Academic Martin Nakata received a PhD from James Cook University in 1998 and worked in education with particular focus on Indigenous education. He was Director of the Aboriginal Research Institute at the University of South Australia and Director of Indigenous Academic Programs at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney. He has been the Director of Nura Gili, Indigenous Higher Education Centre at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Martin wrote of himself as an Islander and a descendant of the first peoples to come to Australia in his essayBetter published inBlacklines : Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians (Melbourne University Press, 2003). His recent bookDisciplining the Savages: Savaging the Disciplines (Aboriginal Studies Press, 2007) provides an insight into his personal struggle to break free from imposed definitions, and reminds us that such intellectural journeys are highly personal and political.