Jana Naretha Anne Stewart (born 27 August 1987) is an Australian politician and former public servant. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and was appointed as a Senator for Victoria in April 2022, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Kimberley Kitching.
Stewart was born in 1987[3] and grew up in Melbourne and Swan Hill, Victoria.[4] She is the oldest of six children and experienced family violence as a child. She attended "at least a dozen" primary schools, and was the only Indigenous student at her high school to finish year 12.[2] She completed a master's degree in clinical family therapy at La Trobe University.[5]
Career
Prior to entering politics, Stewart worked as a family therapist, university lecturer, and policy adviser on Aboriginal affairs and child protection.[5] She worked for Victorian state Aboriginal affairs minister Natalie Hutchins on treaty negotiations.[2] She was a later a deputy secretary of the Victorian Department of Justice focusing on Stolen Generations reparations.[6]
She was officially appointed to the Senate at a joint sitting of the Victorian Parliament on 6 April 2022. However, the Senate did not sit between her appointment and the imminent election.[10][1]
Stewart took her seat after the 2022 federal election. She is the youngest Aboriginal woman to serve in the federal parliament.[3]
On 28 February 2024, Stewart was elected chair of the federal parliament Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, a position previously held by Pat Dodson.[11]
^L, Maddie (21 June 2022). "Marcus Stewart". First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria. Archived from the original on 25 February 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
