Nova Maree Peris OAM (born 25 February 1971) is an indigenous Australian athlete.

Peris was born in Darwin, Northern Territory. She was a representative in the Australian Women's Hockey team at the 1996 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Aboriginal Australian to win an Olympic gold medal.

In 1997, she switched sports to athletics and a year later she became a double gold medalist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games winning the 200m sprint with a time of 22.77 seconds and sharing in Australia's 4x100 metres relay win. Peris was named Young Australian of the Year in 1997.

Via Wikipedia.