Class Notes

Annabel completed a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws at the Australian National University. She began her legal career in Sydney as a Federal Court Judge's Associate then worked as a litigation solicitor with Minter Ellison and Gilbert & Tobin. She subsequently left the law to pursue a long-held passion for art, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in Painting from the National Art School. Annabel has now been a practising artist for over 20 years and is represented by Stella Downer Fine Art. She can be contacted via www.annabelbutler.com or @annabelbutlerart. The recipient of multiple Australian and international artist residencies and a number of art awards, Annabel is a regular finalist in national art prizes, most recently including the Portia Geach Memorial Award and The Lester Prize for portraiture. Her work features in private and public collections including the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney and Bundanon Trust. She is a painting lecturer at the National Art School.

Updated September 2026

Riley Boughton worked in politics until 2016, including on a national election campaign, before transitioning into law. Since then, Riley has worked at Legal Aid ACT, the ACT Courts and Tribunals, and Mills Oakley. Most recently, Riley has worked at the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and was recently appointed General Counsel, leading the legal team's work contributing to the transition to net zero.

Updated September 2026

Dr Lissant Bolton AM is an anthropologist specialising in Vanuatu whose career has spanned several decades at The British Museum, serving as Head of the Oceania Section from 1999 to 2011 before being appointed Keeper (Head) of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, a position held from 2012 to 2026. During this time, Lissant also founded and directed the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme at The British Museum (emkp.org), an initiative dedicated to the preservation of material knowledge systems worldwide.

Earlier in her career, Lissant worked at the Australian Museum in Sydney, completed a PhD at the University of Manchester, and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Australian National University. Since 1989, Lissant has maintained a long-standing collaboration with the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, working primarily on a programme supporting women across the islands and language groups of Vanuatu who wish to preserve and practise their cultural heritage.

Lissant is currently a Visiting Senior Fellow in the Anthropology Department at the London School of Economics.

Updated August 2026

After completing his postdoctoral fellowship at ANU in 1989, Jörg-Dieter returned to Germany to work for Henkel inDüsseldorf and Loxstedt, near Bremerhaven. He was soon joined by his wife, whom he had met in the ANU chemistry labs and married in Australia in 1992. After many years in Germany with Henkel and its successor Cognis, Jörg-Dieter and his wife returned to Australia in the early 2000s. Following a period of consulting to companies worldwide, he joined Chemson Pacific in Sydney, where he continued to work until 2024. Now based in Brisbane, he works as a consultant to selected companies while looking forward to travelling and pursuing his passion for photography.

Updated September 2026