Richard Weston

Richard is the CEO of Maari Ma Health Aboriginal Corporation based in Broken Hill in far west NSW aka the Murdi Paaki Region. It is the country of the Darling River tribes. From January 2021 to February 2023 he was New South Wales’ inaugural Deputy Children’s Guardian in the Office of the Children’s Guardian (the OCG).

He has worked in Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Affairs for 30 years. 23 of those 30 years has been as a CEO in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations at the regional and national level and as a statutory officer in the NSW government. 

His work to help establish the Healing Foundation as a credible national body by building an evidence base of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge about what works when communities, families and individuals understand what trauma is and create their own healing journey, has brought trauma informed approaches into policy making and human services practice. Over his 9 years as CEO (2010-2019) the Healing Foundation funded 175 healing projects that support 45,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on their healing journeys and employed 700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the projects. 

After a 15-month stint with the SNAICC, the peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander body for children and 2 years in the NSW Deputy Children’s Guardian role he has returned to work for Maari Ma Health as their CEO, where it all started. Maari Ma has grown into a leading community controlled Aboriginal health service and is a recognised leader in NSW and nationally in public health approaches to primary health care. 

Richard is a Board member of NAPCAN and has served on numerous government advisory groups and policy committees.