Barrie Dexter
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Barrie Dexter CBE |
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|---|---|
| Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs | |
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In office 9 January 1973 – 20 January 1977 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Barrie Graham Dexter 15 July 1921 Kilsyth, Victoria, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Public servant |
Barrie Graham Dexter CBE (born 15 July 1921) is a retired Australian senior diplomat and public servant in the Department of External Affairs and the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
Born on 15 July 1921, Dexter was brought up in a series of Anglican vicarages and educated on a scholarship at Geelong Grammar School. His father had fought in the Boer War.
Dexter joined the Department of External Affairs as a cadet in 1948. He graduated from his cadetship alongside Neil Currie and Rowen Osborn.
Dexter went on to become a senior diplomat in the Department of External Affairs (called Department of Foreign Affairs from 1970 to 1987) with a number of postings including:
His "experience in countries with indigenous and ethnic minorities" resulted in him being appointed to the Commonwealth Council for Aboriginal Affairs, formed to advise on national policy.
Following the referendum in 1967 which removed provisions in the Australian Constitution which discriminated against Indigenous Australians, the Prime Minister Harold Holt invited Dexter to join the anthropologist W. E. H. Stanner and H. C. Coombs to form the Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA) and advise on national policy. The Prime Minister also asked Dexter to be the Head of the Office of Aboriginal Affairs. The Council for Aboriginal Affairs (CAA) was a triumvirate, comprising Dexter, Coombs and Stanner. The Council for Aboriginal Affairs led Australian policy on Aboriginal development, landownership and identity politics for almost a decade.
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