Professor Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu is a Warlpiri elder, Professorial Fellow at the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, University of Melbourne, and Artistic Director of the Milpirri Festival, Lajamanu. He is fully initiated into Warlpiri law and was admitted to the highest order of traditional leadership by the Warlpiri elders in 2008. 

Pawu is the only Warlpiri investigator to have led an Australian Research Council project and has collaborated on research that gives focus to Warlpiri song, epistemology, education, the repatriation of archival records and youth engagement. Pawu has provided policy advice on Indigenous law, education and youth matters to multiple government and industry bodies, including the Australian Government’s Indigenous Voice National Co-Design Group, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, and the Northern Territory Department of Education. 

Pawu is a highly sought-after public speaker and cultural advisor of international repute, who has directed numerous films including Milpirri: Winds of Change (2014), which presently screens on SBS OnDemand. He holds long-term research collaborations with colleagues at the University of Melbourne in the Indigenous Knowledge Institute, Faculty of Science, and the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, as well as with academics at universities around the world.