Artefacts

Dr Paul Perkins was an original member of the Australian Institute of Sport High Performance Coach Development Team until October 2025. Additionally, he served as an Associate Professor at the University of Canberra.

Across Paul’s life, he has been a coach, an educator and a researcher with an extensive background in the Australian sport sector. 

At the core of Paul’s career is his great passion for helping others and supporting people to succeed.

His work at the AIS focussed on supporting Australia’s HP coach in their quest to further their craft and knowledge.  He was responsible for the design and development of the AIS Summit Coach program and acted as the Program convenor.  Paul was also the key driver in shaping the ‘Australian Way’ of developing coaches with the inclusion of Australian First Nations Peoples methodologies and techniques

Paul is highly experienced in developing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating multi-layered sport-based development initiatives and has a thorough understanding of deductive, inductive and abductive reasoning and how these different processes can be used to draw conclusions, make predictions, and/or construct explanations.

Whilst Paul’s research has been multi-disciplinary and positioned within the broader societal context, his approach focuses on the benefits of a more social and collaborative approached to coach learning and contributing to long-term positive outcomes using Australian First Nations methodologies.

Paul’s ongoing fight with stage four esophageal cancer continues.

Paul’s Journey is a beautiful and inspiring piece of art that depicts his journey to becoming the convener of the AIS Summit Coach Program.

The purple dot at the centre of the artwork is offset to the left, highlighting the important role Paul’s left handedness played throughout his life.

The concentric circles symbolise the different stages of Paul’s life, with the inclusion of the green and gold sporting colours of Australia reflecting his aspiration for a more reconciled nation by Australia acknowledging the harm and mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and exploring how a more united future could be achieved.

The outer ring of dots signifies the many important interactions that helped shape Paul’s life.

The colours are symbolic of the Australian Aboriginal flag (top and bottom of the ring) and the flags of the States and Territories, promoting a sense of unity by visually acknowledging the rich and diverse culture of Australian First Nations Peoples and depicting a shared hope and vision for the future.

The purple “U shaped” symbols that form the outer edge of the artwork represent the many people Paul worked with across the AIS Summit Coach Program and the ways in which they use techniques and methods drawn from the tradition and knowledge of Australian Indigenous Peoples to create a pro-active learning community. This community is highly responsive to the needs of its members and has greatly assisted with the scalability of learning across the Australian HP coaching landscape.

A final point to note is the significance of the colour purple used in the artwork; chosen by Paul and his wife Sharan to highlight their ongoing battle with stage four esophageal cancer and to promote greater awareness of this insidious disease. “I am because we are”

Paul’s journey is the ongoing symbol for the AIS Summit Coach Program.