Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson is a Jiman (central west Queensland) and Bundjalung (Northern New South Wales) woman, with Anglo-Celtic and German heritage. As the founder of We Al-li she is currently their patron and working across many community-based trauma healing programs. She is an international renowned leader and researcher in intergenerational trauma. Her academic contributions to the understanding of trauma related issues stemming from the violence of colonisation and the healing/recovery of Indigenous peoples from such trauma has won her the Carrick Neville Bonner Award in 2006 for her curriculum development and innovative teaching practice. In 2011 she was awarded the Fritz Redlick Memorial Award for Human Rights and Mental Health from the Harvard University program for refugee trauma.