Doyennes to galvanise night of nights

Iconic Indigenous Australian entertainer Christine Anu and inspirational business leader, philanthropist and self-proclaimed AFL football tragic Susan Alberti AC will team up to make this year’s Charles Darwin Black Tie Dinner an experience to remember.

Ms Alberti will be a special guest speaker at the dinner on 12 February, which will celebrate the 210th birthday of Charles Darwin University’s namesake. Her story is poignant, rousing and tinged with tragedy.

For years Ms Alberti, aka “The Footy Lady”, has had three main dreams, which she has been instrumental in bringing to life. Two are now reality: to see her beloved Western Bulldogs win a premiership (2016) and for women to play AFL.

Ms Alberti joined the board of the football club in 2004 and retired in 2016 after serving three years as vice-president.

Her passion for AFL extended to the newly formed AFLW league, and her involvement helped to clear a path for women to be involved in the game. She is currently the national ambassador for the women’s AFLW league.

In 2018, Ms Alberti donated $1 million to Victoria University to establish the Susan Alberti Women in Sport Chair, to encourage more females to be active and employed in the sports sector.

Only her third dream remains unrequited: to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.

Ms Alberti’s only child, Danielle, died from complications arising from the disease aged 32, after a battle that lasted some 20 years.

Among multiple roles, Ms Alberti is the Chair of the Susan Alberti Medical Research Foundation and the co-founder and managing director of the DANSU Group – an industrial and commercial builder and developer of industrial estates and business parks – which she created with husband Angelo, who was also taken too soon in a traffic accident.

In 30 years, she has raised more than $200 million for medical research, especially that which seeks a cure for type 1 diabetes. She was named 2018 Victorian of the Year.

Adding some pizzazz to this gala event will be one of Australia’s most beloved performers, Christine Anu.

Trained in dance at the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association, her career spans more than 25 years including music, theatre, dance, film and television.

Christine is a multi-award-winning recording artist, including ARIA Song of the Year for My Island Home, ARIA Best Female Artist for Stylin’ Up, ARIA Best Video for Now Until the Break of Day with David Hobson, and many “Green Room” Awards.
 
She also received the Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical at the Sydney Theatre Awards, for The Sapphires in 2010. Christine's 1995 version of My Island Home was added to the National Film Sound Archive’s Sound of Australia registry in 2016.

Celebrate Charles Darwin’s birthday and support the university that carries his name:
Tuesday, 12 February, 6.30pm – 10.30pm Grand Ballroom SKYCITY Darwin.

Tickets are available at W: cdu.edu.au/foundation/events/cdbtd or T: 08 8946 7258.