Conference MC

Podcaster, disability advocate and accessibility consultant.

Peta Hooke is a Melbourne-based podcaster, disability advocate, and accessibility consultant. Living with Cerebral Palsy, she is dedicated to achieving equality and inclusion in society. Peta works with brands and organisations to promote disability representation, accessibility, and inclusion.  

She holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce, a Master of Tourism from Monash University, and a Diploma of Access Consulting.  

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Keynote Speaker

Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics McMaster University, Co-Director CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research.

Dr. Olaf Kraus de Camargo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at McMaster University. Dr. Kraus de Camargo held positions as a Professor of Social Medicine at the University of Applied Sciences Nordhausen and as CEO and Medical Director of Kinderzentrum Pelzerhaken gGmbH in Germany, an inpatient and outpatient facility for children with developmental-behavioural disabilities and chronic neurologic disorders.

Dr. Kraus de Camargo is a scientist at the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research and a member of MacART (McMaster Autism Research Team). He continues practicing as a developmental pediatrician at the Ron Joyce Children’s Health Centre in Hamilton, Ontario.

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Keynote Speaker

Founder of BackTrack, Australian of The Year Local Hero 2020.

Bernie Shakeshaft is the Founder and Director of BackTrack. With 30 odd years of youth work experience, he believes that young people are the most accurate barometer of how we are faring as a nation. In the early days of his career, Bernie saw kids dropping out of school, getting into trouble and falling through the cracks of a system that couldn't meet their complex needs. This inspired him to start BackTrack in 2006, with just a shed, a passionate crew of volunteers and a mission to keep kids alive, out of jail and chasing their hopes and dreams.

BackTrack has gained national recognition by offering vulnerable young people the holistic, flexible and long-term support they need to get their lives back on track, through a combination of educational, training and diversionary activities, transitional employment through the social enterprise BackTrack Works, accommodation and youth work. A BackTrack Network now supports other communities to develop similar programs across the country.

Bernie was named Australian of the Year Local Hero (2020), National Rural Health Alliance Unsung Hero (2019), and has received the Spera Australian Rural Education Award (2018), the Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Award (2017), a Churchill Fellowship (2014) and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of New England (2020). He and BackTrack were the subject of the award-winning documentary 'Backtrack Boys' and the biography 'Back on Track'. 

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Keynote Speaker

The intersection of art, culture, neuroscience, and technology.

Shay Jayawardena has spent the past decade working and living in rural and remote areas, primarily in the Northern Territory. Her time in the NT has profoundly transformed her understanding of disability and existence, thanks to the communities she has engaged with. Shay is passionate about the intersection of art, culture, neuroscience, and technology, and their combined potential to revolutionise our health, education, environment, and disability systems. At the newly established Qubit Incubator (Darwin, NT), Shay collaborates with First Nation communities, artists, and allied health professionals to pioneer innovative projects and service provision methods that emphasise participant perspectives and talents. With a background in Physiotherapy and a Master's in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health, Shay envisions a world where the right to individual and collective expression is enabled and celebrated, and where people are valued for their differences, interests, ancestral stories, hopes, and aspirations.

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Presenter

PhD in deafness, language acquisition and mental health, Lecturer, Consultant.

Ramas McRae is currently completing his PhD in the area of deafness, language acquisition and mental health. He holds qualifications in science, interpreting and education. He is a part time lecturer and tutor and a freelance Consultant, specialising in interpreting, translating and training in deaf awareness and deaf culture as well as deaf arts, particularly film production. 

He has fluency in nine languages including seven sign languages and is certified as an International Sign interpreter, Auslan interpreter and translator.  

His contributions to the Deaf Community include leadership positions within deaf advocacy, deaf basketball and deaf arts and as a mentor. 

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