. He also received several awards as a film producer on a documentary directed by his wife, Rhonda, including the International Indigenous Best Short Documentary, which was awarded at the Māori Film Festival, Wairoa, New Zealand, May 2008.
Dr. Hagan and his wife, Rhonda (Mandaburra clan or the MaMu nation), have two children, Stephen Jnr and Jayde.
For more information about Dr. Hagan’s family, work history, professional, personal and other achievements, visit Hagan Consultancy Group
FUN FACTS
Where were you born?
Cunnamulla, Queensland.
What tribe are you from?
Kullilli (father) and Kooma (mother).
What is your totem?
Boida (red kangaroo).
What is your favourite Indigenous meal?
Porcupine.
What is your favourite non-Indigenous meal?
Coconut curried chicken and rice (Sri Lankan style - hot).
Who are your favourite music artists?
The Eagles (easy listening)
Kev Carmody/Paul Kelly (folk)
Alan Jackson (country)
Nat King Cole (blues)
Andrea Bocelli (opera)
What book are you reading?
Water under the bridge by Jeanine Leane (David Harold Tribe Poetry Award winner) and Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko (Queensland Premier’s Award and Victorian Premier’s Award winner).
What is your favourite all-time best read?
"The long walk to freedom" by Nelson Mandela.
What was the latest movie you paid to see?
The Accountant 2 (Directed by Gavin O’Connor - starring Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal,
Cynthia Addai-Robinson and Daniella Pineda).
What is your all-time best movie?
Rabbit Proof Fence (Directed by Philip Noyce - starring Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury and
Laura Monaghan).
What is your favourite holiday destination?
Bali, Indonesia.
What country would you live in other than Australia?
Malaysia.
What makes you happy?
Children laughing.
What are your pet hates?
Racist civic leaders and bigoted people generally/ domestic violence/ child abuse.
What are you passionate about?
Improving the social status of First Nations people in Australia.
If you were Prime Minister for a day, which laws would you introduce?
I would introduce policies to create a nationally elected Indigenous committee and raise the age of criminal responsibility.
What is the most impulsive thing you've ever done?
Written a book.
What is one thing you'd like to do in this lifetime?
I want to write and publish a different book every year for the rest of my life and have them made into movies.
Who would you choose if you could pick two people to sit next to on a long plane trip?
It would have to be three - Rhonda (wife), Stephen (son) and Jayde (daughter).