Nova Maree Peris (born 25 February 1971) is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician. As part of the Australian women's field hockey (

Hockeyroos The Australia women's national field hockey team (nicknamed the Hockeyroos) are, as of January 2019, ranked third in the world. Having played their first game in 1914, and their first Olympic game in 1984, they are one of Australia's most succes ...

) team at the

1996 Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, she was the first

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

to win an Olympic gold medal. She later switched sports to sprinting and went to the

1998 Commonwealth Games The 1998 Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel 1998)'', officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games ''(Malay: Sukan Komanwel ke-16)'', was a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This edition is marked by several unprecedent ...

and

2000 Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. She was elected to the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

at the 2013 federal election, after then Prime Minister

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She is the first and only ...

named her as a "captain's pick", installing her as the preselected Labor candidate over incumbent Labor senator

Trish Crossin Patricia Margaret Crossin (born 21 March 1956) is a former Australian politician, who served as a Senator for the Northern Territory from June 1998 to September 2013, representing the Australian Labor Party. Crossin was born in Melbourne and w ...

. She retired from the Senate in 2016.

Sporting career

Peris was a representative in the Australian Women's Hockey team at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, becoming the first

Aboriginal Australia The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonisation of Australia in 1788, which marks the start of consistent written documentation of Australia. This period has been vari ...

n to win an Olympic gold medal. In 1997, she switched sports and a year later she became a double gold medalist in the

(

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

) 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 The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territo ...

in 1997. Peris continued to represent Australia on the athletics track, running over 200 metres at the

1999 World Athletics Championships The 7th World Championships in Athletics, a World Athletic Championships event held under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Estadio Olímpico, Seville, Spain, between the August 20 and Augu ...

and 400 metres at the

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...

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 The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, J. F. Archib ...

, painted by Glenda Jones. In 2005, she sold her Olympic memorabilia to the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...

for $140,000. It included her gold medal, hockey stick, Sydney Olympic torch and the running shoes she wore in the Sydney Olympics.

Political career

On 22 January 2013 the Australian Prime Minister

announced she would invite Peris to join the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

and stand as a candidate for the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

at the 2013 election. 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 that she would become Australia's first female Indigenous federal parliamentarian. On 7 September 2013 Peris became Australia's first Indigenous woman elected to federal parliament. Peris was sworn into parliament on 12 November, and noted the apology to the stolen generation in her maiden speech. Peris announced on 24 May 2016 that she would not nominate to re-contest her Senate seat at the 2016 federal election. Fairfax and the ABC reported that Peris was one of the frontrunners being considered to replace Jason Mifsud as head of diversity for the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL).

Malarndirri McCarthy Malarndirri Barbara McCarthy (born 19 April 1970) is an Australian politician and former journalist who has been a Senator for the Northern Territory since 2016. She is an Assistant Minister in the Albanese Government, and previously served i ...

announced on 25 May 2016 that she had been invited by Labor to nominate herself as Peris' Senate replacement and that she would do so. Nova Peris's Senate term ended at the

double dissolution A double dissolution is a procedure permitted under the Australian Constitution to resolve deadlocks in the bicameral Parliament of Australia between the House of Representatives (lower house) and the Senate (upper house). A double dissolution ...

of 9 May 2016.

Other roles

Peris is an Ambassador for the

Australian Indigenous Education Foundation The Australian Indigenous Education Foundation (AIEF) is a non-profit organisation which provides scholarships to the Indigenous students in Australia. History The Australian Indigenous Education Foundation was established in 2008 by Andrew ...

Personal life

Peris was born in

Darwin, Northern Territory Darwin ( ; Larrakia: ) is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. With an estimated population of 147,255 as of 2019, the city contains the majority of the residents of the sparsely populated Northern Territory. It is the smalle ...

. Her biological father was Indigenous rights activist John Christophersen, although she had no contact with him between the ages of 2 and 16. Her mother, Joan, had been removed from her mother raised in the

Catholic mission Missionary work of the Catholic Church has often been undertaken outside the geographically defined parishes and dioceses by religious orders who have people and material resources to spare, and some of which specialized in missions. Eventually, p ...

on Melville Island, as one of the

Stolen Generations The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church miss ...

. Peris met Sean Kneebone when she was 17, they had a daughter in 1990, married in 1995 and divorced in 2001. While married to Kneebone, she adopted the surname Peris-Kneebone but reverted following their divorce. In March 2002 she married

Daniel Batman Daniel Batman (20 March 1981 – 26 June 2012) was an Australian sprinter. He was the Australian national men's 200-metres champion in 2005 and 2008. He competed in the 2000 Summer Olympics and his best international achievement was a si ...

; and they had two children but they separated in 2010 and Batman died in a car crash in June 2012. Peris married Scott Appleton on 12 August 2012. Peris has three children: Jessica (with Kneebone) and Destiny and Jack (with Batman). She became a grandmother at the age of 40. Peris' autobiography, ''Nova: My Story'' was released on 4 April 2003. In 2019, Peris competed in the sixth season of ''

Australian Survivor ''Australian Survivor'' is an Australian adventure reality game show based on the international ''Survivor (franchise), Survivor'' format. Following the premise of other versions of the ''Survivor'' format, the show features a group of contesta ...

''. She was eliminated on Day 10 and finished in 21st place. In 2020 she sued for defamation over brief comments made by

Jacinta Price Jacinta Yangapi Nampijinpa Price (; born 12 May 1981) is an Australian politician from the Northern Territory. She has been a Australian Senate, senator for the Northern Territory since the 2022 Australian federal election, 2022 federal election ...

on the television program

Studio 10 ''Studio 10'' is an Australian morning talk show on Network 10. The show airs between 8:30am and noon on weekdays and a highlights show airs between 9:30am and noon on weekends. ''Studio 10'' is broadcast live from Network 10 Studios in Pyrm ...

Controversy

In October 2014, explicit emails between Peris and athlete

Ato Boldon Ato Jabari Boldon (born 30 December 1973) is a Trinidadian former track and field athlete, politician, and four-time Olympic medal winner. He holds the Trinidad and Tobago national record in the 50, 60 and 200 metres events with times of 5.64, ...

were leaked to the press.Farr, Malcolm. (30 October 2014).
Senator Nova Peris breaks silence over Ato Boldon sex email scandal
, ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

''. Retrieved 30 October 2014. The emails were used as the basis for allegations that Peris had used her role as an ambassador for

Athletics Australia Athletics Australia is the national sporting organisation (NSO) recognised by Sport Australia for the sport of athletics in Australia. First founded in 1897, the organisation is responsible for administering a sport with over 16,000 registered ...

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. Boldon subsequently described the accusations as containing "gross fabrications" and threatened legal action.Senator Nova Peris scandal: Ato Boldon responds to claims
, (29 October 2014). ''News.com.au''. Retrieved 30 October 2014. 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.

References

External links

*
Transcript of Nova Peris interview on ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'', 31 March 2003
*
Summary of parliamentary voting for Senator Nova Peris on TheyVoteForYou.org.au
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peris, Nova Maree 1971 births Living people Australian female field hockey players Olympic field hockey players of Australia Australian female 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 Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal 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 Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics 21st-century Australian politicians 21st-century Australian women politicians Australian Survivor contestants